Dying and Rising with Christ

6 What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may increase?^(A)

¹⁶ As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil.^(A)

¹³ For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,^[a] but through love become enslaved to one another.^(A)

Slaves of Righteousness

¹⁵ What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

⁵ But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)^{(A) 6} By no means! For then how could God judge the world? ⁷ But if through my falsehood God’s truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner? ⁸ And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Their judgment is deserved!^(B)

⁴ Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?^(A)

²⁰ But law came in, so that the trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,^{(A) 21} so that, just as sin reigned in death, so grace might also reign through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

⁴ For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into debauchery and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.^[a](A)

³¹ Do we then overthrow the law through this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

¹⁸ For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with debased^[a] desires of the flesh they entice people who have just^[b] escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for people are slaves to whatever masters them.^(A)