₁What shall we say, then? Should we continue to live in sin so that God's grace will increase? ₂Certainly not! We have died to sin — how then can we go on living in it? ₃For surely you know that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, we were baptized into union with his death. ₄By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life.

₅For since we have become one with him in dying as he did, in the same way we shall be one with him by being raised to life as he was. ₆And we know that our old being has been put to death with Christ on his cross, in order that the power of the sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin. ₇For when people die, they are set free from the power of sin. ₈Since we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ₉For we know that Christ has been raised from death and will never die again — death will no longer rule over him. ₁₀And so, because he died, sin has no power over him; and now he lives his life in fellowship with God. ₁₁In the same way you are to think of yourselves as dead, so far as sin is concerned, but living in fellowship with God through Christ Jesus.