Romans 6
1 To what conclusion, then, shall we come? Are we to persist in sinning in order that the grace extended to us may be the greater?
What are we to say, then? Are we to continue to sin, in order that God’s loving kindness may be multiplied?
2 No, indeed; how shall we who have died to sin, live in it any longer?
Heaven forbid! We became dead to sin, so how can we go on living in it?
3 And do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
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?
4 Well, then, we by our baptism were buried with Him in death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from among the dead by the Father's glorious power, we also should live an entirely new life.
Consequently, through sharing his death in our baptism, we were buried with him; so 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.
5 For since we have become one with Him by sharing in His death, we shall also be one with Him by sharing in His resurrection.
If we have become united with him by the act symbolic of his death, surely we will also become united with him by the act symbolic of his resurrection.
6 This we know--that our old self was nailed to the cross with Him, in order that our sinful nature might be deprived of its power, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin;
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.
7 for he who has paid the penalty of death stands absolved from his sin.
For the man who has so died has been pronounced righteous and released from sin.
8 But, seeing that we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him;
And our belief is, that, as we have shared Christ’s death, we will also share his life.
9 because we know that Christ, having come back to life, is no longer liable to die.
We know, indeed, that Christ, having once risen from the dead, will not die again. Death has power over him no longer.
10 Death has no longer any power over Him. For by the death which He died He became, once for all, dead in relation to sin; but by the life which He now lives He is alive in relation to God.
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.
11 In the same way you also must regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin, but as alive in relation to God, because you are in Christ Jesus.
So let it be with you – regard yourselves as dead to sin, but as living for God, through union with Christ Jesus.
12 Let not Sin therefore reign as king in your mortal bodies, causing you to be in subjection to their cravings;
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies and compel you to obey its cravings.
13 and no longer lend your faculties as unrighteous weapons for Sin to use. On the contrary surrender your very selves to God as living men who have risen from the dead, and surrender your several faculties to God, to be used as weapons to maintain the right.
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.
14 For Sin shall not be lord over you, since you are subjects not of Law, but of grace.
For sin will not lord it over you. You are living under the reign, not of Law, but of love.
15 Are we therefore to sin because we are no longer under the authority of Law, but under grace? No, indeed!
What follows, then? Are we to sin because we are living under the reign of love and not of Law? Heaven forbid!
16 Do you not know that if you surrender yourselves as bondservants to obey any one, you become the bondservants of him whom you obey, whether the bondservants of Sin (with death as the result) or of Duty (resulting in righteousness)?
Surely you know that when you offer yourselves as servants, to obey anyone, you are the servants of the person whom you obey, whether the service be a service to sin which leads to death, or a service to duty which leads to righteousness.
17 But thanks be to God that though you were once in thraldom to Sin, you have now yielded a hearty obedience to that system of truth in which you have been instructed.
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.
18 You were set free from the tyranny of Sin, and became the bondservants of Righteousness--
Set free from the control of sin, you became servants to righteousness.
19 your human infirmity leads me to employ these familiar figures--and just as you once surrendered your faculties into bondage to Impurity and ever-increasing disregard of Law, so you must now surrender them into bondage to Righteousness ever advancing towards perfect holiness.
I can but speak as people 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.
20 For when you were the bondservants of sin, you were under no sort of subjection to Righteousness.
While you were still servants of sin, you were free as regards righteousness.
21 At that time, then, what benefit did you get from conduct which you now regard with shame? Why, such things finally result in death.
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.
22 But now that you have been set free from the tyranny of Sin, and have become the bondservants of God, you have your reward in being made holy, and you have the Life of the Ages as the final result. (aiōnios g166)
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 eternal life. (aiōnios g166)
