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IV. Justification and the Christian Life

Chapter 6

Freedom from Sin; Life in God. [a]What then shall we say? Shall we persist in sin that grace may abound? Of course not!(A) How can we who died to sin yet live in it?(B) Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?(C) We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.(D)

For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.(E) We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.(F) For a dead person has been absolved from sin. If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.(G)

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Footnotes

  1. 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 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).