Romans 6

The New Life in Christ

¹What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?²³Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?⁴⁵Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?⁶⁷Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.⁸⁹For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.¹⁰¹¹For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,¹²¹³since a person who has died is freed from sin.¹⁴¹⁵Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,¹⁶¹⁷because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him.¹⁸¹⁹For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God.²⁰²¹So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.²²

²³Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.²⁴²⁵And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.²⁶²⁷For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.²⁸

From Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God

²⁹What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not!³⁰³¹Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey — either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?³²³³But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over,³⁴³⁵and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.³⁶³⁷I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.³⁸³⁹For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.⁴⁰⁴¹So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death.⁴²⁴³But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification — and the outcome is eternal life!⁴⁴⁴⁵For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.⁴⁶