Romans 6–7

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

6What shall we say then? ^mAre we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ²By no means! How can ⁿwe who died to sin still live in it? ³Do you not know that all of us ^owho have been baptized ^pinto Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were ^qburied therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as ^rChrist was raised from the dead by ^sthe glory of the Father, we too might walk in ^tnewness of life.

⁵For ^uif we have been united with him in ^va death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶We know that ^wour old self^{1 x}was crucified with him in order that ^ythe body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷For ^zone who has died ^ahas been set free² from sin. ⁸Now ^bif we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹We know that ^cChrist, being raised from the dead, will never die again; ^ddeath no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰For the death he died he died to sin, ^eonce for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹So you also must consider yourselves ^fdead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹²Let not ^gsin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. ^13hDo not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but ⁱpresent yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. ¹⁴For ^jsin ^kwill have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

¹⁵What then? ^lAre we to sin ^mbecause we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶Do you not know that if you present yourselves ⁿto anyone as obedient slaves,³ you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷But ^othanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the ^pstandard of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸and, ^qhaving been set free from sin, ^rhave become slaves of righteousness. ^19sI am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For ^tjust as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members ^uas slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

^20vFor when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ^21wBut what fruit were you getting at that time from the things ^xof which you are now ashamed? ^yFor the end of those things is death. ²²But now that you ^zhave been set free from sin and ^ahave become slaves of God, ^bthe fruit you get leads to sanctification and ^cits end, eternal life. ^23dFor the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Released from the Law

7Or do you not know, brothers¹—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? ²For ^ea married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.^{2 3}Accordingly, ^fshe will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

⁴Likewise, my brothers, ^gyou also have died ^hto the law ⁱthrough the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, ^jin order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work ^kin our members ^lto bear fruit for death. ⁶But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the ^mnew way of ⁿthe Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.³

The Law and Sin

⁷What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, ^oI would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if ^pthe law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸But sin, ^qseizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. ^rFor apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. ¹⁰The very commandment ^sthat promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹For sin, ^tseizing an opportunity through the commandment, ^udeceived me and through it killed me. ¹²So ^vthe law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. ¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, ^wsold under sin. ¹⁵For I do not understand my own actions. For ^xI do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with ^ythe law, that it is good. ¹⁷So now ^zit is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells ^ain me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ^19bFor I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, ^cit is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²²For ^dI delight in the law of God, ^ein my inner being, ²³but I see in my members ^fanother law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from ^gthis body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.