Study Desk

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?^(z) By no means!

Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey^(aa)—whether you are slaves to sin,^(ab) which leads to death,^(ac) or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

But thanks be to God^(ad) that, though you used to be slaves to sin,^(ae) you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching^(af) that has now claimed your allegiance.

You have been set free from sin^(ag) and have become slaves to righteousness.^(ah)

I am using an example from everyday life^(ai) because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness^(aj) leading to holiness.

When you were slaves to sin,^(ak) you were free from the control of righteousness.^(al)

What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!^(am)

But now that you have been set free from sin^(an) and have become slaves of God,^(ao) the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.^(ap)

For the wages of sin is death,^(aq) but the gift of God is eternal life^(ar) in^[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.