The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (162 page)
Read The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament Online
Authors: Scott Hahn
Tags: #Spiritual & Religion
Adam and Christ
12
Therefore
as sin came into the world
through one man
and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned
*
—
13
sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
14
Yet death reigned
from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a
type
of the one who was to come.
15
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
*
16
And the free gift is not like the effect of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification.
17
If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18
Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men.
19
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be
made righteous
.
20
Law came in,
to increase the trespass
; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
21
so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Dying and Rising with Christ
6
What shall we say
then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2
By no means
! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4
We were buried
*
therefore with him
by baptism into death
, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6
We know that
our former man
was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.
7
For he who has died
is freed from sin
.
8
But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.
9
For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will
never die again
; death no longer has dominion over him.
10
The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
11
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12
Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.
13
Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.
14
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but
under grace
.
Slaves of Sin or of Righteousness
15
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
*
16
Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as
obedient slaves
, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to
the standard of teaching
to which you were committed,
18
and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
19
I am
speaking in human terms
, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.
20
When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21
But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.
22
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.
23
For
the wages of sin
is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Analogy with Marriage
7
Do you not know
, brethren—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during his life?
2
Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies she is discharged from the law concerning the husband.
3
Accordingly, she will be
called an adulteress
if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4
Likewise, my brethren, 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.
5
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.
6
But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which
held us captive
, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.
The Law and Sin
7
What then shall we say
? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "
You shall not covet
."
8
But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead.
9
I was once alive
apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died;
10
the very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me.
11
For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment,
deceived
me and by it killed me.
12
So
the law is holy
, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
The Interior Conflictbetween Good and Evil
13
Did that which is good, then, bring
death to me
?
*
By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
14
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15
I do not
understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
16
Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.
17
So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.
18
For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.
19
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.
20
Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.
21
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
22
For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self,
23
but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to
the law of sin
which dwells in my members.
24
Wretched man that I am!
Who will deliver me
from this body of death?
25
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh
I serve the law of sin
.
Life in the Spirit
8
There is therefore
now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2
For the
law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.
3
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in
the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin,
i
he condemned sin in the flesh,
4
in order that the
just requirement
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5
For
those who live
according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6
To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
7
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot;
8
and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9
But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if
the Spirit of God
really dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
10
But if Christ is in you, although
your bodies are dead
because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness.
11
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to
your mortal bodies also
through his Spirit who dwells in you.
12
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—
13
for if you live according to the flesh
you will die
, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.
14
For all
who are led by the Spirit
of God are sons of God.
15
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of
sonship
. When we cry, "Abba! Father!"
16
it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17
and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and
fellow heirs with Christ
, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
The Glory to Be Revealed
18
I consider
that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
19
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God;
*
20
for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope;
21
because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the
glorious liberty
of the children of God.
22
We know that the whole creation has been
groaning with labor pains
together until now;
23
and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have
the first fruits
of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
24
For in this
hope
we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?
25
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.