Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, [Or be rendered powerless] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
[This is related to justification]
[This is related to justification]
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Slaves to Righteousness
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[Or through ] Christ Jesus our Lord.
NOTES:
6:1–11 To defend the gospel against the charge that it
promotes moral laxity (cf. Rom 3:5–8), Paul expresses himself in the typical
style of spirited diatribe. God’s display of generosity or grace is not evoked
by sin but, as stated in Rom 5:8 is the expression of God’s love, and this love
pledges eternal life to all believers (Rom 5:21). Paul views the present
conduct of the believers from the perspective of God’s completed salvation when
the body is resurrected and directed totally by the Holy Spirit.
Through
baptism believers share the death of Christ and thereby escape from the grip of
sin. Through the resurrection of Christ, the power to live anew becomes reality
for them, but the fullness of participation in Christ’s resurrection still lies
in the future. But the life that is lived in dedication to God now is part and
parcel of that future. Hence anyone who sincerely claims to be interested in
that future will scarcely be able to say, “Let us sin so that grace may
prosper” (cf. Rom 6:1).
6:12–19 Christians have been released from the grip of sin,
but sin endeavors to reclaim its victims. The antidote is constant remembrance
that divine grace has claimed them and identifies them as people who are alive
only for God’s interests.
6:17 In contrast to humanity, which was handed over to
self-indulgence (Rom 1:24–32), believers are entrusted (“handed over”) to God’s the pattern of teaching, that is, the new life God aims to develop in Christians
through the productivity of the Holy Spirit. Throughout this passage Paul uses
the slave-master model in order to emphasize the fact that one cannot give
allegiance to both God and sin.
6:20 You were free from righteousness: expressed ironically,
for such freedom is really tyranny. The commercial metaphors in Rom 6:21–23 add
up only one way: sin is a bad bargain.
6:22 Sanctification: or holiness.
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