^aWhat shall we say to all this? Should we ^bcontinue in sin and practice sin as a habit so that God’s gift of ¹grace may increase and overflow? 2 ^aCertainly not! How can we, the very ones who ^bdied to sin, continue to live in it any longer? 3 Or are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been ^1abaptized into ^bChrist Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 We have therefore been ^aburied with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was ^braised from the dead through the ^cglory and power of the Father, we too might walk habitually in ^dnewness of life abandoning our old ways. 5 For ^aif we have become one with Him permanently united in the likeness of His death, we will also certainly be one with Him and share fully in the likeness of His resurrection. 6 We know that our ^aold ¹self our human nature without the Holy Spirit was ^bnailed to the cross with Him, in order that our ^cbody of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. 7 For ^athe person who has died with Christ has been freed from the power of sin.

8 Now ^aif we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live together with Him, 9 because we know the self-evident truth that Christ, having been ^araised from the dead, will never die again; ^bdeath no longer has power over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin ending its power and paying the sinner’s debt once and for all; and the life that He lives, He lives to glorify God in unbroken fellowship with Him. 11 Even so, consider yourselves to be ^adead to sin and your relationship to it broken, but alive to God in unbroken fellowship with Him in Christ Jesus.

12 Therefore do not let sin ^areign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts and passions. 13 Do not go on ^aoffering members of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness. But ^boffer yourselves to God in a decisive act as those alive raised from the dead to a new life, and your members all of your abilities—sanctified, set apart as instruments of righteousness yielded to God. 14 For ^asin will no longer ^bbe a master over you, since ^cyou are not under Law as slaves, but ^dunder unmerited grace as recipients of God’s favor and mercy.

15 What then are we to conclude? ^aShall we sin because we are not under Law, but under God’s grace? ^bCertainly not! 16 Do you not ^aknow that when you continually offer yourselves to someone ^bto do his will, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey, either slaves of ^csin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness (right standing with God) ? 17 But ^athank God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient with all your heart to ^bthe standard of teaching in which you were instructed and to which you were committed. 18 And having been ^aset free from sin, you have become the slaves of righteousness of conformity to God’s will and purpose. 19 ^aI am speaking in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations your spiritual immaturity. For ^bjust as you presented your bodily members as slaves to impurity and to moral lawlessness, leading to further lawlessness, so now offer your members your abilities, your talents as slaves to righteousness, leading to ¹sanctification that is, being set apart for God’s purpose.

20 ^aWhen you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness you had no desire to conform to God’s will. 21 So what ^abenefit did you get at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? None! For the outcome of those things is ^bdeath! 22 But now since you have been ^aset free from sin and have become willing ^bslaves to God, you have your ^cbenefit, resulting in sanctification being made holy and set apart for God’s purpose, and ^dthe outcome of this is eternal life. 23 For the wages of ^asin is death, but the free gift of God that is, His remarkable, overwhelming gift of grace to believers is ^beternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.