Romans · 23 verses

Romans 6

Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

The chapter

What happens here

Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

Freedom arrives here wearing the rather alarming uniform of slavery: one master is left behind, and another is immediately named.

Buried with Christ, alive to Godvv. 1–11

The argument begins by shutting a peculiar door: grace is no excuse for continuing in sin. Baptism is described as burial with Christ, followed by a walk in newness of life. The old self is crucified, the body of sin loses its power, and death no longer rules Christ. The result is a wonderfully crowded condition: dead to sin, alive to God.

The master changesvv. 12–18

Sin is not to reign in the mortal body, nor is the body to be presented as an instrument of wickedness. Yet the chapter refuses to leave freedom empty-handed. Obedience becomes the decisive allegiance: people are slaves to the one they obey, and those once enslaved to sin have become slaves to righteousness. Liberation, it seems, has brought a change of household rather than an abolition of households altogether.

Fruit, outcome, wages, giftvv. 19–23

The language becomes almost agricultural, though the old harvest is one nobody is eager to display: shame, and then death. The new slavery produces holiness and eternal life. At the end, sin pays its wages with grim punctuality, while God gives eternal life as a gift—a small but striking change from payroll to present.

The text

Read it

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

Rom 6:1What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase?
Rom 6:2Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?
Rom 6:3Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Rom 6:4We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5For if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.
Rom 6:6We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.
Rom 6:7For anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Rom 6:8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.
Rom 6:9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has dominion over Him.
Rom 6:10The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.
Rom 6:11So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Rom 6:12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.
Rom 6:13Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.
Rom 6:14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Rom 6:15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not!
Rom 6:16Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness?
Rom 6:17But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed.
Rom 6:18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
Rom 6:19I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
Rom 6:20For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness.
Rom 6:21What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death.
Rom 6:22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life.
Rom 6:23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

01 — Also here

Who else the chapter reaches

Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

Jesusperson

02 — Read alongside

Where this is echoed

Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 441 passages were voted onto 23 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

23 John 3:36Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.”
23 Romans 5:12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.
23 James 1:15Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
4 2 Corinthians 5:17Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!
23 John 6:40For it is My Father’s will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
1 1 Peter 2:16Live in freedom, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
6 Galatians 2:20I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
23 Ezekiel 18:20The soul who sins is the one who will die. A son will not bear the iniquity of his father, and a father will not bear the iniquity of his son. The righteousness of the righteous man will fall upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked man will fall upon him.
1 Galatians 5:13For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love.
23 Matthew 25:46And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
16 John 8:34Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
23 Ezekiel 18:4Behold, every soul belongs to Me; both father and son are Mine. The soul who sins is the one who will die.
4 Colossians 3:10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
1 Romans 6:15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not!
4 Ephesians 4:22–24to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
14 Galatians 5:18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Onward

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