Slaves of Righteousness

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

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all,^{[a](A) 12} training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly,^{(B) 13} while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior,^[b] Jesus Christ.^{(C) 14} He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.^(D)

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— ⁹ not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.^(A)

Dying and Rising with Christ

6 What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may increase?^{(A) 2} By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?^(B)

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)

7 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.^(A)

¹⁷ But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! ¹⁸ But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.

²⁰ To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to gain Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might gain those under the law. ²¹ To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not outside God’s law but am within Christ’s law) so that I might gain those outside the law.^(A)

None Is Righteous

⁹ What then? Are we any better off?^[a] No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin,^(A)