Romans 5-6

Evangelical Heritage Version

Justification Brings Peace and Joy

5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace^[a] with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ² Through him we also have obtained access by faith^[b] into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice confidently on the basis of our hope for the glory^[c] of God.

³ Not only this, but we also rejoice confidently in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces patient endurance, ⁴ and patient endurance produces tested character, and tested character produces hope. ⁵ And hope will not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us.

God’s Love Is Evident in Christ’s Death for the Ungodly

⁶ For at the appointed time, while we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ It is rare indeed that someone will die for a righteous person. Perhaps someone might actually go so far as to die for a person who has been good to him. ⁸ But God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹ Therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, it is even more certain that we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. ¹⁰ For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, it is even more certain that, since we have been reconciled, we will be saved by his life. ¹¹ And not only is this so, but we also go on rejoicing confidently in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received this reconciliation.

Both Adam and Christ Had an Effect on All People

¹² So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned. ¹³ For even before the law was given, sin was in the world. Now, sin is not charged to one’s account if there is no law, ¹⁴ and yet death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those whose sin was not like the transgression of Adam, who is a pattern^[d] of the one who was to come.

¹⁵ But the gracious gift is not like Adam’s trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of this one man, it is even more certain that God’s grace, and the gift given by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, overflowed to the many!

¹⁶ And the gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin, for the judgment that followed the one trespass resulted in a verdict of condemnation, but the gracious gift that followed many trespasses resulted in a verdict of justification.

¹⁷ Indeed, if by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through the one man, it is even more certain that those who receive the overflowing grace of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ!

¹⁸ So then, just as one trespass led to a verdict of condemnation for all people, so also one righteous verdict led to life-giving justification^[e] for all people. ¹⁹ For just as through the disobedience of one man the many became sinners, so also through the obedience of one man the many will become righteous.

²⁰ The law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace overflowed much more, ²¹ so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace would reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Dead to Sin and Living for God

6 What shall we say then? Shall we keep on sinning so that grace may increase? ² Absolutely not! We died to sin. How can we go on living in it any longer? ³ Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him by this baptism into his death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too would also walk in a new life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united with him in the likeness of his resurrection.

⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him, to make our sinful body powerless, so that we would not continue to serve sin. ⁷ For the person who has died has been declared free from sin. ⁸ And since we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he will never die again. Death no longer has control over him. ¹⁰ For the death he died, he died to sin once and for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹ In the same way also consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.^[f]

Serve God, Not Sin, in Your Life

¹² Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. ¹³ Do not offer the members of your body to sin as tools of unrighteousness. Instead, offer yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and offer the members of your body to God as tools of righteousness. ¹⁴ Indeed, sin will not continue to control you, because you are not under law but under grace.

¹⁵ What then? Should we continue to sin, because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! ¹⁶ Do you not know that when you offer yourselves to obey someone as slaves, you are slaves of the one you are obeying—whether slaves of sin, resulting in death, or slaves of obedience, resulting in righteousness?

¹⁷ Thanks be to God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to the pattern of the teaching into which you were placed. ¹⁸ After you were set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹ (I am speaking in a human way because of the weakness of your flesh.) Indeed, just as you offered your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, resulting in more lawlessness, so now offer your members in the same way as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. ²¹ So what kind of fruit did you have then? They were things of which you are now ashamed. Yes, the final result of those things is death. ²² But now, since you were set free from sin and have become slaves to God, you have your fruit resulting in sanctification—and the final result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the undeserved gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.