Romans 6

We must not abuse the boundless goodness of God by continuing in sin, under the wicked persuasion that the more we sin the more the grace of God will abound, Romans 6:1 . For, having been baptized into Christ, we have professed thereby to be dead to sin, Romans 6:2-4 . And to be planted in the likeness of his resurrection, Romans 6:5 . For we profess to be crucified with him, to die and rise again from the dead, Romans 6:6-11 . We should not, therefore, let sin reign in our bodies, but live to the glory of God, Romans 6:12-14 . The Gospel makes no provision for living in sin, any more than the law did; and those who commit sin are the slaves of sin, Romans 6:15-19 . The degrading and afflictive service of sin, and its wages eternal death; the blessed effects of the grace of God in the heart, of which eternal life is the fruit, Romans 6:20-23 .

The apostle, having proved that salvation, both to Jew and Gentile, must come through the Messiah, and be received by faith only, proceeds in this chapter to show the obligations under which both were laid to live a holy life, and the means and advantages they enjoyed for that purpose. This he does, not only as a thing highly and indispensably necessary in itself - for without holiness none can see the Lord - but to confute a calumny which appears to have been gaining considerable ground even at that time, viz. that the doctrine of justification by faith alone, through the grace of Christ Jesus, rendered obedience to the moral law useless; and that the more evil a man did, the more the grace of God would abound to him, in his redemption from that evil. That this calumny was then propagated we learn from Romans 3:8 ; and the apostle defends himself against it in the 31st verse of the same, ( Romans 3:31 ;) by asserting, that his doctrine, far from making void the law, served to establish it. But in this and the two following chapters he takes up the subject in a regular, formal manner; and shows both Jews and Gentiles that the principles of the Christian religion absolutely require a holy heart and a holy life, and make the amplest provisions for both.