Roma 6:1-23

The Believer’s Freedom from Sin’s Domination

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 6:2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 6:3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. ¹ 

6:5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection. ²  6:6 We know that ³  our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, ⁴  so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 6:7 (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.) ⁵ 

6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 6:9 We know ⁶  that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die ⁷  again; death no longer has mastery over him. 6:10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 6:11 So you too consider yourselves ⁸  dead to sin, but ⁹  alive to God in Christ Jesus.

6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, 6:13 and do not present your members to sin as instruments ¹⁰  to be used for unrighteousness, ¹¹  but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments ¹²  to be used for righteousness. 6:14 For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

The Believer’s Enslavement to God’s Righteousness

6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! 6:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves ¹³  as obedient slaves, ¹⁴  you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? ¹⁵  6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed ¹⁶  from the heart that pattern ¹⁷  of teaching you were entrusted to, 6:18 and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 6:19 (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) ¹⁸  For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.

6:21 So what benefit ¹⁹  did you then reap ²⁰  from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 6:22 But now, freed ²¹  from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit ²²  leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. 6:23 For the payoff ²³  of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Roma 8:1-16

The Believer’s Relationship to the Holy Spirit

8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ²⁴  8:2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit ²⁵  in Christ Jesus has set you ²⁶  free from the law of sin and death. 8:3 For God achieved what the law could not do because ²⁷  it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 8:4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

8:5 For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by ²⁸  the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. 8:6 For the outlook ²⁹  of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, 8:7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 8:8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 8:9 You, however, are not in ³⁰  the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. 8:10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but ³¹  the Spirit is your life ³²  because of righteousness. 8:11 Moreover if the Spirit of the one ³³  who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ ³⁴  from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you. ³⁵ 

8:12 So then, ³⁶  brothers and sisters, ³⁷  we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh 8:13 (for if you live according to the flesh, you will ³⁸  die), ³⁹  but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. 8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are ⁴⁰  the sons of God. 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, ⁴¹  but you received the Spirit of adoption, ⁴²  by whom ⁴³  we cry, “Abba, Father.” 8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness to ⁴⁴  our spirit that we are God’s children.

[6:4]  ¹ tn Grk “may walk in newness of life,” in which ζωῆς (zwhs) functions as an attributed genitive (see ExSyn 89-90, where this verse is given as a prime example).

[6:5]  ² tn Grk “we will certainly also of his resurrection.”

[6:6]  ³ tn Grk “knowing this, that.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[6:6]  ⁴ tn Grk “may be rendered ineffective, inoperative,” or possibly “may be destroyed.” The term καταργέω (katargew) has various nuances. In Rom 7:2 the wife whose husband has died is freed from the law (i.e., the law of marriage no longer has any power over her, in spite of what she may feel). A similar point seems to be made here (note v. 7).

[6:7]  ⁵ sn Verse 7 forms something of a parenthetical comment in Paul’s argument.

[6:9]  ⁶ tn Grk “knowing.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[6:9]  ⁷ tn The present tense here has been translated as a futuristic present (see ExSyn 536, where this verse is listed as an example).

[6:11]  ⁸ tc ‡ Some Alexandrian and Byzantine mss (Ì^94vid א* B C 81 365 1506 1739 1881 pc) have the infinitive “to be” (εἶναι, einai) following “yourselves”. The infinitive is lacking from some mss of the Alexandrian and Western texttypes (Ì^46vid A D*^,c F G 33^vid pc). The infinitive is found elsewhere in the majority of Byzantine mss, suggesting a scribal tendency toward clarification. The lack of infinitive best explains the rise of the other readings. The meaning of the passage is not significantly altered by inclusion or omission, but on internal grounds omission is more likely. NA²⁷ includes the infinitive in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.

[6:11]  ⁹ tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.

[6:13]  ¹⁰ tn Or “weapons, tools.”

[6:13]  ¹¹ tn Or “wickedness, injustice.”

[6:13]  ¹² tn Or “weapons, tools.”

[6:16]  ¹³ tn Grk “to whom you present yourselves.”

[6:16]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “as slaves for obedience.” See the note on the word “slave” in 1:1.

[6:16]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “either of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness.”

[6:17]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “you were slaves of sin but you obeyed.”

[6:17]  ¹⁷ tn Or “type, form.”

[6:19]  ¹⁸ tn Or “because of your natural limitations” (NRSV).

[6:19]  sn Verse 19 forms something of a parenthetical comment in Paul’s argument.

[6:21]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “fruit.”

[6:21]  ²⁰ tn Grk “have,” in a tense emphasizing their customary condition in the past.

[6:22]  ²¹ tn The two aorist participles translated “freed” and “enslaved” are causal in force; their full force is something like “But now, since you have become freed from sin and since you have become enslaved to God….”

[6:22]  ²² tn Grk “fruit.”

[6:23]  ²³ tn A figurative extension of ὀψώνιον (oywnion), which refers to a soldier’s pay or wages. Here it refers to the end result of an activity, seen as something one receives back in return. In this case the activity is sin, and the translation “payoff” captures this thought. See also L&N 89.42.

[8:1]  ²⁴ tc The earliest and best witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texts, as well as a few others (א* B D* F G 6 1506 1739 1881 pc co), have no additional words for v. 1. Later scribes (A D¹ Ψ 81 365 629 pc vg) added the words μὴ κατὰ σάρκα περιπατοῦσιν (mh kata sarka peripatousin, “who do not walk according to the flesh”), while even later ones (א² D² 33^vid Ï) added ἀλλὰ κατὰ πνεῦμα (alla kata pneuma, “but [who do walk] according to the Spirit”). Both the external evidence and the internal evidence are compelling for the shortest reading. The scribes were evidently motivated to add such qualifications (interpolated from v. 4) to insulate Paul’s gospel from charges that it was characterized too much by grace. The KJV follows the longest reading found in Ï.

[8:2]  ²⁵ tn Grk “for the law of the Spirit of life.”

[8:2]  ²⁶ tc Most mss read the first person singular pronoun με (me) here (A D 1739^c 1881 Ï lat sa). The second person singular pronoun σε (se) is superior because of external support (א B {F which reads σαι} G 1506* 1739*) and internal support (it is the harder reading since ch. 7 was narrated in the first person). At the same time, it could have arisen via dittography from the final syllable of the verb preceding it (ἠλευθέρωσεν, hleuqerwsen; “has set free”). But for this to happen in such early and diverse witnesses is unlikely, especially as it depends on various scribes repeatedly overlooking either the nu or the nu-bar at the end of the verb.

[8:3]  ²⁷ tn Grk “in that.”

[8:5]  ²⁸ tn Grk “think on” or “are intent on” (twice in this verse). What is in view here is not primarily preoccupation, however, but worldview. Translations like “set their mind on” could be misunderstood by the typical English reader to refer exclusively to preoccupation.

[8:6]  ²⁹ tn Or “mindset,” “way of thinking” (twice in this verse and once in v. 7). The Greek term φρόνημα does not refer to one’s mind, but to one’s outlook or mindset.

[8:9]  ³⁰ tn Or “are not controlled by the flesh but by the Spirit.”

[8:10]  ³¹ tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.

[8:10]  ³² tn Or “life-giving.” Grk “the Spirit is life.”

[8:11]  ³³ sn The one who raised Jesus from the dead refers to God (also in the following clause).

[8:11]  ³⁴ tc Several mss read ᾿Ιησοῦν (Ihsoun, “Jesus”) after Χριστόν (Criston, “Christ”; א* A D* 630 1506 1739 1881 pc bo); C 81 104 lat have ᾿Ιησοῦν Χριστόν. The shorter reading is more likely to be original, though, both because of external evidence (א² B D² F G Ψ 33 Ï sa) and internal evidence (scribes were much more likely to add the name “Jesus” if it were lacking than to remove it if it were already present in the text, especially to harmonize with the earlier mention of Jesus in the verse).

[8:11]  ³⁵ tc Most mss (B D F G Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï lat) have διά (dia) followed by the accusative: “because of his Spirit who lives in you.” The genitive “through his Spirit” is supported by א A C⁽*⁾ 81 104 1505 1506 al, and is slightly preferred.

[8:12]  ³⁶ tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.

[8:12]  ³⁷ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[8:13]  ³⁸ tn Grk “are about to, are certainly going to.”

[8:13]  ³⁹ sn This remark is parenthetical to Paul’s argument.

[8:14]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God, these are.”

[8:15]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “slavery again to fear.”

[8:15]  ⁴² tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).”

[8:15]  ⁴³ tn Or “in that.”

[8:16]  ⁴⁴ tn Or possibly “with.” ExSyn 160-61, however, notes the following: “At issue, grammatically, is whether the Spirit testifies alongside of our spirit (dat. of association), or whether he testifies to our spirit (indirect object) that we are God’s children. If the former, the one receiving this testimony is unstated (is it God? or believers?). If the latter, the believer receives the testimony and hence is assured of salvation via the inner witness of the Spirit. The first view has the advantage of a σύν- (sun-) prefixed verb, which might be expected to take an accompanying dat. of association (and is supported by NEB, JB, etc.). But there are three reasons why πνεύματι (pneumati) should not be taken as association: (1) Grammatically, a dat. with a σύν- prefixed verb does not necessarily indicate association. This, of course, does not preclude such here, but this fact at least opens up the alternatives in this text. (2) Lexically, though συμμαρτυρέω (summarturew) originally bore an associative idea, it developed in the direction of merely intensifying μαρτυρέω (marturew). This is surely the case in the only other NT text with a dat. (Rom 9:1). (3) Contextually, a dat. of association does not seem to support Paul’s argument: ‘What standing has our spirit in this matter? Of itself it surely has no right at all to testify to our being sons of God’ [C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:403]. In sum, Rom 8:16 seems to be secure as a text in which the believer’s assurance of salvation is based on the inner witness of the Spirit. The implications of this for one’s soteriology are profound: The objective data, as helpful as they are, cannot by themselves provide assurance of salvation; the believer also needs (and receives) an existential, ongoing encounter with God’s Spirit in order to gain that familial comfort.”