1WHAT shall we then say? Shall we con tinue in sin, that grace may abound? 2Far be it. How shall we who are dead to sin, continue to live in it? 3Do you not know, that those of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ have been baptized into his death? 4Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death: so that as Jesus Christ arose from the dead by the glory of his Father, even so we also shall walk in a new life. 5For if we have been planted together with him in the likeness of his death, so shall we be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6For we know, that our old selves are crucified with him, so that the sinful body might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7For he that is dead is freed from sin.

8Now if we are dead with Christ, let us believe that we shall also live with Christ: 9We know that Christ rose from the dead, and dies no more; and that death has no more dominion over him. 10For in dying he died once to sin: and in living he lives to God. 11Likewise, you also must consider yourself as being dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our LORD.

12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13Neither should you yield your members as instruments of iniquity to sin: but yield yourselves to God, just as if you were men who had risen from among the dead, and let your members be instruments of righteousness to God. 14Sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are no longer under the law, but under grace.

15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? Far be it. 16Do you not know, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are, for you obey him, whether it be to sin or whether it be of obedience to righteousness? 17But thank God that you, who were once the servants of sin, now obey from the heart that form of doctrine which has been delivered to you. 18Now, being made free from sin, you become the servants of righteousness. 19I speak after the manner of men because of the weakness of your flesh: for as you have yielded your members to the servitude of uncleanness and iniquity, so now yield your members to the servitude of righteousness and holiness.

20For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. 21What kind of fruit did you have then, in the things of which you are now ashamed? for the end thereof is death. 22But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, your fruits are holy, and the end thereof is life everlasting. 23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through our LORD Jesus Christ.