Romans 6

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

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

For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;

knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

For he who has died has been freed from sin.

But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,

knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him!

For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

But thanks be to God that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered.

Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh; for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.

For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.

What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life.

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

Chapter overviewAI-generated

Overview.
This chapter addresses the relationship between grace and holiness, responding to the concern that the doctrine of justification by grace might encourage moral laxity. Paul insists that those justified by union with Christ are no longer bound to sin’s power because they have died to sin and been raised to new life through participation in Christ’s death and resurrection, making ongoing sin incompatible with their identity.

Flow.

Paul begins with a rhetorical rejection of the idea that believers should continue in sin to increase grace, grounding his response in the believer’s union with Christ.
He draws on baptism as a sign of union with Christ in death and resurrection, arguing that this union breaks sin’s dominion and obliges the believer to new conduct.
Using the metaphor of slavery, Paul contrasts servitude to sin (leading to death) with servitude to righteousness (leading to sanctification and eternal life).
He concludes with a stark summation: sin leads to death, but God’s gift in Christ leads to eternal life, reinforcing the moral implications of grace.

Connections.
Following chapter 5, which presents Adam and Christ as two representative heads whose actions affect all who are in them, chapter 6 applies the implications of union with Christ to the believer’s moral life. Having been justified (chapter 5) and delivered from sin’s guilt, believers now live under grace, not law, a freedom that is not a license but a call to new obedience. This ethical transformation sets the stage for chapter 7’s reflection on the law’s role in revealing sin, and ultimately for chapter 8’s assurance of life in the Spirit who empowers holiness.

What it teaches.
Believers are united with Christ in His death and resurrection through faith, so that their old self is crucified and the power of sin is broken (WCF 13.1; Rom. 6:6). While sin remains, it no longer reigns, because believers are no longer under the law’s condemnation but under grace (WCF 7.3; Rom. 6:14). This liberation is not freedom to sin but freedom to serve righteousness, yielding the fruit of sanctification and eternal life (WCF 13.2; Rom. 6:22). The believer is thus to mortify sin and actively present themselves to God as those alive from the dead (HC LD 43, Q&A 116; Rom. 6:13).

Apply.
Present your body’s actions each day as instruments of God’s righteousness, not compromise.

AI-generated. Not a substitute for Scripture, your pastor, or the confessions.