Dual PanelBaptism into Christ
1WHAT are we to say, then? Shall we persist in sin, so that there may be all the more grace?
2Certainly not! We died to sin: how can we live in it any longer?
3Have you forgotten that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus we were baptized into his death?
4By that baptism into his death we were buried with him, in order that, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might set out on a new life.
5For if we have become identified with him in his death, we shall also be identified with him in his resurrection.
6We know that our old humanity has been crucified with Christ, for the destruction of the sinful self, so that we may no longer be slaves to sin,
7because death cancels the claims of sin.
8But if we thus died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him,
9knowing as we do that Christ, once raised from the dead, is never to die again: he is no longer under the dominion of death.
10When he died, he died to sin, once for all, and now that he lives, he lives to God.
11In the same way you must regard yourselves as dead to sin and alive to God, in union with Christ Jesus.
12Therefore sin must no longer reign in your mortal body, exacting obedience to the body's desires.
13You must no longer put any part of it at sin's disposal, as an implement for doing wrong. Put yourselves instead at the disposal of God; think of yourselves as raised from death to life, and yield your bodies to God as implements for doing right.
14Sin shall no longer be your master, for you are no longer under law, but under grace.
15What then? Are we to sin, because we are not under law but under grace? Of course not!
16You know well enough that if you bind yourselves to obey a master, you are slaves of the master you obey; and this is true whether the master is sin and the outcome death, or obedience and the outcome righteousness.
17Once you were slaves of sin, but now, thank God, you have yielded wholehearted obedience to that pattern of teaching to which you were made subject;
18emancipated from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness
19(to use language that suits your human weakness). As you once yielded your bodies to the service of impurity and lawlessness, making for moral anarchy, so now you must yield them to the service of righteousness, making for a holy life.
20When you were slaves of sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.
21And what gain did that bring you? Things that now make you ashamed, for their end is death.
22But now, freed from the commands of sin and bound to the service of God, you have gains that lead to holiness, and the end is eternal life.
23For sin pays a wage, and the wage is death, but God gives freely, and his gift is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.