Romans 6:14–21

6:14 For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

The Believer’s Enslavement to God’s Righteousness

6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! 6:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves13 as obedient slaves,14 you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness?15 6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed16 from the heart that pattern17 of teaching you were entrusted to, 6:18 and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 6:19 (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.)18 For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.

6:21 So what benefit19 did you then reap20 from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death.

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13	tn Grk “to whom you present yourselves.”
14	tn Grk “as slaves for obedience.” See the note on the word “slave” in 1:1.
15	tn Grk “either of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness.”
16	tn Grk “you were slaves of sin but you obeyed.”
17	tn Or “type, form.”
18	tn Or “because of your natural limitations” (NRSV). sn Verse 19 forms something of a parenthetical comment in Paul’s argument.
19	tn Grk “fruit.”
20	tn Grk “have,” in a tense emphasizing their customary condition in the past.