Romans 6:5-15

⁵We joined up with Jesus Christ and it is like we die, just like he died, and then it is like we come back to life, just like he came back to life.

⁶We know that they nailed Jesus Christ to that cross, and it was like they nailed a part of us there too, that old part of us that makes us do wrong all the time. It got nailed to that cross with Jesus, and it is dead. So now it doesn’t have any power over us. It can’t make us do bad things.

⁷You know, if something is dead it can’t do anything. Well, that bad old part of us is dead now so it can’t make us do bad things any more.

⁸It is like we died, just like Jesus Christ died, and now we know that we will also live again with him.

⁹He came back to life after he died, so we are sure that he can never die again. Nothing and can kill him ever again.

¹⁰He did die once, for people that did bad things, but now he stays alive all the time with God.

¹¹Well, we have to think about ourselves in that same way. We joined up with Jesus Christ, so now, if we start to think we want to do something bad we have to tell ourselves that we died, just like Jesus died, so we can’t do anything bad. We have to think about living God’s way and then we will be really alive, just like Jesus Christ is alive.

¹²So don’t just think about the law that comes from Moses. It talks about the bad things people do. If you just think about this you will want to do those same bad things yourself. In that way that law will be your boss and your bodies too will make you want to do bad. Don’t be like that. Don’t let any part of your body be your boss. Don’t do whatever it wants. Instead you have to give your bodies to God and let him use you to do good things. You have to think about him all the time and remember that he is very good to you, and that he made you alive again in a new way. If you think like this you will not want to do anything bad. God is really good to you. That law is not your boss any more.

¹⁵But maybe you think like this, “We can do whatever bad things we want to do, because that law is not our boss any more and God will be good to us anyway.” No way. Don’t think like that.