1   What are we to say, then? Shall we persist in sin, so that there may be all the more grace? 2   No, no! We died to sin: how can we live in it any longer? 3   Have you forgotten that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus we were baptized into his death? 4   By baptism we were buried with him, and lay dead, in order that, as Christ was raised from the dead in the splendour of the Father, so also we might set our feet upon the new path of life.

The Gospel according to Paul

5   For if we have become incorporate with him in a death like his, we shall also be one with him in a resurrection like his. 6   We know that the man we once were has been crucified with Christ, for the destruction of the sinful self, so that we may no longer be the slaves of sin, since a dead man is no longer answerable for his sin. 7    8   But if we thus died with Christ, we believe that we shall also come to life with him. 9   We know that Christ, once raised from the dead, is never to die again: he is no longer under the dominion of death. 10   For in dying as he died, he died to sin, once for all, and in living as he lives, he lives to God. 11   In the same way you must regard yourselves as dead to sin and alive to God, in union with Christ Jesus.

12   So sin must no longer reign in your mortal body, exacting obedience to the body's desires. 13   You must no longer put its several parts at sin's disposal, as implements for doing wrong. No: put yourselves at the disposal of God, as dead men raised to life; yield your bodies to him as implements for doing right; 14   for sin shall no longer be your master, because you are no longer under law, but under the grace of God.

15   What then? Are we to sin, because we are not under law but under grace? 16   Of course not. You know well enough that if you put yourselves at the disposal of a master, to obey him, you are slaves of the master whom you obey; and this is true whether you serve sin, with death as its result; or obedience, with righteousness as its result. 17   But God be thanked, you, who once were slaves of sin, have yielded whole-hearted obedience to the pattern of teaching to which you were made subject, ^note 18   and, emancipated from sin, have 19   become slaves of righteousness (to use words that suit your human weakness)—I mean, as you once yielded your bodies to the service of impurity and lawlessness, making for moral anarchy, so now you must yield them to the service of righteousness, making for a holy life.

20   When you were slaves of sin, you were free from the control of righteousness; and what was the gain? 21   Nothing but what now makes you ashamed, for the end of that is death. 22   But now, freed from the commands of sin, and bound to the service of God, your gains are such as make for holiness, and the end is eternal life. 23   For sin pays a wage, and the wage is death, but God gives freely, and his gift is eternal life, in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Gospel according to Paul

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