Servants of Righteousness

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?" All who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. "We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life."

If we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection. Our old man was crucified with him, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. If we died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him. Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all, and the life he lives, he lives to God.

"Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Do not let sin reign in your mortal body. Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. "For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace."

Should we sin because we are under grace? May it never be! You are servants of whomever you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness. Thanks be to God that you became obedient from the heart to the form of teaching you received. Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness. Now, made free from sin and servants of God, you have fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."