Add parallel Print Page Options

19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.

20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Read full chapter

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 [a]for holiness.

20 For when you were (A)slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 (B)What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For (C)the end of those things is death. 22 But now (D)having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit [b]to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For (E)the wages of sin is death, but (F)the [c]gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Romans 6:19 unto sanctification
  2. Romans 6:22 unto sanctification
  3. Romans 6:23 free gift

19 Forgive me for using casual language to compensate for your natural weakness of human understanding. I want to be perfectly clear. In the same way you gave your bodily members away as slaves to corrupt and lawless living and found yourselves deeper in your unruly lives, now devote your members as slaves to right and reconciled lives so you will find yourselves deeper in holy living. 20 In the days when you lived as slaves to sin, you had no obligation to do the right thing. In that regard, you were free. 21 But what do you have to show from your former lives besides shame? The outcome of that life is death, guaranteed. 22 But now that you have been emancipated from the death grip of sin and are God’s slave, you have a different sort of life, a growing holiness. The outcome of that life is eternal life. 23 The payoff for a life of sin is death, but God is offering us a free gift—eternal life through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King.

Read full chapter

19 I am using an example from everyday life(A) because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness(B) leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin,(C) you were free from the control of righteousness.(D) 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!(E) 22 But now that you have been set free from sin(F) and have become slaves of God,(G) the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.(H) 23 For the wages of sin is death,(I) but the gift of God is eternal life(J) in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Romans 6:23 Or through