New Testament · Letter

Romans 6

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

Baptism is a burial and a resurrection. The old self is drowned; the new self walks in freedom. Sin's contract has been torn up.

Berean Standard Bible BSB KJV

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1What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase?

2Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?

3Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

4We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.

5For if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.

6We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

7For anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.

9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has dominion over Him.

10The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.

11So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.

13Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.

14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not!

16Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness?

17But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed.

18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.

20For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness.

21What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death.

22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life.

23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Understand This

Romans 6, explained

What Romans 6 is saying

Paul addresses the objection that grace encourages sin ('Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?') with a resounding 'By no means!' He argues that baptism unites the believer with Christ's death and resurrection, making continued enslavement to sin a theological impossibility. Using the metaphor of slavery, Paul contends that believers have been transferred from the dominion of sin to the dominion of righteousness, with the contrasting outcomes of death and eternal life.

The background behind it

Baptismal theology in the early church drew on Jewish ritual immersion (mikveh) but infused it with christological meaning. Paul's language of dying and rising with Christ may reflect early baptismal liturgy. The slavery metaphor resonated powerfully in a Roman context where roughly one-third of the population was enslaved and manumission (freedom from slavery) was a well-understood legal process.

Themes running underneath

Paul introduces the concept of participatory union with Christ (syn-Christō)—not merely imitating Christ but being incorporated into his death and resurrection. The 'old self' (palaios anthrōpos) crucified with Christ represents the Adamic identity of chapter 5. The imperative-indicative structure is key: because you have died to sin (indicative), do not let sin reign (imperative). Ethics flows from identity, not the reverse.

Why it still matters

Paul's argument that freedom from sin is not license but liberation redefines the meaning of freedom itself. The question is not whether one will serve—all humans serve something—but whom. True freedom is found in serving the master who leads to life rather than death.

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Scripture text: Berean Standard Bible — used by permission, Bible Hub.