ROMANS 6:12 Do not let {your old sin nature} control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve {your old sin nature}. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 {Your old sin nature} is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. 15 Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! 16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living. 19 Because of the weakness of your human I{misunderstading}, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin{-ful acts}. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. 20 When you were slaves to {your old sin nature}, you were free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now you are free from the power of {your old sin nature} and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in {living out Jesus’} eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin {not believing God} is death {separation from living His Life}, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. new living translation
* the italicized parts are Rob’s paraphrasings to aid in understanding the meaning of the text
