What shall we say then? Are we to continue to sin that grace may abound? May it never be! Grace does not abound because of sin; it abounds in defiance of it and in triumph over it in Christ (similar argument about righteousness and evil in Rom 3:7). How can we who have been baptized into His death (united with Him), and therefore have died to sin with Him, still live in sin? We are baptized into His death, unto union with Him in His death, so that we can be reckoned free from sin, whose wages is death. If we have been united to Christ in His death, who died and was raised (because death has no hold over a righteous one), we who are righteous in Him and who have died in Him will surely be raised with Him in His resurrection. Certainty of union with Christ in His death begets certainty of union with Him in His resurrection. We were crucified with Him so that our body of sin would be killed and, thereby, its hold on us would be removed.
We know:
- that if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him
- that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again, and that in Him we will rise and never die again
Paul here seems to paraphrase John 11:25-26, "I am the resurrection" (whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live) "and the life" (and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die").
The death that we died in Christ (because it was the death once for all, "ἐφάπαξ", of the perfect Lamb of God), we died with reference to sin being our lord and us being slaves to it (enslaved to it); so also, the new life, the resurrection life, which we live now, we live with reference to God being our Lord. There is no other way in which we could be made alive (who were dead in sin) than in Him, only in Him. So, we must reckon ourselves dead with reference to sin, and raised to new life and walking in that newness of life, with reference to God and in union with Christ Jesus (it is crucial that we do this because of the finality of Christ's death and resurrection, once for all, and because of the seal of baptism in Him which we have received, because of the surety of His faithfulness to His promises, and because of the paragon of righteousness by faith alone set before us in the example of Abraham, Rom 4).
Therefore, you who have died with Christ, most assuredly, and who are alive in Him, let not sin be king over you, that you should submit yourself in obedience ("ὑπακοη") to its passions, in your mortal body. And do not present your body's members as tools of unrighteousness to sin as if it were your master (that to which you have died, and to which your therefore are no longer enslaved); but rather, present your members to God, who is your Master and King, as instruments of righteousness (that to which you live, and to which you have been made slaves). For sin will not be lord over you, for it is only lord over those who are under the condemnation of the law, and you are not under law but are free in the grace of Christ, that is, you are under grace because it is your new master.
We must not sin, being under grace rather than law, because that to which we present ourselves (our members) is that to which we are enslaved, though not in terms of actual slavery/redemption, but in terms of whom we voluntarily submit to (returning to the yoke of Egypt). But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves to sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching (the new rules of your new master) to which you have been handed over (having been set free from sin and enslaved to righteousness). These are human terms because of the natural limits of human understanding.
When we were slaves of sin, we presented our members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, and we bore the fruit of such deeds unto death, which is the end ("τέλος") of sin. Having become slaves of righteousness. we have been given over from one master to another (slaves obey their master, not one to whom they are not enslaved; that is, a slave of sin is free with regard to righteousness, and a slave of righteousness is free with regard to sin), and therefore, we who were free with regard to righteousness. as slaves of sin, have now become free with regard to sin, having been given over to be made slaves of righteousness, whose fruit is sanctification and end ("τέλος") is eternal life. Thanks be to God that you have become good slaves from the heart, obeying the standard of teaching of the new slavery, from the heart. Thanks be to God for this, because the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord; and a free gift is that which is not earned.