1How should we respond to all of this? Is it good to persist in a life of sin so that grace may multiply even more? 2Absolutely not! How can we die to a life where sin ruled over us and then invite sin back into our lives? 3Did someone forget to tell you that when we were initiated into Jesus the Anointed through baptism’s ceremonial washing,* we entered into His death? 4Therefore, we were buried with Him through this baptism into death so that just as God the Father, in all His glory, resurrected the Anointed One, we, too, might walk confidently out of the grave into a new life. 5To put it another way: if we have been united with Him to share in a death like His, don’t you understand that we will also share in His resurrection? 6We know this: whatever we used to be with our old sinful ways has been nailed to His cross. So our entire record of sin has been canceled, and we no longer have to bow down to sin’s power. 7A dead man, you see, cannot be bound by sin. 8But if we have died with the Anointed One, we believe that we shall also live together with Him. 9So we stand firm in the conviction that death holds no power over God’s Anointed, because He was resurrected from the dead never to face death again. 10When He died, He died to whatever power sin had, once and for all, and now He lives completely to God. 11So here is how to picture yourself now that you have been initiated into Jesus the Anointed: you are dead to sin’s power and influence, but you are alive to God’s rule. 12Don’t invite that insufferable tyrant of sin back into your mortal body so you won’t become obedient to its destructive desires. 13Don’t offer your bodily members to sin’s service as tools of wickedness; instead, offer your body to God as those who are alive from the dead, and devote the parts of your body to God as tools for justice and goodness in this world. 14For sin is no longer a tyrant over you; indeed you are under grace and not the law.

The Voice Bible: Step Into the Story of Scripture (Kindle Locations 68846-68857). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Observe – Romans 6:1-14

Take time to read the passage… one or several times. What words or ideas captures your attention? Where are words repeated? What is a new thought about the passage?

- What kind of literature is Romans? A gospel story or letter? How does the type of literature influence how you read this passage?

- What are the questions that Paul asked the readers in this passage?

- How does the death and resurrection of Jesus break the power of sin in an individual life? What does it mean to die with Christ and to be raised with Christ?

- How does the analogy of baptism help to explain this teaching?

- How does a relationship with Jesus move you from death to life?

- What does it mean to ‘consider yourself’ dead to sin and alive to God (v11)?

- Sin is no longer your master(v 14). What does Paul mean by this? How does that statement influence how Christians should approach life?

- Why is it difficult to live free from the power of sin on a daily basis?

- What makes you optimistic about the truth of this teaching?

- How can you live under the freedom of God’s grace this week?

- How can we help each other to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God?

- Who do you know that needs to hear about the freedom that comes from God’s grace? How might you describe this freedom in words that can understand?

*Share in life with people who do not yet know Jesus.

*Inspire others to know and follow Jesus by living your faith attractively.

*Grow with others in your faith and obedience.

*Serve others with sacrificial love.

This week let’s pray for each other that we may experience the living Jesus in our lives and relationships.