Readings for Lent and Easter

¹² Therefore, do not let sin rule your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires. ¹³ Stop offering^[a] the parts of your body^[b] to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. Instead, offer yourselves to God as people who have been brought from death to life and the parts of your body^[c] as instruments of righteousness to God. ¹⁴ For sin will not have mastery over you, because you are not under Law but under grace.

¹⁵ What, then, does this mean?^[d] Should we go on sinning because we are not under Law but under grace? Of course not! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thank God that, though you were once slaves of sin, you became obedient from your hearts to that form of teaching with which you were entrusted! ¹⁸ And since you have been freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.