Romans 6–7

CHAPTER 6

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

^1aWhat shall we say then? Are we to ^bcontinue in sin so that grace may increase?

^2aMay it never be! How shall we who ^bdied to sin still live in it?

³Or do you not know that all of us who were ^abaptized into ^bChrist Jesus were baptized into His death?

⁴Therefore we were ^aburied with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was ^braised from the dead through the ^cglory of the Father, so we too might walk in ^dnewness of life.

⁵For ^aif we have become ¹united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be ²in the likeness of His resurrection,

⁶knowing this, that our ^aold man was ^bcrucified with Him, in order that our ^cbody of sin might be ¹done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

⁷for ^ahe who has died has been ¹justified from sin.

⁸Now ^aif we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

⁹knowing that Christ, having been ^araised from the dead, ¹is never to die again; ^bdeath no longer is master over Him.

¹⁰For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

¹¹Even so consider yourselves to be ^adead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹²Therefore do not let sin ^areign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,

¹³and do not go on ^apresenting your members to sin as ¹instruments of unrighteousness, but ^bpresent yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as ²instruments of righteousness to God.

¹⁴For ^asin shall not ^bbe master over you, for ^cyou are not under law but ^dunder grace.

Slaves of Righteousness

¹⁵What then? ^aShall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? ^bMay it never be!

¹⁶Do you not ^aknow that when you go on presenting yourselves to someone as ^bslaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of ^csin ¹leading to death, or of obedience ²leading to righteousness?

¹⁷But ^athanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that ^bpattern of teaching to which you were ^cgiven over,

¹⁸and having been ^afreed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

^19aI am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just ^bas you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, ¹leading to further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, ²leading to sanctification.

²⁰For ^awhen you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

²¹Therefore what ^1abenefit were you then having ²from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is ^bdeath.

²²But now having been ^afreed from sin and ^benslaved to God, you have your ^1cbenefit, ²leading to sanctification, and ^dthe end, eternal life.

²³For the wages of ^asin is death, but the gracious gift of God is ^beternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

CHAPTER 7

Released from the Law

¹Or do you not know, ^abrothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is master over a person as long as he lives?

²For ^athe married woman has been bound by law to her ¹husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law ²concerning the husband.

³So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

⁴So, my brothers, you also were ^amade to die ^bto the Law ^cthrough the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

⁵For while we were ^ain the flesh, the sinful passions, which were ^baroused by the Law, were at work ^cin our members to bear fruit for death.

⁶But now we have been ^areleased from the Law, having ^bdied to that by which we were constrained, so that we serve in ^cnewness of ^1dthe Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

^7aWhat shall we say then? Is the Law sin? ^bMay it never be! Rather, ^cI would not have come to know sin except ¹through the Law. For I would not have known about ²coveting if the Law had not said, “^dYou shall not ³covet.”

⁸But sin, ^ataking opportunity ^bthrough the commandment, worked out in me ¹coveting of every kind. For ^capart ²from the Law sin is dead.

⁹Now I was once alive apart ¹from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died;

¹⁰and this commandment, which was ^1ato lead to life, was found ²to lead to death for me.

¹¹For sin, ^ataking an opportunity ^bthrough the commandment, ^cdeceived me and through it killed me.

^12aSo, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

The Conflict of Two Natures

¹³Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? ^aMay it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by working out my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would ¹become utterly sinful.

¹⁴For we know that the Law is ^aspiritual, but I am ^bfleshly, ^chaving been sold ^1dinto bondage under sin.

¹⁵For what I am working out, ^aI do not understand; for I am not practicing ^bwhat I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.

¹⁶But if I do the very thing I do not want, I agree with ^athe Law, that it is good.

¹⁷So now, ^ano longer am I the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me.

¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my ^aflesh; for the willing is present in me, but the working out of the good is not.

¹⁹For ^athe good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.

²⁰But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, ^aI am no longer the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me.

²¹I find then ^athe ¹principle that in me evil is present—in me who wants to do good.

²²For I joyfully concur with the law of God ¹in ^athe inner man,

²³but I see ^aa different law in my members, waging war against the ^blaw of my mind and making me a captive ¹to ^cthe law of sin which is in my members.

²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from ^1athe body of this ^bdeath?

^251aThanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh ^bthe law of sin.