12Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13No longer present your members to sin as instrumentsa of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instrumentsb of righteousness. 14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Slaves of Righteousness
15What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, 18and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.c For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
20When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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a Or weapons
b Or weapons
c Gk the weakness of your flesh
6.1–14 Participation in Christ’s death and resurrection overcomes the tyranny of sin and death.
6.1 Using the diatribe style (see 2.1–5), Paul rejects a misunderstanding of 5.20. Continue in sin, i.e., remain within its domain (5.21).
6.2 Died to sin, explained in vv. 5–11. Living in sin means living within its sphere of power (see v. 14).
6.3 Do you not know (see also v. 16; 7.1). Paul appeals to what the Roman Christians already know, that baptism is into Christ Jesus (see also 1 Cor 12.13; Gal 3.27). Here Paul emphasizes that baptism is into his death, because this provides the rationale for vv. 5–14.
6.4 Paul distinguishes present solidarity with Christ’s death from future solidarity with his resurrection (vv. 5, 8); the former makes possible a new moral life now (see 7.6). Walk, i.e., conduct one’s life; see Deut 13.4–5; Isa 33.15.
6.5 If, “since,” expressing not doubt but a fulfilled condition.
6.6 Crucified with him, the only explicit reference to Jesus’ cross in Romans. Body of sin. Body probably means the actual self (as in 12.1), which is enslaved to sin.
6.7 This principle, together with v. 9, is essential for Paul’s argument.
6.10 He died to sin. In death the power of sin was terminated; see v. 7; cf. 7.1–6. Once for all, once for all time. See Heb 7.27; 9.26–28.
6.12–14 The first explicit exhortation in the Letter shows that baptism entails a new moral life.
6.13 Instruments, or weapons (see text note a). Like philosophers of his day, Paul often describes the moral life as a military or athletic struggle; see 13.12; 2 Cor 6.7; 10.4; also Eph 6.11–17.
6.14 Everyone is under some dominion, either that of sin (see v. 6), death (see v. 9), and law (see 7.6; note on 7.1–6), or that of grace (see also 6.16). Paul analyzes under law in 7.7–24. For Paul, there is no autonomous self.
6.15–23 Again Paul uses the diatribe style to reject a wrong inference, now from v. 14.
6.16 If, when.
6.17 The form of teaching, probably the gospel tradition. The readers were entrusted to it, i.e., put in its charge, not vice versa (cf. 1 Tim 6.20).
6.18 Slaves of righteousness, i.e., under the dominion of God’s rectifying power. See v. 22.
6.19 In human terms. Paul acknowledges that his language is unusual (see text note b). Impurity, lit. “uncleanness.” The language implies that Paul has gentile Christians in view. Sanctification, the process of making life holy, i.e., rightly aligned with God’s will. See 12.1–2; also 1 Thess 4.3–7; 5.23.
6.20 Free in regard to righteousness, i.e., unable to “obey” righteousness. See vv. 16, 18.
6.22 Enslaved to God. See v. 18.
6.23 That death (both as the termination of life and as the tyrannous power during life) is the consequence of sin has been a theme since 5.12.
Romans 7
An Analogy from Marriage
1Do you not know, brothers and sistersa—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime? 2Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. 3Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.
4In the same way, my friends,b you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.
The Law and Sin
7What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. 9I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived 10and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
13Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
The Inner Conflict
14For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.c 15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.
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a Gk brothers
b Gk brothers
c Gk sold under sin
7.1–6 Also freedom from the law, seen as a power to which one is subject as one is to sin and death, comes through death (cf. 6.7–11). The argument is obscured, however, because in the illustration (vv. 1–3) the husband’s death frees the wife, but in the application (vv. 4–6) it is the death of the wife (the believers who died with Christ in baptism; cf. 6.8) that is the point.
7.1–2 Is binding, lit. “lords it
over,” as do death (6.9) and sin (6.14), where the same verb is used. Accordingly a married woman, lit. “one under a man” (used also in the Greek of Prov 6.24; Sir 9.9, and in non-biblical texts) is subject to her husband while he lives. Concerned with the effect of death, Paul ignores divorce; cf. 1 Cor 7.10–15.
7.4 My friends, lit. my brothers (see text note c on p. 1918). Paul never calls Christians his “friends,” a common self-designation in certain philosophical schools. Died to the law. See also 6.14; cf. 6.10. The body of Christ, Christ’s crucified body, not the church (cf. 12.5). Another, the resurrected Christ. Bear fruit for God, i.e., produce moral results. See 6.4, 13, 19; see also Col 1.10.
7.5 Like sin, law, and death, flesh is a controlling domain in which one lives (see v. 14; 8.4, 12); the term emphasizes weakness and corruptibility. How passions are aroused by the law is shown in vv. 7–25.
7.6 This verse restates the nature of Christian existence (see 6.4, 7, 11, 12–14, 17, 19). Discharged from the law reformulates 7.2; dead to…captive paraphrases 6.11. New life of the Spirit, lit. “in newness of Spirit,” alludes to 6.4 and anticipates ch. 8.
7.7–13 Again Paul uses diatribe to reject the wrong inference from v. 6; the problem is not the law itself but its inability to curb sin; in fact, sin actually uses the law to provoke what it forbids.
7.7 I, probably stylistic rather than autobiographical (see Phil 3.4–6), a reference to the individual in the Adamic state (5.12–21). Known sin. See 3.20. Covet, lit. “desire.” See Ex 20.17; Deut 5.21.
7.10 I died. See 6.23; see also 5.12–14.
7.11 Deceived, i.e., caused one to think law more powerful than sin.
7.13 The power of sin is so heinous because it works even through what is good.
7.14–25 Why one cannot do the good that the law commands and that one intends to do.
7.14 Flesh, the physical self when, as the source of passions (e.g., covetousness; see v. 8), it becomes a dominant factor (see note on 7.5). The change to present tense suggests to some that Paul is now describing his Christian experience, but the words sold into slavery under sin make this unlikely (cf. 6.6, 11, 14, 17). Rather, Paul is expressing the frustration of the person defined by Adam (5.12–21).
7.17 Sin is a malign power residing in the self. There is no significant difference between “living in sin” (see note on 6.2) and sin residing in the self.
7.18 Nothing good dwells within me, lit. “the good does not dwell within me.”
7.21 Paul calls the experience of being unable to do the good one desires a law because it is unavoidable.
7.22 Inmost self, the mind or heart, the seat of the will.
7.23 The inevitability of sin makes it another law. The self is not an achiever of the good but a captive (victim) of the inevitability (law) of sin. Paul uses the Jewish concept of “the evil impulse,” which, implanted in the self along with “the good impulse,” generates perpetual inner struggle; see Dead Sea Scrolls Rule of the Community (1QS) 3.13–4.26. For Paul, the law does not help one master the evil impulse but is itself thoroughly qualified by it.
7.24 This body of death, the self, thoroughly qualified by and destined for death (see 6.16, 21, 23; cf. 6.9).
7.25 With my mind…with my flesh sums up the human condition. Some think this sentence either originally came before thanks be to God or was added by a copyist.
Romans 8
Life in the Spirit
1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.2For the law of the Spiritm of life in Christ Jesus has set youn free from the law of sin and of death. 3For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin,o he condemned sin in the flesh, 4so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.p 5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spiritq set their minds on the things of the Spirit.r 6To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirits is life and peace. 7For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, 8and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit,t since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spiritu is life because of righteousness. 11If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christv from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also throughw his Spirit that dwells in you.
12So then, brothers and sisters,a we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—13for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba!b Father!” 16it is that very Spirit bearing witnessc with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
Future Glory
18I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For ind hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopese for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedesf with sighs too deep for words. 27And God,g who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirith intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.i
28We know that all things work together for goodj for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.k 30And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
God’s Love in Christ Jesus
31What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.l 35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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a Gk brothers
b Aramaic for Father
c Or 15a spirit of adoption, by which we cry, “Abba!
Father!” 16The Spirit itself bears witness
d Or by
e Other ancient authorities read awaits
f Other ancient authorities add for us
g Gk the one
h Gk he or it
i Gk according to God
j Other ancient authorities read God makes all things work together for good, or in all things God works for good
k Gk among many brothers
l Or Is it Christ Jesus…for us?
m Or spirit
n Here the Greek word you is singular number; other ancient authorities read me or us
o Or and as a sin offering
p Or spirit
q Or spirit
r Or spirit
s Or spirit
t Or spirit
u Or spirit
v Other ancient authorities read the Christ or Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ
w Other ancient authorities read on account of
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