Study Desk

So as one sin of Adam brought the punishment of death to all people, one good act that Christ did makes all people right with God. And that brings true life for all.

Sin once used death to rule us, but God gave people more of his grace so that grace could rule by making people right with him. And this brings life forever through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us even more grace?

No! We died to our old sinful lives, so how can we continue living with sin?

When we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and shared his death. So, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the wonderful power of the Father, we also can live a new life.

Christ died, and we have been joined with him by dying too. So we will also be joined with him by rising from the dead as he did.

We know that our old life died with Christ on the cross so that our sinful selves would have no power over us and we would not be slaves to sin.

So, do not let sin control your life here on earth so that you do what your sinful self wants to do.

So what should we do? Should we sin because we are under grace and not under law? No!

Brothers and sisters, all of you understand the law of Moses. So surely you know that the law rules over people only while they are alive.

In the same way, my brothers and sisters, your old selves died, and you became free from the law through the body of Christ. This happened so that you might belong to someone else—the One who was raised from the dead—and so that we might be used in service to God.

In the past, we were ruled by our sinful selves. The law made us want to do sinful things that controlled our bodies, so the things we did were bringing us death.

In the past, the law held us like prisoners, but our old selves died, and we were made free from the law. So now we serve God in a new way with the Spirit, and not in the old way with written rules.

So the law is holy, and the command is holy and right and good.

Does this mean that something that is good brought death to me? No! Sin used something that is good to bring death to me. This happened so that I could see what sin is really like; the command was used to show that sin is very evil.

So if I do things I do not want to do, then I am not the one doing them. It is sin living in me that does those things.

So I have learned this rule: When I want to do good, evil is there with me.

I thank God for saving me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my mind I am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful self I am a slave to the law of sin.

So now, those who are in Christ Jesus are not judged guilty.

He did this so that we could be the kind of people the law correctly wants us to be. Now we do not live following our sinful selves, but we live following the Spirit.