Limitless Word
Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Romans 6:2 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
  • KJV God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
  • BSB Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?
  • NKJV Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
  • NLT Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

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 rejects the idea emphatically: those who died to sin cannot go on living in it. Grace transforms, it does not excuse sin.

Overview

Paul answers his own question with a strong 'May it never be!' and the reason that believers 'died to sin' in their union with Christ. To live on in sin would contradict the very nature of the new life received in him. This sets the theme for the rest of the chapter: union with Christ in his death and resurrection breaks sin's dominion and calls believers to holiness.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 16

  • 1 Jn 3:9Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him; and he can’t sin, because he is born of God.
  • Col 3:3For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
  • 1 Pet 2:24who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.
  • Rom 7:4Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God.
  • Gal 2:19For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God.
  • Rom 7:6But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
  • 1 Pet 1:14as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance,
  • 1 Pet 4:1–3Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind; for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin;
  • Col 2:20If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,
  • 2 Cor 5:14–17For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died.
  • Ps 119:104Through your precepts, I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. NUN
  • Gal 6:14But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
  • Gen 39:9No one is greater in this house than I am, and he has not kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
  • Rom 5:11Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
  • Rom 6:5–11For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;
  • Rom 3:1–4Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision?

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Romans videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Romans 6:2YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on RomansMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 6:2 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.