Romans 6:1 asks whether believers should keep sinning so that God’s grace can grow even larger. The apostle Paul raises the question to reject it firmly, and the verse leads straight into his argument that grace produces a changed life, not a license to sin. Paul writes it to the church in Rome, a mixed congregation of Jewish and Gentile believers who were trying to understand how God’s forgiveness and holy living fit together.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Romans 6:1 (WEB)
What Romans 6:1 Means
The opening words, “What shall we say then?”, show that Paul is following an objection to his previous chapter. In Romans 5 he had written that where sin increased, grace increased all the more. Some listeners reasoned that if God’s grace is greatest where sin is greatest, then sinning more would simply give God more opportunity to show grace. Paul is putting that reasoning into the form of a question so he can answer it.
The phrase “continue in sin” describes a settled pattern of life, not an occasional stumble. Paul is asking whether a believer should keep living in sin as a normal way of life. The phrase “that grace may abound” names the supposed goal: more grace, more forgiveness, more display of God’s generosity. The verse itself does not promise anything about our behavior. It raises a question that Paul will reject in the verses that follow.
The Context of Romans 6:1
Paul wrote the letter to the Romans around the middle of the first century, most likely from Corinth, and he had never personally visited the church in Rome when he wrote it. The letter is his most systematic explanation of the gospel, covering how people are justified by faith, how God deals with sin, and how the Spirit transforms believers. Chapter 6 sits within a larger section on the believer’s freedom from sin’s power.
The verses just before this one, in Romans 5, speak of grace overflowing where sin abounded, and Romans 6:2 to 4 immediately answers the question with Paul’s response: those who died to sin cannot live in it, and baptism signifies being buried with Christ and raised to walk in new life. Read in that setting, Romans 6:1 is the hinge of the argument. It is the objection Paul must clear away before he can show that union with Christ means a real break with sin.
Key Phrases in Romans 6:1
Romans 6:2
May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
(WEB)
This verse is Paul’s immediate reply to the question in Romans 6:1. It states that those who have died to sin cannot go on living in it, which gives the reason the objection fails.
Galatians 5:13
For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.
(WEB)
Paul warns the Galatians that freedom should not become an opportunity for the flesh, and that freedom is meant to be used in love. It echoes the same concern that grace must not be turned into an excuse for self-indulgence.
