What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Parallel translations
- WEB What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
- KJV What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
- BSB What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase?
- NASB What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
- NLT Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul raises the question whether we should keep sinning so grace may increase. He poses the objection in order to refute it.
Overview
Having said that grace abounded where sin increased (5:20), Paul anticipates a distortion: should believers continue in sin to gain more grace? He raises this objection to confront the false notion that grace licenses sin. The question opens his teaching that justification by grace leads to a transformed life, not to careless sinning.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 1 Pet 2:16as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God.
- Gal 5:13For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.
- Rom 6:15What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!
- Rom 2:4Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
- Rom 3:5–8But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do.
- Rom 5:20–21The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly;
- Jude 1:4For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.
- Rom 3:31Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.
- 2 Pet 2:18–19For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 6:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.