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Believers Are Dead to Sin, Alive to God

^1 (C1)What shall we say to all this? Should we ^(C2)continue in sin and practice sin as a habit so that God's gift of ^(F1)grace may increase and overflow?^2 (C1)Certainly not! How can we, the very ones who ^(C2)died to sin, continue to live in it any longer?³ Or are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been ^(F1)(C1)baptized into ^(C2)Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?⁴ We have therefore been ^(C1)buried with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was ^(C2)raised from the dead through the ^(C3)glory and power of the Father, we too might walk habitually in ^(C4)newness of life abandoning our old ways.⁵ For ^(C1)if 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 ^(C1)old ^(F1)self our human nature without the Holy Spirit was ^(C2)nailed to the cross with Him, in order that our ^(C3)body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.⁷ For ^(C1)the person who has died with Christ has been freed from the power of sin.

⁸ Now ^(C1)if 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 ^(C1)raised from the dead, will never die again; ^(C2)death 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 ^(C1)dead 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 ^(C1)reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts and passions.¹³ Do not go on ^(C1)offering members of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness. But ^(C2)offer 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 ^(C1)sin will no longer ^(C2)be a master over you, since ^(C3)you are not under Law as slaves, but ^(C4)under unmerited grace as recipients of God's favor and mercy.

¹⁵ What then are we to conclude? ^(C1)Shall we sin because we are not under Law, but under God's grace? ^(C2)Certainly not!¹⁶ Do you not ^(C1)know that when you continually offer yourselves to someone ^(C2)to do his will, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey, either slaves of ^(C3)sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness (right standing with God)?¹⁷ But ^(C1)thank God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient with all your heart to ^(C2)the standard of teaching in which you were instructed and to which you were committed.¹⁸ And having been ^(C1)set free from sin, you have become the slaves of righteousness of conformity to God's will and purpose.^19 (C1)I am speaking in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations your spiritual immaturity. For ^(C2)just 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 ^(F1)sanctification that is, being set apart for God's purpose.

^20 (C1)When 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 ^(C1)benefit did you get at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? None! For the outcome of those things is ^(C2)death!²² But now since you have been ^(C1)set free from sin and have become willing ^(C2)slaves to God, you have your ^(C3)benefit, resulting in sanctification being made holy and set apart for God's purpose, and ^(C4)the outcome of this is eternal life.²³ For the wages of ^(C1)sin is death, but the free gift of God that is, His remarkable, overwhelming gift of grace to believers is ^(C2)eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.