Romans, 6

1. What should we say then? Should we remain in sin so that grace may be given the more fully?

1. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

2. Out of the question! We have died to sin; how could we go on living in it?

2. By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

3. You cannot have forgotten that all of us, when we were baptised into Christ Jesus, were baptised into his death.

3. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4. So by our baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glorious power, we too should begin living a new life.

4. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5. If we have been joined to him by dying a death like his, so we shall be by a resurrection like his;

5. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

6. realising that our former self was crucified with him, so that the self which belonged to sin should be destroyed and we should be freed from the slavery of sin.

6. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.

7. Someone who has died, of course, no longer has to answer for sin.

7. For he who has died is freed from sin.

8. But we believe that, if we died with Christ, then we shall live with him too.

8. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.

9. We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and will never die again. Death has no power over him any more.

9. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

10. For by dying, he is dead to sin once and for all, and now the life that he lives is life with God.

10. The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

11. In the same way, you must see yourselves as being dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.

11. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12. That is why you must not allow sin to reign over your mortal bodies and make you obey their desires;

12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.

13. or give any parts of your bodies over to sin to be used as instruments of evil. Instead, give yourselves to God, as people brought to life from the dead, and give every part of your bodies to God to be instruments of uprightness;

13. Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.

14. and then sin will no longer have any power over you -- you are living not under law, but under grace.

14. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

15. What is the implication? That we are free to sin, now that we are not under law but under grace? Out of the question!

15. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

16. You know well that if you undertake to be somebody's slave and obey him, you are the slave of him you obey: you can be the slave either of sin which leads to death, or of obedience which leads to saving justice.

16. Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one 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?

17. Once you were slaves of sin, but thank God you have given whole-hearted obedience to the pattern of teaching to which you were introduced;

17. But 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,

18. and so, being freed from serving sin, you took uprightness as your master.

18. and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

19. I am putting it in human terms because you are still weak human beings: as once you surrendered yourselves as servants to immorality and to a lawlessness which results in more lawlessness, now you have to surrender yourselves to uprightness which is to result in sanctification.

19. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.

20. When you were the servants of sin, you felt no obligation to uprightness,

20. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

21. and what did you gain from living like that? Experiences of which you are now ashamed, for that sort of behaviour ends in death.

21. But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.

22. But, now you are set free from sin and bound to the service of God, your gain will be sanctification and the end will be eternal life.

22. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.

23. For the wage paid by sin is death; the gift freely given by God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

23. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.