Romans 6

1So what should we say? Should we keep on sinning so that grace can grow?

2No, never! We died to sin. So how can we go on living in it?

3Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

4So through baptism we were buried with Him into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5For if we have become joined with Him in a death like His, we will also be joined with Him in a resurrection like His.

6We know that our old self was nailed to the cross with Him, so that the body ruled by sin would lose its power, and we would no longer be slaves to sin.

7For anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.

9We know that Christ, who was raised from death, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him.

10The death He died, He died to sin once for all. But the life He lives, He lives to God.

11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12So do not let sin rule in your body, which will die, by obeying its desires.

13Do not give any part of yourself to sin to be used for evil. Instead, give yourselves to God, as people who have been brought from death to life. Give every part of yourself to God to be used for what is right.

14For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

15So what then? Should we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? No, never!

16Do you not know that when you give yourself to someone to obey, you are the slave of the one you obey? You are either a slave to sin, which leads to death, or a slave to obedience, which leads to right living.

17But thanks be to God! You used to be slaves to sin, but you obeyed with all your heart the teaching you were given.

18Now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to right living.

19I am using an everyday example, because you are weak in your human nature. Just as you once gave yourselves to be slaves to impurity and to more and more evil, now give yourselves to be slaves to right living, leading to holiness.

20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from doing what is right.

21What did you gain from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things lead to death!

22But now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God. The good you gain leads to holiness, and the end is eternal life.

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