Dead to Sin, Alive to God

1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?  3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  6We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  7For one who has died has been set free from sin.  8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  9We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  10For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.  11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.  13Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.  14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

15What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!  16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?  17But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,  18and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.  19I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  21But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.  22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.