6
1 Well then, what are we going to say about all this?
Objection: “Let’s sin away so that grace can overflow!”
Response: 2 “No!”
[Phoebe signals with a gesture that two points will be made.]
1.[i] We all died to sin.
2. So how can we still live in its grip?
1.
3 Do you not understand that those of us who have been baptized into Jesus the Messiah have been immersed into his death? 4 And we have been buried with him, through immersion into that death, so that just as the Messiah was raised from the dead through the action of the shining spirit flowing from the Father, we too can walk in a new life. 5 Since we have been united exactly with his death, we are also united exactly with his resurrection.
6 But understand this as well—that our “old man” has been executed together with him so that the body where sin lives might be neutralized, and so that we in turn might no longer work helplessly for sin.
7 I say this because the one who has died [Jesus] has been released from sin. 8 And since we died within the Messiah, we are convinced that we also live within him, 9 knowing that the Messiah no longer dies since he has been raised from the dead; death no longer rules over him. 10 But the death which he died, he also died to sin once and for all, while the life that he lives he lives to God. 11 So you must understand that you too are, on the one hand, dead to sin, but, on the other hand, living before God within the Messiah Jesus.
2.
12 So don’t let the sin in your corrupt and failing bodies govern you so that you end up submitting to its lusts. 13 And don’t present the different parts of your bodies to sin as weapons of wickedness. But rather, present yourselves to God as those living after death and present the various parts of your bodies to God as weapons on behalf of goodness. 14 Sin is not going to rule over you because you are not governed any longer by the Teachings of Moses but governed by grace.
15 What then are we going to say about all this?
Objection [resumed and restated from v. 1]: “Let’s sin away because we aren’t governed by the Teachings but are governed by grace!”
[Point 2 resumes.]
No! 16 Don’t you understand that you are captives to whoever you sell yourself to, duty bound to obey everything that whoever you sold yourself to commands. And so you can be captives of sin and end up dead or you can be captives of virtue. 17 But thanks be to God that you were captives of sin but submitted on a deep level to the particular type of teaching that was delivered to you. 18 And so, having been liberated from sin, you have made yourselves captives to virtue.
19 Please forgive me for speaking in the following rather gross terms but I need to because of your addiction to your former sordid lives. Just as you used to offer particular parts of your bodies up to whoever wanted to have sex with you in whatever way they wanted, now present every part of your body as captive to virtue and leading to cleanliness. 20 When you had given yourselves over to sin, then, you were “free” from virtue. 21 And what results did you have at that time doing those things that you are now utterly ashamed of? The end result of all that behavior is death. 22 But now, having been liberated from sin, and having given yourselves over to God, you have achieved purity and cleanliness and the ultimate result of an indestructible and permanent life. 23 The wage paid to us by sin for our service is death. But the gift of God given to us within Jesus our Messiah and Lord is eternal life.
[i] Phoebe, in the tradition of ancient speakers and rhetors, might have indicated that a series of points was coming by using the appropriate gestures, in the way that a speaker might “tick off points” on the fingers of their hand. (Ancient rhetors didn’t use that particular gesture but did use a similar one.)