"What shall we
say then? Are we to continue in
sin so that grace may increase? Far from it!
How shall we who died to sin still live in
it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been
baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His
death? Therefore, we have been buried with Him
through baptism into death, so that, just as
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of
the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For
if we have become united with Him in the
likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the
likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our
old self was crucified with Him, in order that our
body of sin might be done away with, so that we would
no longer be slaves to sin; for the one who has
died is freed from sin.
Now if we have
died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is
master over Him. For the death that He died, He
died to sin once for all time; but the
life that He lives, He lives to God. So you too,
consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to
God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore sin is
not to reign in your mortal body so that you
obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the parts of
your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but
present yourselves to God as those who are alive from
the dead, and your body’s parts as instruments of
righteousness for God. For sin shall not be
master over you, for you are not under the Law but
under grace.
What then? Are we to
sin because we are not under the Law but
under grace? Far from it! Do you not
know that the one to whom you
present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are
slaves of that same one whom you obey,
either of sin resulting in death, or of
obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be
to God that though you were slaves of sin, you
became obedient from the heart to that form of
teaching to which you were entrusted, and after being
freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness. I am
speaking in human terms because of the
weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented the
parts of your body as slaves to impurity and to
lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness,
so now present your body’s parts as slaves to
righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
For when you were
slaves of sin, you were free in relation to righteousness. Therefore, what benefit were
you then deriving from the things of which you
are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is
death. But now having been freed from sin and
enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification,
and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is
death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:1-23 NASB)
