1 What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase?

2 Never may it be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

3 Or are you unaware that as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

4 We 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.

5 For if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.

6 We 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.

7 For anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.

9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has dominion over Him.

10 The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.

— Romans 6:1-10

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and love from Christ to you.

Before Jesus died and rose, we were enslaved to sin. The good news is when Jesus died and rose again, He broke the power of sin once and for all. And when we placed our faith in Him, we joined in Christ’s victory over sin and death. We died to ourselves and have a new life in the resurrected Christ. Think about this truth in every day terms. We all know what it feels like to be trapped by old habits, negative patterns or past mistakes. Sometimes it can feel like no matter how much we try we’re pulled back into the same struggles.

But Paul in Romans tells us that through Christ we have been set free from these chains. Sin no longer has power over us because Jesus conquered it on our behalf. This freedom doesn’t mean that we’ll never struggle, but it does mean that we no longer have to be defined or controlled by sin. We are empowered to live differently to make choices that reflect our new identity —children of God.