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Romanos 6

ARC · Chapter 6/16

1Que diremos pois? Permaneceremos no peccado, para que a graça abunde?

2De modo nenhum. Nós, que estamos mortos para o peccado, como viveremos ainda n'elle?

3Ou não sabeis que todos quantos fomos baptizados em Jesus Christo fomos baptizados na sua morte?

4De sorte que estamos sepultados com elle pelo baptismo na morte; para que, como Christo resuscitou dos mortos, pela gloria do Pae, assim andemos nós tambem em novidade de vida.

5Porque, se fomos plantados juntamente com elle na similhança da sua morte, tambem o seremos na da sua resurreição:

6Sabendo isto, que o nosso homem velho foi com elle crucificado, para que o corpo do peccado seja desfeito, para que não sirvamos mais ao peccado.

7Porque o que está morto está justificado do peccado.

8Ora, se já morremos com Christo, cremos que tambem com elle viveremos:

9Sabendo que, havendo Christo resuscitado dos mortos, já não morre: a morte não mais terá dominio sobre elle.

10Pois, emquanto a morrer, de uma vez morreu para o peccado, mas, emquanto a viver, vive para Deus.

11Assim tambem vós considerae-vos como mortos para o peccado, mas vivos para Deus em Christo Jesus nosso Senhor.

12Não reine portanto o peccado em vosso corpo mortal, para lhe obedecerdes em suas concupiscencias;

13Nem tão pouco apresenteis os vossos membros ao peccado por instrumentos de iniquidade; mas apresentae-vos a Deus, como vivos d'entre mortos, e os vossos membros a Deus, como instrumentos de justiça.

14Porque o peccado não terá dominio sobre vós, pois não estaes debaixo da lei, mas debaixo da graça.

15Pois que? Peccaremos porque não estamos debaixo da lei, mas debaixo da graça? de modo nenhum.

16Não sabeis vós que a quem vos apresentardes por servos para obedecer sois servos d'aquelle a quem obedeceis, ou do peccado para a morte, ou da obediencia para a justiça?

17Porém, graças a Deus que vós fostes servos do peccado, mas obedecestes de coração á forma de doutrina a que fostes entregues.

18E, libertados do peccado, fostes feitos servos da justiça.

19Fallo como homem, pela fraqueza da vossa carne: pois que, assim como apresentastes os vossos membros para servirem á immundicia, e á maldade para maldade, assim apresentae agora os vossos membros para servirem á justiça para sanctificação.

20Porque, quando ereis servos do peccado, estaveis livres da justiça.

21Pois que fructo tinheis então das coisas de que agora vos envergonhaes? porque o fim d'ellas é a morte.

22Mas agora, libertados do peccado, e feitos servos de Deus, tendes o vosso fructo para sanctificação, e por fim a vida eterna.

23Porque o salario do peccado é a morte, mas o dom gratuito de Deus é a vida eterna, por Christo Jesus nosso Senhor.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Paul answers the question of whether we should keep sinning since grace abounds: by no means. He explains that baptism symbolizes dying with Christ to sin and rising to a new life, setting us free to serve God.

Explanation

After explaining grace in chapter 5, Paul anticipates an obvious objection: if grace covers even sin, why not sin more so that grace may abound even more? His answer is firm: whoever died with Christ in baptism cannot go on living as a slave to sin, because that contradicts the new identity received. The central image is a change of 'ownership': we once served sin, now we serve righteousness. It is a practical message about how grace is not a license to live without responsibility, but freedom to live differently.

Fun facts

  • Baptism by immersion, which Paul symbolically describes as 'burial' and 'resurrection,' was the most common practice in the early church, literally reflecting the going down into and coming up out of the water as a symbol of death and new life.
  • The phrase 'the wages of sin is death' uses a Greek term (opsonia) that originally meant the pay given to a Roman soldier — a vivid metaphor for what sin 'pays' those who serve it.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Romanos 6:1Paul takes up more seriously an objection he had already mentioned in passing back in 3:8: if more sin means more grace appears (the end of chapter 5), wouldn’t the logic be to keep sinning on purpose?
  2. Romanos 6:2An immediate, forceful answer to the previous question: it makes no sense for someone who has already “died” to sin to keep living in it, just as someone who was raised would not go back to living like a corpse.
  3. Romanos 6:3Paul explains what he means by “dying to sin”: baptism itself, a ceremony the readers had already experienced, symbolizes being united to Christ’s death, not only to his life.
  4. Romanos 6:4Baptism at that time was by full immersion in water: the person disappeared underwater and then emerged again. Paul uses this physical act as a staged scene — going down is like dying and being buried, coming up is like being raised to a new life.
  5. Romanos 6:5This continues the image of baptism as a symbolic burial: if a person is united to Christ’s death in this way, the logic follows that they will also be united to his resurrection.
  6. Romanos 6:6“Old man” describes the former version of someone, dominated by sin, as opposed to a new version. The image follows the same logic as baptism: one way of living “dies” and another takes its place.
  7. Romanos 6:7This uses courtroom language: death “settles” the debt, like a defendant who has served the sentence and can no longer be charged for the same crime — it’s that settlement Paul applies to whoever has died with Christ.
  8. Romanos 6:8This follows the reasoning from “dying with” to “living with”: the same union with Christ’s death guarantees, in Paul’s view, a future union with his life.
  9. Romanos 6:9This explains why Christ’s resurrection is different from other resurrections recounted in the Bible, like Lazarus’s: he will not die again, because death has lost its dominion over him for good.
  10. Romanos 6:10This sums up Christ’s work in two balanced statements: his death dealt with the problem of sin once for all, and his life now is entirely devoted to God.
  11. Romanos 6:11This applies the logic of the previous verses directly to the reader: since Christ died to sin and lives to God, the believer should reckon themselves to be in that same position.
  12. Romanos 6:12After the theological explanation comes the practical command: don’t let sin go back to ruling the body, dictating the desires a person follows.
  13. Romanos 6:13“Instruments” could also be translated as weapons; the image is of choosing which side of the battle one’s own body will fight for, on behalf of unrighteousness or on behalf of God.
  14. Romanos 6:14“Under” describes being under the authority or dominion of something. Paul contrasts two systems — one in which a person is held to keeping rules, and another in which they receive an undeserved favor — without saying here that the law has stopped being valid, only that it is no longer what has dominion.
  15. Romanos 6:15This repeats almost the same question from the start of the chapter, now tied to the theme from the end of chapter 5, living “under grace” instead of “under the law”: would that be reason to sin more freely? Again, the answer is no.
  16. Romanos 6:16This uses the well-known image of slavery in the Roman world: whoever presents themselves as someone’s servant ends up obeying that someone, whether sin, which leads to death, or obedience, which leads to righteousness.
  17. Romanos 6:17Paul gives thanks for the change that has already taken place in the readers: they were servants of sin, but came to obey from the heart the form of teaching they were handed, probably a reference to the basic instruction given to every new convert.
  18. Romanos 6:18This closes the idea of the previous verse with a change of owner: freed from sin, the readers became, in that same language of slavery, servants of righteousness.
  19. Romanos 6:19“Sanctification” is the process of becoming ever more set apart for a specific purpose, in this case, for living an upright life. Paul uses the image of servitude, being someone’s property, on both sides: formerly a servant of sin, now a servant of righteousness.
  20. Romanos 6:20This shows the ironic side of that earlier “freedom”: while they were servants of sin, the readers were free from any obligation to righteousness — a freedom that, in Paul’s view, was nothing to be proud of.
  21. Romanos 6:21A rhetorical question exposing the empty result of that former life: no good fruit came from the things the readers are now ashamed of, and their final destination was death.
  22. Romanos 6:22This closes the chapter with the final contrast: free from sin and now servants of God, the fruit of this new condition is sanctification in the present and eternal life in the end.
  23. Romanos 6:23“Wages” was the payment a soldier or laborer received for service rendered — the idea is that sin pays exactly what it promises. On the other side, the “free gift” is the opposite of wages: it is not earned by work, it is given freely.

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