Romans 6
1 What are we to say, then? Are we to continue to sin, in order that God’s loving-kindness may be multiplied?
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 Heaven forbid! We became dead to sin, and how can we go on living in it?
May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
3 Or can it be that you do not know that all of us, who were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, in our baptism shared his death?
Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 Consequently, through sharing his death in our baptism, we were buried with him; that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by a manifestation of the Father’s power, so we also may live a new Life.
We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
5 If we have become united with him by the act symbolic of his death, surely we shall also become united with him by the act symbolic of his resurrection.
For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;
6 We recognise the truth that our old self was crucified with Christ, in order that the body, the stronghold of Sin, might be rendered powerless, so that we should no longer be slaves to Sin.
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.
7 For the man who has so died has been pronounced righteous and released from Sin.
For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8 And our belief is, that, as we have shared Christ’s Death, we shall also share his Life.
But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,
9 We know, indeed, that Christ, having once risen from the dead, will not die again. Death has power over him no longer.
knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him!
10 For the death that he died was a death to sin, once and for all. But the Life that he now lives, he lives for God.
For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.
11 So let it be with you — regard yourselves as dead to sin, but as living for God, through union with Christ Jesus.
Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore do not let Sin reign in your mortal bodies and compel you to obey its cravings.
Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 Do not offer any part of your bodies to Sin, in the cause of unrighteousness, but once for all offer yourselves to God (as those who, though once dead, now have Life), and devote every part of your bodies to the cause of righteousness.
Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For Sin shall not lord it over you. You are living under the reign, not of Law, but of Love.
For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
15 What follows, then? Are we to sin because we are living under the reign of Love and not of Law? Heaven forbid!
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16 Surely you know that, when you offer yourselves as servants, to obey any one, you are the servants of the person whom you obey, whether the service be that of Sin which leads to Death, or that of Duty which leads to Righteousness.
Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
17 God be thanked that, though you were once servants of Sin, yet you learned to give hearty obedience to that form of doctrine under which you were placed.
But thanks be to God that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered.
18 Set free from the control of Sin, you became servants to Righteousness.
Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.
19 I can but speak as men do because of the weakness of your earthly nature. Once you offered every part of your bodies to the service of impurity, and of wickedness, which leads to further wickedness. Now, in the same way, offer them to the service of Righteousness, which leads to holiness.
I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh; for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.
20 While you were still servants of Sin, you were free as regards Righteousness.
For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.
21 But what were the fruits that you reaped from those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of such things is Death.
What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22 But now that you have been set free from the control of Sin, and have become servants to God, the fruit that you reap is an ever-increasing holiness, and the end Immortal Life. (aiōnios g166)
But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life. (aiōnios g166)
