Romans 6
Romans 6:1-23 (NLT)
1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?
2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?
3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death?
4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.
6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.
7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.
8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.
9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.
10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God.
11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.
13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
15 Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!
16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.
17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you.
18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right.
21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.
22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
There is eternal purpose in presenting this revealed truth of the sin nature’s death and our new nature’s resurrection life with Christ. Though the work of the cross was for us, consideration of this truth is essential to letting its full work be chosen. It’s not enough to have chosen new life regarding our past sins. The choice of new life still needs to be made concerning the opportunities to sin that still present themselves continually. To willfully continue in the sin Jesus gave His life for is to reject and deny the work of grace regarding the present and future power of sin as a slavemaster while choosing resurrection life in Him is choosing to rise in freedom from sin’s clutches and dominance. Jesus didn’t just carry our sins to their death, thus fulfilling the requirements of the law and its condemnation. He rose to new life that is holy and pure. To fully identify with this righteous work, there cannot only be a doing away with the old demands of the law. For any of this to be effective and fruitful in application, the work must be completed in the rising to holiness. The greatest freedom from the law is found in its inability to confine in the chains of sins identity that would prohibit ongoing holiness. In His resurrection, there is a continual opportunity to shed any claims of the law’s death and step forward with choices that have no condemnation either from the law or the heart. By the blood, we’ve been made eternally right from God’s perspective. Just as we had to choose Him to enter into this righteousness, there is yet the need to choose Him to walk in it. The choice of Him will always lead to holiness. As the choice to deny Him would prohibit entrance into eternal life, the choice to deny will still have consequences in sin’s wages. Choosing to deny Him in the choice of adultery will result in broken relationships. Choosing to deny Him in taking the life of someone unjustly will have ramifications in the heart and in a worldly justice system. Denying His direction for life choices will compromise opportunities in His kingdom. The real amazement of grace isn’t in its removal of what is wrong but in its enablement of what is right. The fruit of the Spirit in the choice of Christ’s work is always actions without condemnation, not just denial that anything is wrong. Walking in the righteousness that we’ve been made to be is so much more rewarding than stumbling in the denials of Him that compromise and condemn the heart and its conscience. As it was simple to receive righteousness by choosing Him, there is neverending forgiveness and freedom in holiness by the simple choice of Him in every movement and every thought. He’s promised never to leave. It’s in our following Him in this choice that grace really goes to work as an instructor in righteousness and not just an identifier in it.