The gospel of Christ places a huge responsibility on every believer. Because Christ died for us, we are called to live for him. This sometimes includes dying to self and in some cases, actual death, but we do all of this, based on the understanding of eternal life. In Christ, though the flesh may be weakened, we will receive a new body.

Paul had just explained the importance of having the Holy Spirit and now he goes on to explain that for the man in Christ, there is no condemnation. The Holy Spirit lives in us, and as a result we are assured of our salvation in Christ and on the last day, we will receive a new body, free from sin and death. Our assurance of our new body is Christ.

Paul explains the utter hopelessness of the man outside of Christ’s provision, in his battle towards fighting sin. For the man outside of Christ, you know what to do, but you are unable to get this done. However, in Christ, we are enabled by the Spirit to live above sin.

Paul explains the grace we have received in Christ. This time, he uses the illustration of the law and the specific example of marriage. He explains how that just like a marriage contract is valid for the lifetime of both parties, similarly, other law contracts valid for a lifetime are broken by death. He explains that in the same way, the rule of the law was valid for a lifetime, but in Christ, we died together with Christ, dying to the obligations of the law and we received a new life, which we are empowered to live by the Spirit.

Paul explains again that they cannot go on sinning. This time using an example they can relate with. He explains that they can either be slaves to sin, which leads to death, or slaves to righteousness. The wages of sin is death, BUT the gift of God is eternal life!

In the last chapter, Paul taught about the extent of God’s grace and so in this chapter, he brings a balance to the message. He explains that we cannot go on sinning just because God’s grace abounds. He explains that this is not who you are. You are the man in Christ. Sin is no longer your nature. We are saved by grace, but we do not take that as a reason to go on sinning.

In these verses, Paul gives a history lesson. First, he explains that sin existed from the time of Adam and so death existed from the time of Adam. Next, he does a side by side comparison of what we received in Adam, versus what we received in Christ. In Christ, we received forgiveness for our sins. Past, present and future

Paul is done explaining that salvation is by faith and so in this episode, he explains two things. First, he explains that as Christians, there is a call to persecution. We will have to stand for our faith and it would not always be easy. He however assures us that it will be worth it. It will be worth it because we are doing it all for Christ. Next, he explains that salvation is by grace the entire way. He tells us that if while we were at our worst, Christ loved us so much, he will definitely love us while we are on our journey.

Paul has been explaining something crucial to the Romans. He just explained that salvation was by faith, and now, he was about to explain that it was also for all. To do this, he used the example of Abraham again, explaining that Abraham was made righteous, even before he was circumcised

In these verses, Paul starts to explain two things to the Romans; first, that salvation is a free gift and second, that it is available for all. He uses different examples he believed they could relate within explaining the first point. He uses Abraham, David and even a real life example of wages. He ends with an intro to his defence for the second point.