Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks
6 What shall we say then? Shall we keep on doing wrong things so that God will be more kind to us?
2 No, surely not! We died to our wrong ways and no longer live in them.
3 All of us have been baptised in water. This means we are joined to Christ Jesus. We were baptised into his death. Do you know that?
4 We were buried when he was buried because we were baptised into his death. Christ was raised from death by the wonderful power of the Father. So we also must live a new life.
5 Have we shared with Christ and died as he died? Then we shall share with him by rising from death as he arose.
6 We know this is true. The old person we used to be was nailed to the cross with him, so that our bodies which do wrong things would die. Then we will no longer be like slaves to the wrong things we used to do.
7 Anyone who has died no longer does wrong things.
8 If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
9 We know that Christ was raised from death and will not die again. Death has no power over him any more.
10 He died. And he died once for all time, so that people would stop their wrong ways. But now he lives. And he lives for God.
11 So you also must think you are dead, and stop your wrong ways. And you must think you are living for God along with Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Do not let wrong things rule over your bodies that are going to die. Do not do the things your bodies want.
13 Do not use your bodies to do wrong things. But give yourselves to God like men who have been raised from death to life. Give your bodies to God and use them to do good things.
14 Wrong ways will not be your masters. The law does not rule over you now, but God's loving kindness rules over you.
15 What then? The law does not rule over us now. God's loving kindness rules over us. So, shall we do wrong things? No, never!
16 If you give yourselves to be slaves and obey your master, you are not free. You are his slaves. Do you not know this: you may be slaves to wrong things? But you will not live for ever. Or you may be slaves to obey God. Then you will be made good people and live with him.
17 You were at one time slaves to wrong things. But I praise God that you obeyed what your teachers taught you. And you obeyed because you wanted to obey.
18 You were made free from doing wrong things. You were made slaves to good things.
19 I speak the way people would think about such things, because your minds are weak. At one time you gave your bodies to be slaves to your unclean ways, and to do more and more wrong things. So now give your bodies to be slaves to doing what is right, and to being good.
20 When you were slaves to wrong things, you were free from doing good things.
21 You are now ashamed of those things. What good did they do you? For the end of those things is death.
22 But now you have been made free from wrong ways and you have been made God's slaves. You are made good and you will live for ever.
23 The reward that wrong ways give is to die. But the gift which God gives is to live for ever. Christ Jesus our Lord has done this for us.
7 My brothers, I am saying this to you people who know the law. Do you not know that the law is master over a person only while he lives?
2 A married woman belongs to her husband by law as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law that made her belong to her husband.
3 So if she belongs to another man while her husband is living, she commits adultery. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then if she belongs to another man, she does not commit adultery.
4 In the same way my brothers, you died when Christ died. And you are free from the law. Now you belong to another person. You belong to the one who has been raised from death. Because of that, we are able to do what God wants us to do.
5 One time we lived in the way our bodies wanted to live. The law made us think about doing wrong things. And we did things that made us die.
6 But now we have been made free from the law. We died, and so we are no longer slaves to the one who was our master. Now we are slaves to God in our new life. This new life is ruled by the Spirit. We do not work for the old written law.
7 So what shall we say? Shall we say that the law is bad? No! I would not have known what is wrong if there had been no law. The law says, `Do not want to take other people's things.' That is how I know it is wrong to want another person's things.
8 My wrong ways used the law to make me want all kinds of things. When there is no law, the thing within me that wants to do wrong is dead.
9 Once I had no law, and I lived. But when the law came, that which wanted to do wrong things came to life, and I died.
10 The same law which was meant to make a person live, made me die.
11 My wrong ways used the law to fool me and kill me.
12 So the law is holy. And what the law says is holy and right and good.
13 So did that good thing make me die? No. The wrong things I did made me die, because that good thing showed they were wrong. And the law shows that the wrong things are very, very bad.
14 We know that the law came from the Holy Spirit. But I am a weak man. I have been sold like a slave to do wrong things.
15 I do not know why I do the things I do. I do not do what I want to do. But I do the things I hate.
16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but my wrong ways in me.
18 I know that no good thing lives in me. I mean, no good thing lives in my body. I want to do what is good, but I cannot do it.
19 I do not do the good thing I want to do, but I do the wrong thing that I do not want to do.
20 If I do the thing I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but the wrong thing in me that does it.
21 So there is a law I find that it is at work in me. When I want to do what is right, I can only do what is wrong.
22 In my own mind I am glad to obey the law of God.
23 But I see that in my body there is another law fighting against the law in my mind. And that makes me like a prisoner to the law of wrong things in my body.
24 I am a very sad man. Who will save me from this body that will make me die?
25 Thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord who will do it! So this is the way it is. In my mind I am a slave to do the law of God, but in my body I am a slave to do the law of wrong things.
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