6Verse 1So what shall we say? Shall we continue in the sin so that the grace may abound?Verse 2Of course not! How can we who died to sin keep on living in it?Verse 3Or are you unaware that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?+Verse 4Therefore, we were buried with Him by means of that baptism into that death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by means of the Father's glory, we also should walk in newness of life.Verse 5Now if we have become united with Him in His death, we will certainly be in His resurrection as well;Verse 6knowing this, that our old self+was crucified with Him in order that the body of the sin+might be set aside, so that we no longer be enslaved to that sin—Verse 7because he who has died has been released from that sin.+Verse 8Now since we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him,Verse 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, cannot die again;+death can no longer master HimVerse 10—the death He died He died to sin once for all, while the life He lives He lives to God.Verse 11Thus you also, consider yourselves to be dead indeed to the sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.+
Down with sin!
Verse 12Therefore do not let the sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey it with the body's evil desiresVerse 13—do not present any part+of your body to sin as an implement for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body parts to God as implements for righteousness.Verse 14Really, sin must not rule over you, because you are not under law but under grace.
Grace, not license
Verse 15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Of course not!Verse 16Do you not know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey them as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether of sin into death, or of obedience into righteousness?Verse 17But thanks be to God that although you used to be the slaves of the sin you wholeheartedly obeyed that pattern of doctrine into which you were delivered.Verse 18So having been emancipated from the sin, you became enslaved to the righteousness.+Verse 19I continue to speak on a human level because of the weakness of your flesh. Now just as you used to present your body parts as slaves to uncleanness, and to ever increasing lawlessness,+so now present your body parts as slaves to righteousness with a view to sanctification.Verse 20For when you were slaves to the sin, you were ‘free’ from the righteousness.Verse 21So what ‘fruit’ did you have at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? The end of those things is death!+Verse 22But now, having been emancipated from the sin, and having become enslaved to God, you have your ‘fruit’ into sanctification—and the end is eternal life!Verse 23Because the wages of sin is death,+but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.