The Christian must die to sin and live to God.

¹ So what shall we say? Should we remain in sin, so that grace may abound?

² Let it not be so! For how can we who have died to sin still live in sin?

³ Do you not know that those of us who have been baptized in Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?

⁴ For through baptism we have been buried with him into death, so that, in the manner that Christ rose from the dead, by the glory of the Father, so may we also walk in the newness of life.

⁵ For if we have been planted together, in the likeness of his death, so shall we also be, in the likeness of his resurrection.

⁶ For we know this: that our former selves have been crucified together with him, so that the body which is of sin may be destroyed, and moreover, so that we may no longer serve sin.¹

1. 6:6Old man--body of sin: Our corrupt state, subject to sin and concupiscence, coming to us from Adam, is called our old man, as our state, reformed in and by Christ, is called the new man. And the vices and sins, which then ruled in us are named the body of sin.(Challoner)

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

⁸ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with Christ.

⁹ For we know that Christ, in rising up from the dead, can no longer die: death no longer has dominion over him.

¹⁰ For in as much as he died for sin, he died once. But in as much as he lives, he lives for God.

¹¹ And so, you should consider yourselves to be certainly dead to sin, and to be living for God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹² Therefore, let not sin reign in your mortal body, such that you would obey its desires.

¹³ Nor should you offer the parts of your body as instruments of iniquity for sin. Instead, offer yourselves to God, as if you were living after death, and offer the parts of your body as instruments of justice for God.

¹⁴ For sin should not have dominion over you. For you are not under the law, but under grace.¹

1. 6:14Enim is used so frequently in these ancient texts partly because ancient writing had no spaces between words and no difference between capital and small letters, and no punctuation. So certain words have the function of punctuation.(Conte)

¹⁵ What is next? Should we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? Let it not be so!

¹⁶ Do you not know to whom you are offering yourselves as servants under obedience? You are the servants of whomever you obey: whether of sin, unto death, or of obedience, unto justice.

¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be the servants of sin, now you have been obedient from the heart to the very form of the doctrine into which you have been received.¹

1. 6:17The Latin verb ‘traditi estis’ calls to mind the English word ‘tradition’ (or Tradition), but this is lost in translation.(Conte)

¹⁸ And having been freed from sin, we have become servants of justice.

¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because of the infirmity of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of your body to serve impurity and iniquity, for the sake of iniquity, so also have you now yielded the parts of your body to serve justice, for the sake of sanctification.

²⁰ For though you were once the servants of sin, you have become the children of justice.

²¹ But what fruit did you hold at that time, in those things about which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

²² Yet truly, having been freed now from sin, and having been made servants of God, you hold your fruit in sanctification, and truly its end is eternal life.

²³ For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.¹

1. 6:23The translation ‘free gift’ fits the context better than ‘grace,’ because this is a comparison with ‘wages’.(Conte)