Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

Death and Life with Christ^[a]

Chapter 6

Baptized in Christ Jesus.^{[b] 1} What then shall we say? Should we persist in sin in order that grace may abound? ² Of course not! We have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ Through that baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,^[c] so we too might begin to live a new life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall also be united with him in his resurrection. ⁶ We know that our old^[d] self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be destroyed and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For whoever has died has been freed from sin.

⁸ However, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.^{[e] 9} We know that Christ, once raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has power over him. ¹⁰ When he died, he died to sin once and for all. However, the life he lives, he lives for God. ¹¹ In the same way, you must regard yourselves as being dead to sin and alive for God in Christ Jesus.

¹² Therefore, do not allow sin to reign over your mortal body and make you obey its desires. ¹³ Nor should you present any part of your body as an instrument for wickedness leading to sin. Rather, present yourselves to God as having been raised from death to life and the parts of your body to God as instruments for righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin is no longer to have any power over you, since you are not under the Law but under grace.

¹⁵ A Slave of Righteousness. What then? Should we sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Of course not! ¹⁶ Do you not know that if you offer yourself as an obedient slave, you are the slave of the one you obey—either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

¹⁷ Once you were slaves of sin, but, thanks be to God, you have become obedient in your heart to that pattern of teaching to which you have been delivered. ¹⁸ Now, having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.

¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because you are still weak human beings. For just as you once offered your bodies as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to greater iniquity, so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

²⁰ When you were slaves of sin, you were free from the restraints of righteousness. ²¹ But what advantage did you get then from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²² However, now that you have been freed from sin and bound to the service of God, the benefit you receive is sanctification, and the end is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift freely given by God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Christ Has Freed Us from the Law^[f]

Chapter 7

The Time of the Law Has Passed.^{[g] 1} Are you aware, brethren (for I am certain that you are people who have knowledge of the Law), that a person is bound by the Law only during that person’s lifetime? ² For example, a woman is bound by the Law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from her husband in regard to the Law. ³ Therefore, she will be judged to be an adulteress if she has relations with another man while her husband is still alive. However, if her husband dies, she is free from that provision of the Law, and if she then has relations with another man, she is not an adulteress.

⁴ In the same way, brethren, through the body of Christ you have died to the Law and have been set free to belong to another, that is, to the one who rose from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For when we were in the flesh, our sinful passions were aroused by the Law and at work in our bodies, and they bore fruit for death. ⁶ But now, we are released from the Law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit in contrast to the old written code.^[h]

The Function of the Law.^{[i] 7} What then should we say? That the Law is sinful? Absolutely not! Yet if it had not been for the Law, I would not have known what sin was. I would not have known what covet is if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin seized the opportunity offered by the commandment and produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the Law, sin is dead.

⁹ I lived apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin came to life, ¹⁰ and I died. The commandment that was for life proved to be death for me. ¹¹ For sin, seizing an opportunity offered by the commandment, deceived me,^[j] and through it killed me. ¹² And so the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

¹³ Did what is good, then, cause my death? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as such, it brought about my death through what is good, and therefore through the commandment sin became completely sinful.

¹⁴ Sin and Death. We clearly understand that the Law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want; rather, I do what I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, then I agree that the Law is good.^{[k] 17} This indicates that it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot do what is good. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I desire; rather, it is the evil I do not desire that I end up doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not desire, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

²¹ I have thus discovered this principle: when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²² In my innermost self, I delight in the Law of God, ²³ but I perceive in the members of my body another law at war with the Law that I cherish in my mind. Thus, I am made captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body destined for death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with my mind I am a slave to the Law of God, but with my flesh to the law of sin.