Romans 6

So what should we say then? Should we keep on sinning so that God's grace will increase?

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

Note"Grace" translates a Greek word for a favor freely given to someone who has no claim on it. In ordinary Greek it covered a wealthy patron's generosity toward a dependent, and it carries no idea of payment or earning.

2Absolutely not. We died to sin. So how can we go on living in it?

2God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Note"God forbid" translates a Greek phrase that does not mention God at all. Literally it is "may it not be," the strongest way that language had of throwing out a suggestion. Paul uses it repeatedly in Romans to reject a conclusion someone might draw from what he has just said.

3Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

3Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

NoteThe Greek verb behind "baptize" means to dip or plunge, and baptism in the first century normally meant going down into water and coming back up. That physical picture is what verse 4 builds on. "Baptized into" someone uses the language of ownership and allegiance: to be baptized into a name was to be transferred into that person's possession.

4So through baptism we were buried with him into death. This happened so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too can live a new kind of life.

4Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Note"Walk" is a standard idiom in both Jewish and Greek writing for the whole conduct of a life, the way a person goes about living. It is not about physical walking.

5If we have been joined to him in a death like his, we will certainly also be joined to him in a resurrection like his.

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

NoteThe King James "planted together" no longer says what the Greek says. The word means grown together, fused, the way a graft knits into a tree. The grammar is also compressed, and can be read either as united with him in a death like his or as united with the very likeness of his death; translators differ.

6We know this: our old self was nailed to the cross with him, so that the body ruled by sin would lose its power, and we would no longer be slaves of sin.

6Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Note"Our old man" means the former self, the person you used to be; "man" here is not about being male. Crucifixion was a real Roman public execution, used on slaves, rebels and non-citizens, designed to be slow and humiliating. Paul's first readers heard a punishment they had seen, not a figure of speech.

7Anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

7For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Note"Freed" here translates a verb that everywhere else in Romans is rendered "justified" or "acquitted," a courtroom word. Paul appears to be quoting a legal commonplace of his day: once a person is dead, claims and charges against him can go no further.

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

8Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

9We know that Christ, once raised from the dead, cannot die again. Death no longer has any power over him.

9Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

10The death he died, he died to sin once and for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God.

10For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

Note"Once" in 1611 English here means once for all time, not "formerly" or "on one occasion among others."

11In the same way, count yourselves as truly dead to sin but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

11Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Note"Reckon" is a bookkeeping word: to enter an amount in an account and treat it as settled. The request is to count something as a fact on the books, not to work up a feeling about it.

12So do not let sin rule like a king in your body, which will one day die. Do not obey the body's cravings.

12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

Note"Lusts" in 1611 English meant strong desires of any kind. The word had not yet narrowed to sexual desire.

13Do not hand over any part of your body to sin, to be used as a tool for doing wrong. Instead, hand yourselves over to God, as people brought from death to life. Give every part of your body to God as a tool for doing right.

13Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Note"Members" means the parts of the body: hands, eyes, tongue, feet. "Instruments" translates a Greek word that most often means weapons or military gear, so the picture is of body parts handed over as armaments to one side or the other in a war.

14Sin will not be your master, because you are not under the law but under grace.

14For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Note"The law" means the law of Moses, the body of commandments in the Jewish scriptures that governed Israel's worship and daily life.

15What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not.

15What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

16Don't you know that when you hand yourself over to someone as a slave who obeys, you are the slave of the one you obey? You are either a slave of sin, which leads to death, or a slave of obedience, which leads to being right with God.

16Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

NoteThe King James "servants" is too mild. The Greek word is doulos, a slave: in the Roman world, a person who was legally the property of an owner and owed that one owner absolute obedience. Slavery was everywhere in the cities Paul wrote to, and people did sometimes hand themselves into it to settle debts, which is the transaction this verse pictures.

17But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart the pattern of teaching that was handed on to you.

17But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Note"Form" translates a word for a mold or stamp, the shape that presses itself onto whatever is put into it. "Doctrine" simply means teaching. "Delivered" is the ordinary technical term for handing on a fixed body of instruction intact from teacher to student.

18Having been set free from sin, you became slaves of doing what is right.

18Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

Note"Righteousness" stands for a single Greek word that covers both being in the right, as in a verdict, and doing what is right, as in conduct. English has no one word for both, so translations shift between the two senses.

19I am using an everyday human picture because your human nature is weak. You once gave the parts of your body as slaves to impurity and to wrongdoing that only led to more wrongdoing. Now, in the same way, give them as slaves to doing right, which leads to holiness, a life set apart for God.

19I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

Note"I speak after the manner of men" is Paul flagging that the slave and master picture is an everyday analogy, not an exact description. "Flesh" here means human nature in its weakness and limits rather than the physical body on its own. "Holiness" translates a word group meaning set apart for a god's use; it was applied to objects, buildings and people dedicated to a temple and withdrawn from ordinary use.

20When you were slaves of sin, you were free from any duty to do what is right.

20For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

21What good did you get back then from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things end in death.

21What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

Note"Fruit" is farming language: the yield a field or vine hands back at harvest. It was used generally for profit or return on something. "The end" means the outcome a thing finally arrives at, not simply the point where it stops.

22But now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God. What you get from this leads to holiness, and the end of it is eternal life.

22But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

23The wages that sin pays is death. But God's free gift is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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

Note"Wages" translates a word for a soldier's pay, the regular allowance of money and rations issued to a man in service. It is what you are owed for work done. Against it Paul sets "gift," a word built on the same root as "grace" in verse 1, meaning something handed over freely that was never earned.