Believers Are Dead to Sin, Alive to God

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

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

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

4 Therefore we have been 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.

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

6 knowing this, that our aold 1self was bcrucified with Him, in order that our cbody of sin might be 2done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

7 for ahe who has died is 1freed from sin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

16 Do you not aknow that when you present yourselves to someone as bslaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of csin 1resulting in death, or of obedience 2resulting in righteousness?

17 But athanks be to God that 1though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that bform of teaching to which you were committed,

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

19 aI 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, 1resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, 2resulting in sanctification.

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

21 Therefore what 1abenefit were you then 2deriving 3from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is bdeath.

22 But now having been afreed from sin and benslaved to God, you 1derive your 2cbenefit, 3resulting in sanctification, and dthe outcome, eternal life.

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