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“It Was into Union with His Death That We Were Baptized”
1 What, then, shall we say? Should we go on living in sin so that the gift may be lavished even more?
2 Absolutely not! We who died to the power of sin, how can we continue to live in it?
3 Or have you forgotten that, in the case of all of us who were baptized into union with Messiah Jesus, it was into union with his death that we were baptized?
4 Therefore, we were placed in the tomb with him, as it were, through baptism into union with his death, so that just as the Messiah was raised from the dead through the glorious power of the Father, by that same power we would conduct ourselves in newness of life.
5 If we have become so closely united with the Messiah in the likeness of his death, you see, we will certainly be united with him in the likeness, too, of his resurrection,
6 understanding this, that our former nature was crucified with him so that our bodies of sin would have strength to resist sin’s overpowering tenacity and sway, and thus we no longer be slaves to it.
7 The person who has died, you see, has come to be mercifully regarded as righteous to the effect of freedom from the enslaving and tyrannical power of sin.
8 Now if we have died with the Messiah, we have complete confidence that we will also share in his life,
9 because we know that the Messiah, having been raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer holds over him any power and sway.
10 The death he died, you see, he died once and for all in order to break the power of sin. The life he lives, however, he lives continually in united fellowship with God.
11 Accordingly, you, for your part, are to think of yourselves as being dead to the power of sin, on the one hand, but as experiencing new life in fellowship with God through union with Messiah Jesus, on the other.
12 In light of these things, sin must no longer be allowed to hold sway in your mortal bodies, so that you yield to the wicked things it wants you to do.
13 You must not surrender any part of your bodies to the control of sin, so that they end up being wielded as weapons of wickedness, but must offer yourselves to God as sacrifices brought to life from death itself, and surrender each part of your bodies to God’s control, so that he may wield them as weapons of righteousness.
14 Sin, you see, shall not be your master, because you are subject not to Torah, but to the gift.
“You Became Obedient from the Heart to That Pattern of Teaching to Which You Were Entrusted”
15 What, then, are we to conclude? Should we do what is sinful because we are subject not to Torah but to the gift? Absolutely not!
16 Surely you realize, don’t you, that when you surrender yourselves as slaves to obey someone, it is the one you obey of whom you are, in fact, slaves—either of sin, which results in death, or of obedience, which results in righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted,
18 and, having been set free from slavery to sin, became slaves of righteousness.
19 (It is plain, everyday language that I am using here, since this is hard for you to understand.) For just as you at one time surrendered the parts of your bodies as slaves to the control of impurity and wickedness, which resulted in even more wickedness, so now you must surrender them as slaves to the control of righteousness, which results in further holiness.
20 When you were slaves, you see, of sin, you were of righteousness anything but slaves.
21 What kind of harvest, therefore, were you reaping at that time from the wicked things about which you now feel so ashamed? The outcome of those things, after all, is death!
22 Now, however, since you have been freed from the power of sin and have become slaves of God, you are harvesting righteous fruit, resulting in holiness. And the outcome? Life in the age to come!
23 The wages of sin, you see, is death. The gift of God, however, results in life in the coming age, in union with Messiah Jesus our Lord.