Romans 6:15
New International Version
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!

New Living Translation
Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!

English Standard Version
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

Berean Standard Bible
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not!

Berean Literal Bible
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Never may it be!

King James Bible
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

New King James Version
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!

New American Standard Bible
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Far from it!

NASB 1995
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

NASB 1977
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

Legacy Standard Bible
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

Amplified Bible
What then [are we to conclude]? Shall we sin because we are not under Law, but under [God’s] grace? Certainly not!

Christian Standard Bible
What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not!

Holman Christian Standard Bible
What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!

American Standard Version
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
What, therefore? Shall we sin because we are not under The Written Law but under grace? God forbid!

Contemporary English Version
What does all this mean? Does it mean we are free to sin, because we are ruled by God's gift of undeserved grace and not by the Law? Certainly not!

Douay-Rheims Bible
What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

English Revised Version
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Then what is the implication? Should we sin because we are not controlled by laws but by God's favor? That's unthinkable!

Good News Translation
What, then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law but under God's grace? By no means!

International Standard Version
What, then, does this mean? Should we go on sinning because we are not under Law but under grace? Of course not!

Literal Standard Version
What then? Will we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Let it not be!

Majority Standard Bible
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not!

New American Bible
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Of course not!

NET Bible
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!

New Revised Standard Version
What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

New Heart English Bible
What then? Should we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Absolutely not.

Webster's Bible Translation
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? By no means.

Weymouth New Testament
Are we therefore to sin because we are no longer under the authority of Law, but under grace? No, indeed!

World English Bible
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

Young's Literal Translation
What then? shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? let it not be!

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Wages of Sin
14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. 15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not! 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?…

Cross References
Luke 20:16
He will come and kill those tenants, and will give the vineyard to others." And when the people heard this, they said, "May such a thing never happen!"

Romans 6:1
What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase?

Romans 6:2
Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?


Treasury of Scripture

What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

What.

Romans 3:9
What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

shall we.

Romans 6:1,2
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? …

1 Corinthians 9:20,21
And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; …

2 Corinthians 7:1
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Jump to Previous
Authority Far Forbid Grace Indeed Law Means Sin Thought
Jump to Next
Authority Far Forbid Grace Indeed Law Means Sin Thought
Romans 6
1. We may not live in sin;
2. for we are dead unto it;
3. as appears by our baptism.
12. Let not sin reign anymore;
18. because we have yielded ourselves to the service of righteousness;
23. and because death is the wages of sin.














(15-23) Free forgiveness! What does that mean? Freedom to sin? Far from it. That were to return into the old slavery. To yield to sin is to be the servant or slave of sin with its consequence--death. On the other hand, obedience and righteousness go together. Happily you have escaped from sin, and taken service with righteousness. Service, I say, using a plain human figure to suit your imperfect and carnal apprehension of spiritual things. Exchange the service of uncleanness for that of righteousness. I appeal to your own experience. You found that sin brought you no pay from your master but death. Now you are started upon a road that leads to sanctification and eternal life. This will be given you, not as wages, but as the free gift of God in Christ.

(15) The Apostle returns to a difficulty very similar to that which presented itself at the beginning of the chapter. The answer is couched under a slightly different metaphor. It is no longer death to the one, life to the other, but freedom from the one, service to the other. These are correlative terms. Freedom from sin implies service to God, just as freedom from God means service to sin. The same idea of service and freedom will be found worked out in John 8:32-34; John 8:36, and in Galatians 5:1.

Verses 15, 16. - What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace! (Does being under grace mean that we may allow ourselves in sin without being under sin's thraldom?) God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey (literally, unto obedience), his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? This is not a truism, as it would seem to be if it only meant, "whoso servants ye become, his servants ye are." "Ye yield yourselves" (παριστάνετε, cf. ver. 13) denotes acts of yielding. "Ye are" (ἕστε) denotes condition. The meaning is that by our conduct we show which master we are under; and we cannot serve two (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13; cf. John 8:34, "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin;" and 1 John 3:7, "He that doeth righteousness is righteous"). The two incompatible services are here said to be of sin and of obedience, with their respective tendencies or results, death and righteousness. A more exact antithesis to the first clause would have been "of righteousness unto life;" life being the proper antithesis of death, and righteousness being afterwards said, in vers. 18 and 19, to be what we ought to be in bondage to. But though the sentence seems thus defective in form, its meaning is plain. Ὑπακοῆς means here specifically obedience to God, not obedience to any master as in ver. 16; and though in English "servants of obedience," as though obedience were a master, is an awkward phrase, yet we might properly say, "servants of duty," in opposition to "servants of sin;" and this is what is meant. It may be that the apostle purposely avoided here speaking of believers being slaves of righteousness in the sense in which they had been slaves of sin, because subjection to righteousness is not properly slavery, but willing obedience. He uses the expression, indeed, afterwards (ver. 18), but adds at once, ἀνθρώπινον λέγω, etc. (see note on this last expression). Death, "unto" which the service of sin is here said to be, cannot be mere natural death, to which all are subject. Meyer (with Chrysostom, Theophylact, and other ancients) takes it to mean eternal death, as the final result of bondage to sin; δικαιοσύνη, antithetically correlative, being regarded as applying to the time of final perfection of the faithful in the world to come - "the righteousness which is awarded to them in the judgment." Seeing, however, that the word δικαιοσύνη is used throughout the Epistle to denote what is attainable in this present life, and that θάνατος is often used to express a state of spiritual death, which men may be in at any time (see additional note on ver. 12; and cf. Romans 7:9, 10, 13, 24; Romans 8:6, 13; also John 5:24; 1 John 3:14), it is at least a question whether the final doom of the last judgment is here at all exclusively in the apostle's view.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
What
Τί (Ti)
Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 5101: Who, which, what, why. Probably emphatic of tis; an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what.

then?
οὖν (oun)
Conjunction
Strong's 3767: Therefore, then. Apparently a primary word; certainly, or accordingly.

Shall we sin
ἁμαρτήσωμεν (hamartēsōmen)
Verb - Aorist Subjunctive Active - 1st Person Plural
Strong's 264: Perhaps from a and the base of meros; properly, to miss the mark, i.e. to err, especially to sin.

because
ὅτι (hoti)
Conjunction
Strong's 3754: Neuter of hostis as conjunction; demonstrative, that; causative, because.

we are
ἐσμὲν (esmen)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 1st Person Plural
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

not
οὐκ (ouk)
Adverb
Strong's 3756: No, not. Also ouk, and ouch a primary word; the absolute negative adverb; no or not.

under
ὑπὸ (hypo)
Preposition
Strong's 5259: A primary preposition; under, i.e. of place, or with verbs; of place (underneath) or where (below) or time (when).

law,
νόμον (nomon)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3551: From a primary nemo; law, genitive case, specially, (including the volume); also of the Gospel), or figuratively.

but
ἀλλὰ (alla)
Conjunction
Strong's 235: But, except, however. Neuter plural of allos; properly, other things, i.e. contrariwise.

under
ὑπὸ (hypo)
Preposition
Strong's 5259: A primary preposition; under, i.e. of place, or with verbs; of place (underneath) or where (below) or time (when).

grace?
χάριν (charin)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 5485: From chairo; graciousness, of manner or act.

Absolutely not!
γένοιτο (genoito)
Verb - Aorist Optative Middle - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1096: A prolongation and middle voice form of a primary verb; to cause to be, i.e. to become, used with great latitude.


Links
Romans 6:15 NIV
Romans 6:15 NLT
Romans 6:15 ESV
Romans 6:15 NASB
Romans 6:15 KJV

Romans 6:15 BibleApps.com
Romans 6:15 Biblia Paralela
Romans 6:15 Chinese Bible
Romans 6:15 French Bible
Romans 6:15 Catholic Bible

NT Letters: Romans 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we (Rom. Ro)
Romans 6:14
Top of Page
Top of Page