Romans 6

Buried and Raised with Christ

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

2By no means! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

3Or do you not know 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, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

5For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

6knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

7For the one who has died has been justified from sin.

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

9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has dominion over him.

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

11So also consider yourselves to be 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,

13and do not present your members as weapons of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as weapons of righteousness to God.

14For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

16Do you not know that to whatever you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether of sin, leading to death, or of obedience, leading to righteousness?

17But thanks be to God that, though you were slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart the pattern of teaching to which you were handed over,

18and having been set free from sin, you were enslaved to righteousness.

19I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.

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

21What fruit then did you have at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

22But now, having been set free from sin and enslaved to God, you have your fruit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.

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

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Cross-references in this chapter

Where this passage connects across Scripture — each link typed and reasoned, part of the AIT Bible Nexus Chart.

Buried and Raised with Christ

• parallel Colossians 2:12 — Both describe being buried with Christ through baptism and raised with him.
• parallel Colossians 2:8 — Both describe being buried with Christ in baptism and raised to new life through God's power.
• parallel Galatians 3:27 — Both describe believers being baptized into Christ as identification with him.
• parallel Galatians 3:23 — Both describe being baptized into Christ as the basis of new identity.
• parallel Hebrews 9:28 — Both describe Christ's death for sin as happening once for all.
• parallel Hebrews 7:27 — Shared distinctive language of Christ's once-for-all death regarding sin.
• echoed in 2 Timothy 2:8 — Both express the pattern of dying with Christ in order to also live with him.
• thematic 2 Corinthians 5:17 — Both develop the theme of walking in newness of life as a new creation.
• thematic Ephesians 4:22 — Both use the image of putting off the old self so as no longer to be enslaved to sin.
• thematic Ephesians 2:1 — Shared motif of being made alive/raised together with Christ from death.
• thematic Galatians 2:15 — Being crucified with Christ and dying to the old life parallels Paul's teaching on co-crucifixion with Christ.
• thematic Galatians 5:16 — Both speak of the old self/flesh being crucified with Christ.
• thematic Philippians 3:10 — Both link sharing in Christ's death with attaining his resurrection.
• thematic Philippians 3:1 — Being conformed to Christ's death and sharing the power of his resurrection develops the union-with-Christ theme.
• thematic Revelation 1:18 — Both affirm the risen Christ is alive forevermore and no longer subject to death.
• thematic Romans 5:20 — Paul answers the objection raised by his own prior statement that where sin increased grace abounded all the more.
• thematic Romans 12:1 — Both use the language of presenting oneself and one's body to God.
• thematic Romans 7:4 — Both develop believers being released from the law and now under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

• thematic Ezekiel 18:1 — Both state the principle that sin results in death as its penalty.
• thematic Genesis 2:17 — The declaration that the wages of sin is death echoes the primal warning that sin brings death.
• thematic James 1:13 — Both trace sin's culmination in death.
• thematic Leviticus 25:47 — The claim that Israel belongs to God as his servants because he redeemed them anticipates the NT theme of redeemed people as God's servants.
• thematic Romans 6:13 — The exhortation to present one's members as slaves to righteousness restates the earlier call to present members as weapons of righteousness.
• thematic Romans 6:23 — Both declare that the end/wages of sin is death.
• thematic Romans 5:21 — Both contrast death through sin with eternal life through Christ.
• thematic Romans 6:15 — Both declare that the end/wages of sin is death.