How we cite our quotes: (Chapter:Verse)
Quote #1
What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? (NRSV 6:1-2)
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (KJV 6:1-2)
Paul considers the idea that Christians might continue to sin because God's grace will just come in and clean up the mess. Of course, that doesn't work because Christians have been transformed into new, sinless people through their faith in Christ.
Quote #2
We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. (NRSV 6:6-7)
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. (KJV 6:6-7)
Sin, you're dead to us. Christians must die to their old selves and become new people in Christ. How literal is this? Or is it just a metaphor?
Quote #3
My friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit. (NRSV 7:4-6)
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. (KJV 7:4-6)
Paul compares the life of sin to a life of slavery. Christians are freed from that bondage through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Thank you, figurative language!