Romans 6
New King James Version
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
6 What shall we say then? (A)Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who (B)died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that (C)as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus (D)were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were (E)buried with Him through baptism into death, that (F)just as Christ was raised from the dead by (G)the glory of the Father, (H)even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 (I)For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that (J)our old man was crucified with Him, that (K)the body of sin might be [a]done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For (L)he who has died has been [b]freed from sin. 8 Now (M)if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that (N)Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, (O)He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, (P)He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, [c]reckon yourselves to be (Q)dead indeed to sin, but (R)alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 (S)Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your (T)members as [d]instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but (U)present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For (V)sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
From Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God
15 What then? Shall we sin (W)because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that (X)to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart (Y)that form of doctrine to which you were [e]delivered. 18 And (Z)having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness [f]for holiness.
20 For when you were (AA)slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 (AB)What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For (AC)the end of those things is death. 22 But now (AD)having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit [g]to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For (AE)the wages of sin is death, but (AF)the [h]gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Footnotes
- Romans 6:6 rendered inoperative
- Romans 6:7 cleared
- Romans 6:11 consider
- Romans 6:13 Or weapons
- Romans 6:17 entrusted
- Romans 6:19 unto sanctification
- Romans 6:22 unto sanctification
- Romans 6:23 free gift
Romans 6
The Message
When Death Becomes Life
6 1-3 So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!
3-5 That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.
6-11 Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer captive to sin’s demands! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.
12-14 That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God.
What Is True Freedom?
15-18 So, since we’re out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we’re free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you’ve let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you’ve started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!
19 I’m using this freedom language because it’s easy to picture. You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God’s freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?
20-21 As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.
22-23 But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.
Romans 6
J.B. Phillips New Testament
Righteousness by faith, in practice
6 1-11 Now what is our response to be? Shall we sin to our heart’s content and see how far we can exploit the grace of God? What a ghastly thought! We, who have died to sin—how could we live in sin a moment longer? Have you forgotten that all of us who were baptised into Jesus Christ were, by that very action, sharing in his death? We were dead and buried with him in baptism, so that just as he was raised from the dead by that splendid Revelation of the Father’s power so we too might rise to life on a new plane altogether. If we have, as it were, shared his death, let us rise and live our new lives with him! Let us never forget that our old selves died with him on the cross that the tyranny of sin over us might be broken—for a dead man can safely be said to be immune to the power of sin. And if we were dead men with him we can believe that we shall also be men newly alive with him. We can be sure that the risen Christ never dies again—death’s power to touch him is finished. He died, because of sin, once: he lives for God for ever. In the same way look upon yourselves as dead to the appeal and power of sin but alive and sensitive to the call of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12-14 Do not, then, allow sin to establish any power over your mortal bodies in making you give way to your lusts. Nor hand over your organs to be, as it were, weapons of evil for the devil’s purposes. But, like men rescued from certain death, put yourselves in God’s hands as weapons of good for his own purposes. For sin is not meant to be your master—you are no longer living under the Law, but under grace.
The new service completely ousts the old
15-21 Now, what shall we do? Shall we go on sinning because we have no Law to condemn us any more, but are living under grace? Never! Just think what it would mean. You belong to the power which you choose to obey, whether you choose sin, whose reward is death, or God, obedience to whom means the reward of righteousness. Thank God that you, who were at one time the servants of sin, honestly responded to the impact of Christ’s teaching when you came under its influence. Then, released from the service of sin, you entered the service of righteousness. (I use an everyday illustration because human nature grasps truth more readily that way.) In the past you voluntarily gave your bodies to the service of vice and wickedness—for the purpose of becoming wicked. So, now, give yourselves to the service of righteousness—for the purpose of becoming really good. For when you were employed by sin you owed no duty to righteousness. Yet what sort of harvest did you reap from those things that today you blush to remember? In the long run those things mean one thing only—death.
22 But now that you are employed by God, you owe no duty to sin, and you reap the fruit of being made righteous, while at the end of the road there is life for evermore.
23 Sin pays its servants: the wage is death. But God gives to those who serve him: his free gift is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romanos 6
Nueva Biblia de las Américas
Muertos al pecado
6 ¿Qué diremos, entonces(A)? ¿Continuaremos en pecado para que la gracia abunde(B)? 2 ¡De ningún modo(C)! Nosotros, que hemos muerto al pecado, ¿cómo viviremos aún en él(D)? 3 ¿O no saben ustedes que todos los que hemos sido bautizados(E) en Cristo Jesús(F), hemos sido bautizados en Su muerte?
4 Por tanto, hemos sido sepultados con Él por medio del bautismo para muerte, a fin de que como Cristo resucitó de entre los muertos(G) por la gloria del Padre(H), así también nosotros andemos en novedad de vida(I). 5 Porque si hemos sido unidos[a] a Cristo en la semejanza[b] de Su muerte(J), ciertamente lo seremos también en la semejanza de Su resurrección.
6 Sabemos esto, que nuestro viejo hombre(K) fue crucificado con Cristo(L), para que nuestro cuerpo de pecado(M) fuera destruido[c], a fin de que ya no seamos esclavos del pecado; 7 porque el que ha muerto, ha sido libertado[d] del pecado(N).
8 Y si hemos muerto con Cristo, creemos que también viviremos con Él(O), 9 sabiendo que Cristo, habiendo resucitado de entre los muertos(P), no volverá a morir; la muerte ya no tiene dominio sobre Él(Q). 10 Porque en cuanto a que Él murió, murió al pecado de una vez para siempre; pero en cuanto Él vive, vive para Dios. 11 Así también ustedes, considérense muertos para el pecado, pero vivos para Dios en Cristo Jesús[e](R).
Siervos, no del pecado, sino de la justicia
12 Por tanto, no reine el pecado en su cuerpo mortal(S) para que ustedes no obedezcan a sus lujurias; 13 ni presenten los miembros de su cuerpo[f](T) al pecado como instrumentos[g] de iniquidad, sino preséntense ustedes mismos a Dios como vivos de entre los muertos, y sus miembros a Dios como instrumentos[h] de justicia(U). 14 Porque el pecado no tendrá dominio sobre ustedes(V), pues no están bajo la ley(W) sino bajo la gracia(X).
Libertados del pecado
15 ¿Entonces qué? ¿Pecaremos porque no estamos bajo la ley, sino bajo la gracia(Y)? ¡De ningún modo(Z)! 16 ¿No saben ustedes(AA) que cuando se presentan como esclavos a alguien para obedecerle[i], son esclavos de aquel a quien obedecen, ya sea del pecado(AB) para muerte(AC), o de la obediencia para justicia? 17 Pero gracias a Dios(AD), que aunque ustedes eran esclavos del pecado, se hicieron[j] obedientes de corazón a aquella forma de doctrina a la que fueron entregados(AE), 18 y habiendo sido libertados del pecado, ustedes se han hecho siervos de la justicia(AF).
19 Hablo en términos humanos(AG), por causa de la debilidad de su carne. Porque de la manera que ustedes presentaron sus miembros como esclavos a la impureza y a la iniquidad, para iniquidad, así ahora presenten sus miembros como esclavos a la justicia(AH), para santificación. 20 Porque cuando ustedes eran esclavos del pecado, eran libres en cuanto a la justicia(AI).
21 ¿Qué fruto tenían entonces en[k] aquellas cosas de las cuales ahora se avergüenzan? Porque el fin de esas cosas es muerte(AJ). 22 Pero ahora, habiendo sido libertados del pecado(AK) y hechos siervos de Dios(AL), tienen por su fruto(AM) la santificación, y como resultado la vida eterna(AN). 23 Porque la paga del pecado es muerte(AO), pero la dádiva de Dios es vida eterna en Cristo Jesús Señor nuestro(AP).
Footnotes
- Romanos 6:5 O injertados.
- Romanos 6:5 O unidos con la semejanza.
- Romanos 6:6 O reducido a la impotencia.
- Romanos 6:7 O exonerado.
- Romanos 6:11 Algunos mss. agregan: nuestro Señor.
- Romanos 6:13 Lit. sus miembros.
- Romanos 6:13 O armas.
- Romanos 6:13 O armas.
- Romanos 6:16 Lit. para obediencia.
- Romanos 6:17 Lit. pero se hicieron.
- Romanos 6:21 O de.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by Permission.
Nueva Biblia de las Américas™ NBLA™ Copyright © 2005 por The Lockman Foundation
