Chapter 6

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.

Chapter 7

Believers United to Christ

1 Or do you not know, abrethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?

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

3 So 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.

4 Therefore, my brethren, 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.

5 For while we were ain the flesh, the sinful passions, which were baroused by the Law, were at work cin 1the members of our body to bear fruit for death.

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

7 aWhat shall we say then? Is the Law sin? bMay it never be! On the contrary, 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 2covet.”

8 But sin, ataking opportunity bthrough the commandment, produced in me 1coveting of every kind; for capart 2from the Law sin is dead.

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

10 and this commandment, which was 1ato result in life, proved 2to result in death for me;

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

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

13 Therefore 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 effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

The Conflict of Two Natures

14 For we know that the Law is aspiritual, but I am aof flesh, bsold 1cinto bondage to sin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

21 I find then athe 1principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.

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

23 but I see aa different law in 1the members of my body, waging war against the blaw of my mind and making me a prisoner 2of cthe law of sin which is in my members.

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

25 aThanks 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.