Romans 6

¹ What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

² May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

⁴ 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.

⁵ For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;

⁶ 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.

⁷ For he who has died has been freed from sin.

⁸ But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,

⁹ knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him!

¹⁰ For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹ Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹² Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

¹³ 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.

¹⁴ For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

¹⁶ 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?

¹⁷ 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.

¹⁸ Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

¹⁹ 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.

²⁰ For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.

²¹ 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.

²² 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.

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

Around Romans 6

Book context

RomansEditorial draft

Paul writes to believers “in Rome” (1:1, 1:7), a church he had often planned to visit but had not yet reached (1:13), as he prepares to go to Jerusalem to serve the saints (15:25). The letter presents the Good News as “the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek” (1:16 to 17), then turns to how believers live in response to God’s mercy (12:1). Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897) outlines it as an introduction (1:1 to 15), the gospel of righteousness by faith (1:16 to 11:36), practical instruction (12:1 to 15:13) and a conclusion with many personal greetings (15:14 to the end). Easton places it in Corinth in AD 58; Phoebe, commended in 16:1, may have carried it.

Why we say this

HisFullGlory editorial · common interpretation · not yet reviewed by a theological reader

From the text itself

Sources

Notes summarise their sources in our own words. Where Christians or scholars disagree, the note says so. Notes are not original-language evidence and do not replace the text.

AI explanation

Romans 6 · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this chapter says

A question hangs in the air, and grace itself seems to invite it. “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” Paul answers at once: “May it never be!”

His reason is baptism. Those baptized into Christ were baptized into his death, buried with him, so that as Christ was raised, they too might walk in newness of life. Christ dies no more, Paul says, and so believers are to count themselves dead to sin and alive to God. Sin must not reign in the body. They are to present themselves to God as instruments of righteousness.

Then he turns to a picture from daily life. Everyone obeys someone. Once they were servants of sin, and the end of that road was death. Now they are servants of righteousness. The chapter closes on a line in two halves: “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Background

Paul writes to the believers in Rome, a church he hopes to visit, and he answers a worry that his own argument raises: that free grace makes sin cheap. Many scholars date the letter to the middle of the 50s. He says he uses the picture of servants and masters “in human terms” because of his readers’ weakness, so slavery here is an image, not a teaching about it. Christians differ on how baptism relates to dying and rising with Christ, whether as a sign, a means of grace, or both. See Romans 5 and Romans 7.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 16 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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