² By no means! We are those who have died to sin;^(A) how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized^(B) into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death^(C) in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead^(D) through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.^(E)

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.^{(F) 6} For we know that our old self^(G) was crucified with him^(H) so that the body ruled by sin^(I) might be done away with,^[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin^(J)— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.^(K)

⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.^{(L) 9} For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead,^(M) he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.^{(N) 10} The death he died, he died to sin^(O) once for all;^(P) but the life he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin^(Q) but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Released From the Law, Bound to Christ

7 Do you not know, brothers and sisters^(A)—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? ² For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him.^{(B) 3} So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress.^(C) But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

⁴ So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law^(D) through the body of Christ,^(E) that you might belong to another,^(F) to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For when we were in the realm of the flesh,^[a](G) the sinful passions aroused by the law^(H) were at work in us,^(I) so that we bore fruit for death.^{(J) 6} But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law^(K) so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.^(L)

The Law and Sin

⁷ What shall we say, then?^(M) Is the law sinful? Certainly not!^(N) Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.^(O) For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”^{[b](P) 8} But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,^(Q) produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.^{(R) 9} Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life^(S) actually brought death.

¹⁰ But if Christ is in you,^(A) then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life^[a] because of righteousness.

¹¹ And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead^(A) is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies^(B) because of^[a] his Spirit who lives in you.

²⁰ Since you died with Christ^(A) to the elemental spiritual forces of this world,^(B) why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:^(C)