Letters to the Churches

Therefore, since we have now come to be considered righteous by means of his bloody sacrificial death, how much more will we be delivered through him from the anger of God’s judgment!

For if we were reconciled with God through his Son’s death when we were enemies, how much more will we be delivered by his life, now that we are reconciled!

And not only will we be delivered in the future, but we are boasting about God right now, because he has acted through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, through whom we have already received that reconciliation.

Here is how it works: it was through one individual that sin entered the world, and through sin, death; and in this way death passed through to the whole human race, inasmuch as everyone sinned.

Sin was indeed present in the world before Torah was given, but sin is not counted as such when there is no Torah.

Nevertheless death ruled from Adam until Moshe, even over those whose sinning was not exactly like Adam’s violation of a direct command. In this, Adam prefigured the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the offence. For if, because of one man’s offence, many died, then how much more has God’s grace, that is, the gracious gift of one man, Yeshua the Messiah, overflowed to many!

No, the free gift is not like what resulted from one man’s sinning; for from one sinner came judgment that brought condemnation; but the free gift came after many offences and brought acquittal.

For if, because of the offence of one man, death ruled through that one man; how much more will those receiving the overflowing grace, that is, the gift of being considered righteous, rule in life through the one man Yeshua the Messiah!

In other words, just as it was through one offence that all people came under condemnation, so also it is through one righteous act that all people come to be considered righteous.

For just as through the disobedience of the one man, many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the other man, many will be made righteous.

And the Torah came into the picture so that the offence would proliferate; but where sin proliferated, grace proliferated even more.

All this happened so that just as sin ruled by means of death, so also grace might rule through causing people to be considered righteous, so that they might have eternal life, through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord.

So then, are we to say, “Let’s keep on sinning, so that there can be more grace”?

Heaven forbid! How can we, who have died to sin, still live in it?

Don’t you know that those of us who have been immersed into the Messiah Yeshua have been immersed into his death?

Through immersion into his death we were buried with him; so that just as, through the glory of the Father, the Messiah was raised from the dead, likewise we too might live a new life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We know that our old self was put to death on the execution-stake with him, so that the entire body of our sinful propensities might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.

For someone who has died has been cleared from sin.

Now since we died with the Messiah, we trust that we will also live with him.

We know that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, never to die again; death has no authority over him.

For his death was a unique event that need not be repeated; but his life, he keeps on living for God.

In the same way, consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God, by your union with the Messiah Yeshua.

Therefore, do not let sin rule in your mortal bodies, so that it makes you obey its desires;