6 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? ² May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; ⁶ knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. ⁷ For he who has died has been freed from sin. ⁸ But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him; ⁹ knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him! ¹⁰ For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹ Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹² Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. ¹³ Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. ¹⁴ For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered. ¹⁸ Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

¹⁹ I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification. ²⁰ For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. ²¹ What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

5 Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

² Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. ³ Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law. ⁴ You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace. ⁵ For we, through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love. ⁷ You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth? ⁸ This persuasion is not from him who calls you. ⁹ A little yeast grows through the whole lump. ¹⁰ I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.

¹¹ But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed. ¹² I wish that those who disturb you would cut themselves off.

¹³ For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another. ¹⁴ For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”Leviticus 19:18 ¹⁵ But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don’t consume one another.

¹⁶ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹ Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, ²¹ envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,^{[a] 23} gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.

²⁵ If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit. ²⁶ Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.