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Scripture • World English Bible
Romans 6:1–14
1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4We 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.
5For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;
6knowing 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.
7For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,
9knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him!
10For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.
11Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13Also, 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.
14For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
World English Bible (WEB) • Public Domain
Reflection
In Romans 6 Paul answers a tempting objection: if God’s grace covers sin, shouldn’t we keep sinning so grace can look bigger? He refuses the idea and then shows why it makes no sense for a follower of Jesus to live the same way as before. When we trust Christ we are joined to his death and resurrection. That joining is pictured in baptism: the old way of life goes under and a new way of life rises up. The point isn’t mere ritual but a living identity change.
Paul explains that the believer’s old self was put to death with Christ so that the power that used to enslave us would be broken. That does not mean we lose our physical bodies or never face temptation again, but it does mean sin no longer has the final say. Because of what Christ has done, you are now to think and live from a new starting point: you belong to God and you’re called to live that reality out in ordinary choices.
This passage gives both a reminder and a command. The reminder: you are not who you once were; your relationship to sin is changed. The command: refuse to let sinful desires rule your thinking and actions, and don’t use the members of your body as tools for wrongdoing. Instead, offer yourself and your abilities to God as instruments that serve righteousness. The emphasis is not self-reliant moralism but a gospel-shaped reorientation: we reckon ourselves in light of Christ’s death and resurrection and then act on that identity by cooperating with God’s transforming grace.
There is helpful tension here: we are simultaneously dead to the old power of sin and still living in a body where temptation remains. Paul’s answer is not to deny the struggle but to give a gospel-shaped stance for the struggle. You won’t fight sin by shame or pretending you’re already flawless. You fight by remembering who you are in Christ, refusing to let sinful impulses govern your actions, and deliberately presenting your life to God for his use.
That is hopeful. Grace doesn’t excuse or excuse-ify sin; grace breaks sin’s rule and trains us to live under God’s authority. The process is not instant perfection but a steady walking in newness of life powered by the risen Savior. As you lean into this truth, small, concrete steps become the ways you live it out: thinking like a new person, refusing the old patterns, and offering your life as an instrument for God’s purposes. The gospel gives both the identity and the power to live differently.
Putting Faith Into Action
- When temptation comes, pause and intentionally remind yourself of your union with Christ; speak a short gospel truth aloud (for example, I belong to God through Christ) and take one immediate step away from the trigger.
- Replace a recurring sinful habit with a specific, gospel-centered practice: remove the physical triggers, replace the time with Scripture reading or serving someone, and track progress with an accountability partner.
- Offer one part of your day or one ability to God as an act of service—use your hands, words, or time as instruments of righteousness by doing a concrete good (call someone who needs encouragement, volunteer, or pray for a person in temptation).
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you that your death and resurrection have set me free from sin’s rule. Help me to live from this new reality, to refuse what once bound me, and to present myself to you as an instrument for good. Give me grace in the struggle and courage to choose you in the small moments. Amen.
Memory Verse
Romans 6:11 — Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (WEB)
“Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Bible Context
Read all of Romans 6
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Bible Context
Read all of Romans 6
Romans 6
World English Bible • WEB
1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4We 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.
5For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;
6knowing 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.
7For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,
9knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him!
10For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.
11Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13Also, 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.
14For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16Don’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?
17But 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.
18Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.
19I 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.
20For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.
21What 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.
22But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life.
23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
World English Bible (WEB) • Public Domain
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