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Romans 6

Paul grounds freedom from sin’s rule in union with Christ and calls believers to serve God under grace.

Paul addresses believers in Rome with a sharp question: does abundant grace give them reason to continue in sin? He points to their baptism into Christ’s death and their share in his risen life. From there, he calls them to offer their bodies to God and uses the language of slavery to describe a change of masters. The chapter closes by contrasting sin’s wages with God’s gift of eternal life in Christ.

temptationguilt and confessionsermon or Bible study notes
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1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4We 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.
5For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;
6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.
7For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,
9knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him!
10For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.
11Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13Also, 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.
14For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
17But thanks be to God that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered.
18Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.
19I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh; for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.
21What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life.
23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Romans 6:4Baptism joins the chapter’s account of burial with Christ to its call for a new way of life.
Romans 6:13Paul brings union with Christ into bodily action, calling believers to offer themselves and their members to God.
Romans 6:23The closing contrast names sin’s outcome as death and eternal life as God’s free gift in Christ.
Where this chapter reaches

Colossians shares the connection between baptism, burial with Christ, and life through his resurrection; Galatians shares the language of being crucified with Christ. John connects service to sin with the need for freedom, while 1 Peter links Christ’s death with leaving sin and living for righteousness.

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After reading the whole chapter

How does Paul’s account of dying and rising with Christ shape your understanding of grace?

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What might presenting your body to God look like in one ordinary part of your day?

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Questions people ask about Romans 6

What does it mean to be dead to sin in Romans 6?

Paul describes believers as united with Christ in his death, with their former self crucified and sin’s mastery broken. His commands to resist sin show that temptation and disobedience remain possible. Being dead to sin means a decisive break with its rule, alongside a call to live for God.

What does Romans 6 say about baptism?

Paul describes baptism as baptism into Christ’s death and burial with him. He connects this with Christ’s resurrection and the believer’s new life. Christians differ over how baptism relates to faith and salvation, but the passage makes union with Christ central to Paul’s argument against continuing in sin.

What does “under grace” mean in Romans 6?

Paul places life under grace within God’s freeing work: sin will no longer have dominion over believers. He rejects the claim that grace permits sin. The verses that follow describe obedience from the heart, service to righteousness, and sanctification, while the closing verse calls eternal life God’s free gift.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).