Romans 6
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
IV. Justification and the Christian Life
Chapter 6
Freedom from Sin; Life in God. 1 [a]What then shall we say? Shall we persist in sin that grace may abound? Of course not!(A) 2 How can we who died to sin yet live in it?(B) 3 Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?(C) 4 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)
5 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) 6 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) 7 For a dead person has been absolved from sin. 8 If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.(G) 9 We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him.(H) 10 As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God.(I) 11 Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as [being] dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.(J)
12 [b]Therefore, sin must not reign over your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires.(K) 13 And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin as weapons for wickedness, but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons for righteousness.(L) 14 For sin is not to have any power over you, since you are not under the law but under grace.(M)
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Of course not!(N) 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves,(O) you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?(P) 17 But thanks be to God that, although you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted.[c] 18 Freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your nature. For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness for lawlessness, so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. 20 (Q)For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.[d] 21 But what profit did you get then from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.(R) 22 But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification,[e] and its end is eternal life.(S) 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.(T)
Footnotes
- 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).
- 6:12–19 Christians have been released from the grip of sin, but sin endeavors to reclaim its victims. The antidote is constant remembrance that divine grace has claimed them and identifies them as people who are alive only for God’s interests.
- 6:17 In contrast to humanity, which was handed over to self-indulgence (Rom 1:24–32), believers are entrusted (“handed over”) to God’s pattern of teaching, that is, the new life God aims to develop in Christians through the productivity of the holy Spirit. Throughout this passage Paul uses the slave-master model in order to emphasize the fact that one cannot give allegiance to both God and sin.
- 6:20 You were free from righteousness: expressed ironically, for such freedom is really tyranny. The commercial metaphors in Rom 6:21–23 add up only one way: sin is a bad bargain.
- 6:22 Sanctification: or holiness.
Romans 6
1599 Geneva Bible
6 1 He cometh to sanctification, without which, that no man putteth on Christ’s righteousness, he proveth 4 by an argument taken of Baptism, 12 and thereupon exhorteth to holiness of life, 16 briefly making mention of the Law transgressed.
1 What [a]shall we say then? Shall we continue still in [b]sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.
2 [c]How shall we, that are [d]dead to sin, live yet therein?
3 [e]Know ye not, that (A)all we which have been baptized into [f]Jesus Christ, have been baptized into his death?
4 (B)We are buried then with him by baptism into his death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead [g]to the glory of the Father, so [h]we also should (C)walk in newness of life.
5 (D)[i]For if we be planted with him to the [j]similitude of his death, even so shall we [k]be to the similitude of his resurrection,
6 Knowing this, that our [l]old man is crucified with [m]him, that the body of [n]sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not [o]serve sin,
7 [p]For he that is dead, is freed from sin.
8 Wherefore, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also with him,
9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over him.
10 For in that he died, he died [q]once to sin: but in that he liveth, he liveth to [r]God.
11 Likewise think ye also, that ye are dead to sin, but are alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
12 [s]Let not sin [t]reign therefore in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof:
13 Neither [u]give ye your [v]members, as [w]weapons of unrighteousness unto sin: but give yourselves unto God, as they that are alive from the dead, and give your members as weapons of righteousness unto God.
14 [x]For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the Law, but under grace.
15 [y]What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the Law, but under grace? God forbid.
16 (E)Know ye not, that to whomsoever ye give yourselves as servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether it be of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
17 [z]But God be thanked, that ye have been the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart unto the [aa]form of the doctrine, whereunto ye were delivered.
18 Being then made free from sin, ye are made the servants of righteousness.
19 I speak after the manner of man, because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have given your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, to commit iniquity, so now give your members servants unto righteousness in holiness.
20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were [ab]freed from righteousness.
21 [ac]What fruit had ye then in those things, whereof ye are now ashamed? For the [ad]end of those things is death.
22 But now being freed from sin, and made servants unto God, ye have your fruit in holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
23 [ae]For the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Footnotes
- Romans 6:1 He passeth now to another benefit of Christ, which is called sanctification or regeneration.
- Romans 6:1 In that corruption: for though the guiltiness of sin be not imputed to us, yet the corruption remaineth still in us: the which Sanctification that followeth Justification killeth by little and little.
- Romans 6:2 The benefits of Justification and Sanctification, are always joined together inseparably, and both of them proceed from Christ, by the grace of God: Now sanctification is the abolishing of sin, that is, of our natural corruption, into whose place succeedeth the cleanness and pureness of nature reformed.
- Romans 6:2 They are said of Paul to be dead to sin, which are in such sort made partakers of the virtue of Christ, that that natural corruption is dead in them, that is, the force of it is put out, and it bringeth not forth his bitter fruits: and on the other side, they are said to live to sin, which are in the flesh, that is, whom the spirit of God hath not delivered from the slavery of the corruption of nature.
- Romans 6:3 There are three parts of this Sanctification, to wit, the dead of the old man or sin, his burial, and the resurrection of the new man, descending into us from the virtue of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, of which benefit our baptism is the sign and pledge.
- Romans 6:3 To the end that growing up in one with him, we should receive his strength to quench sin in us, and to make us new men.
- Romans 6:4 That Christ himself being discharged of his infirmity and weakness, might live in glory with God forever.
- Romans 6:4 And we which are his members rise for this end, that being made partakers of the selfsame virtue, we should begin to lead a new life, as though we were already in heaven.
- Romans 6:5 The death of sin and the life of righteousness, or our ingrafting into Christ, and growing up into one with him, cannot be separated by any means, neither in death nor life, whereby it followeth, that no man is sanctified, which lived still to sin, and therefore is no man made partaker of Christ by faith, which repenteth not, and turneth not from his wickedness: for as he said before, the Law is not subverted, but established by faith.
- Romans 6:5 Insomuch as by the means of the strength which cometh from him to us, we so die to sin as he is dead.
- Romans 6:5 For we become every day more perfect than others: for we shall never be perfectly sanctified, as long as we live here.
- Romans 6:6 All our whole nature, as we are conceived and born into this world with sin, which is called old, partly by comparing that old Adam with Christ, and partly also in respect of the deformation of our corrupt nature, which we change with a new.
- Romans 6:6 Our corrupt nature is attributed to Christ, not in deed, but by imputation.
- Romans 6:6 That naughtiness which sticketh fast in us.
- Romans 6:6 The end of sanctification which we shoot at, and shall at length come to, to wit when God shall be all in all.
- Romans 6:7 He proveth it by the effects of death, using a comparison of Christ the head with his members.
- Romans 6:10 Once for all.
- Romans 6:10 With God.
- Romans 6:12 An exhortation to contend and strive with corruption and all the effects thereof.
- Romans 6:12 By reigning, Saint Paul meaneth that chiefest and high rule, which no man striveth against, and if any do, yet it is in vain.
- Romans 6:13 To sin, as to a Lord or tyrant.
- Romans 6:13 Your mind and all the powers of it.
- Romans 6:13 As instruments to commit wickedness withall.
- Romans 6:14 He granteth that sin is not yet so dead in us that it is utterly extinct: but he promised victory to them that contend manfully, because we have the grace of God given us which worketh so, that the Law is not now in us the power and instrument of sin.
- Romans 6:15 To be under the law and under sin, signifiy all one, in respect of them which are not sanctified, as on the contrary side, to be under grace and righteousness, agree to them that are regenerate. Now these are contraries, so that one cannot agree with the other: Therefore let righteousness expel sin.
- Romans 6:17 By nature we are slaves to sin, and free from righteousness, but by the grace of God we are made servants to righteousness, and therefore free from sin.
- Romans 6:17 This kind of speech hath a force in it: for he meaneth thereby that the doctrine of the Gospel is like a certain mold which we are cast into to be framed and fashioned like unto it.
- Romans 6:20 Righteousness had no rule over you.
- Romans 6:21 An exhortation to the study of righteousness and hatred of sin, the contrary ends of both, being set down before us.
- Romans 6:21 The reward or payment.
- Romans 6:23 Death is the punishment due to sin, but we are sanctified freely, unto life everlasting.
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
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
