Romans 6:14
For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
For sin shall not be your master
The phrase "sin shall not be your master" speaks to the dominion and authority that sin once held over humanity. In the Greek, the word for "master" is "κυριεύσει" (kurieusei), which implies lordship or control. Historically, sin's mastery began with the fall of Adam and Eve, leading to a pervasive influence over human nature. However, through Christ's redemptive work, believers are liberated from this bondage. This liberation is not merely a future hope but a present reality for those in Christ. Theologically, this signifies a shift in allegiance; believers are no longer slaves to sin but are empowered to live righteously.

because you are not under law
The phrase "not under law" refers to the Mosaic Law, which was given to Israel as a covenantal framework. The Greek word "νόμον" (nomon) is used here, indicating the legalistic system that defined sin and righteousness. Historically, the Law served to reveal sin and guide the Israelites, but it was powerless to save. In the New Testament context, being "under law" implies being subject to its penalties and unable to achieve righteousness through it. Paul emphasizes that believers are no longer bound by the Law's demands because Christ fulfilled the Law's requirements on their behalf.

but under grace
The phrase "under grace" introduces the transformative power of God's unmerited favor. The Greek word "χάρις" (charis) denotes grace, kindness, and favor. This grace is not earned but freely given through faith in Jesus Christ. Historically, grace represents the new covenant established by Christ's sacrifice, contrasting the old covenant of the Law. Being "under grace" means living in the freedom and empowerment that comes from God's Spirit, enabling believers to overcome sin and live in righteousness. This grace is the foundation of the Christian life, offering both justification and sanctification. It is a call to live in the reality of God's love and power, transforming believers from the inside out.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Paul the Apostle
The author of the Book of Romans, Paul was a key figure in the early Christian church, known for his missionary journeys and theological teachings.

2. The Roman Church
The recipients of the letter, the Roman Christians were a diverse group of Jewish and Gentile believers living in the capital of the Roman Empire.

3. Sin
A central theme in Paul's writings, sin is depicted as a power that enslaves humanity, from which believers are freed through Christ.

4. The Law
Referring to the Mosaic Law, which was given to the Israelites and is often discussed by Paul in terms of its role in revealing sin and pointing to the need for a Savior.

5. Grace
The unmerited favor of God, which is a key concept in Paul's theology, emphasizing salvation and freedom from sin through Jesus Christ.
Teaching Points
Freedom from Sin's Dominion
Believers are no longer slaves to sin because of the transformative power of grace.

Understanding this freedom encourages a life of holiness and obedience to God.

The Role of the Law
The law reveals sin but cannot save; it points to the need for grace through Christ.

Christians are called to live by the Spirit, not by the letter of the law.

Living Under Grace
Grace empowers believers to live righteously, not as a license to sin.

Embrace the identity in Christ, which is marked by freedom and victory over sin.

The Transformative Power of Grace
Grace not only saves but also sanctifies, enabling believers to grow in Christlikeness.

Rely on God's grace daily for strength and guidance in overcoming sin.

Identity in Christ
Recognize and affirm the new identity as children of God, free from the bondage of sin.

This identity shapes how believers interact with the world and pursue godliness.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does understanding that we are "not under law, but under grace" change the way we view our relationship with sin?

2. In what ways can we practically live out the freedom from sin's mastery in our daily lives?

3. How does the concept of grace empower us to pursue holiness, and how can we avoid using grace as an excuse for sin?

4. What are some practical steps we can take to rely more on the Holy Spirit rather than trying to fulfill the law through our own efforts?

5. How can we encourage one another in the church to live out our identity in Christ, free from the bondage of sin?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Romans 8:2
This verse discusses the "law of the Spirit of life" that sets believers free from the "law of sin and death," reinforcing the idea of freedom from sin's mastery.

Galatians 5:18
Paul contrasts being led by the Spirit with being under the law, similar to the distinction made in Romans 6:14.

John 1:17
This verse highlights the transition from the law given through Moses to grace and truth through Jesus Christ, aligning with the message of Romans 6:14.

Ephesians 2:8-9
These verses emphasize salvation by grace through faith, not by works, which complements the teaching of being under grace rather than law.

Hebrews 10:1
Discusses the law as a shadow of good things to come, pointing to the fulfillment found in Christ, which relates to the transition from law to grace.
Believers Free from the Dominion of SinC. H. Spurgeon.Romans 6:14
Believers not Under the Law But Under GraceA. Roberts, M. A.Romans 6:14
Domineering SinJ. Vaughan, M. A.Romans 6:14
Grace the Deliverer from the Bondage of SinT. G. Horton.Romans 6:14
Grace, not Law, the Motive for HolinessH. Melvill, B. D.Romans 6:14
Sin DethronedG. Burder.Romans 6:14
The Upper HandC. H. Spurgeon.Romans 6:14
The Practical Power of the ResurrectionC.H. Irwin Romans 6:1-14
Alive unto GodW. Birch.Romans 6:11-14
Christians Dead unto Sin and Alive unto GodW. Jay.Romans 6:11-14
Dead But AliveC. H. Spurgeon.Romans 6:11-14
Dead to Sin and Alive unto GodT. Chalmers, D. D.Romans 6:11-14
Dead to Sin and Alive unto God Through ChristC. G. Finney, D. D.Romans 6:11-14
Dead to Sin, Alive to GodCanon Vernon Hutton.Romans 6:11-14
Death a DutyD. Thomas, D. D.Romans 6:11-14
Dying to Sin and Living to GodMarcus Dods, D. D.Romans 6:11-14
Dying to Sin and Living unto GodD. Moore, M. A.Romans 6:11-14
Dying to Sin and Living unto GodJ. Lyth, D. D.Romans 6:11-14
Holiness the Church's LifeT. W. Jenkyn, D. D.Romans 6:11-14
Life in DeathSt. J. A. Frere.Romans 6:11-14
The Burial of the PastBp. Temple.Romans 6:11-14
The Transfer of Life to GodJ. Hamilton.Romans 6:11-14
The Two DominionsT.F. Lockyer Romans 6:12-14
The Reign of GraceR.M. Edgar Romans 6:12-23
People
Paul, Romans
Places
Rome
Topics
Dominion, Grace, Law, Lordship, Master, Rule, Sin, Subjects
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Romans 6:14

     1055   God, grace and mercy
     2414   cross, centrality
     6511   salvation
     6669   grace, and salvation
     8738   evil, victory over

Romans 6:1-14

     2421   gospel, historical foundation
     6661   freedom, and law

Romans 6:1-18

     6028   sin, deliverance from

Romans 6:4-14

     6139   deadness, spiritual

Romans 6:9-14

     5598   victory, over spiritual forces

Romans 6:11-14

     5769   behaviour
     6660   freedom, through Christ
     8255   fruit, spiritual

Romans 6:12-14

     6251   temptation, resisting

Romans 6:12-23

     7449   slavery, spiritual

Romans 6:14-15

     5775   abuse
     8775   libertinism

Romans 6:14-18

     6662   freedom, abuse
     6679   justification, results

Library
May 6. "Reckon Ye Also Yourselves to be Alive unto God" (Rom. vi. 11).
"Reckon ye also yourselves to be alive unto God" (Rom. vi. 11). Death is but for a moment. Life is forevermore. Live, then, ye children of the resurrection, on His glorious life, more and more abundantly, and the fulness of your life will repel the intrusion of self and sin, and overcome evil with good, and your existence will be, not the dreary repression of your own struggling, but the springing tide of Christ's spontaneous overcoming life. Once in a religious meeting a dear brother gave us a most
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

November 11. "Reckon Yourselves Dead, Indeed" (Rom. vi. 11).
"Reckon yourselves dead, indeed" (Rom. vi. 11). Our life from the dead is to be followed up by the habit and attitude henceforth which is the logical outcome of all this. "Reckon yourselves dead indeed, unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, and yield yourselves unto God," not to die over again every day, "but, as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Further His resurrection life is given to fit us for "the fellowship of
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

February 24. "Sin Shall not have Dominion Over You, for Ye are not under the Law, but under Grace" (Rom. vi. 14).
"Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Rom. vi. 14). The secret of Moses' failures was this: "The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did." And this was why his life work also came short of full realization. He saw but entered not the Promised Land. The founder of the law had to be its victim, and his life and death might demonstrate the inability of the law to lead any man into the Promised Land. The very fact, that it was
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

August 7. "Knowing this that Our Old Man is Crucified" (Rom. vi. 6).
"Knowing this that our old man is crucified" (Rom. vi. 6). It is purely a matter of faith, and faith and sight always differ, so that to your senses it does not seem to be so, but your faith must still reckon it so. This is a very difficult attitude to hold, and only as we thoroughly believe God can we thus reckon upon His Word and His working, but as we do so, faith will convert it into fact, and it will be even so. These two words, "yield" and "reckon," are passwords into the resurrection life.
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Sixth Sunday after Trinity Exhortation to Christian Living.
Text: Romans 6, 3-11. 3 Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

Seventh Sunday after Trinity Exhortation to Resist Sin.
Text: Romans 6, 19-23. 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. 20 For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness. 21 What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 22 But now being made free from
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

Address on Easter Eve
"We were buried, therefore, with Him through baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life."--ROM. VI. 4. "I delivered unto you, among the first things, that . . . He was buried."--I COR. XV. 3, 4. St. Paul lays extraordinary and, at first sight, inexplicable stress, on the fact of our Lord's Burial. It is certainly strange that, in the second of these two texts, he mentions it as constituting, along with the
J. H. Beibitz—Gloria Crucis

Twentieth Day. Holiness and Liberty.
Being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness: now present your members as servants of righteousness unto sanctification. Now being made free from sin, and become servants unto God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life.'--Rom. vi. 18, 19, 22. 'Our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus.'--Gal. ii. 4. 'With freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.'--Gal. v. 1. There is no possession more
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

Love of Religion, a New Nature.
"If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him."--Romans vi. 8. To be dead with Christ, is to hate and turn from sin; and to live with Him, is to have our hearts and minds turned towards God and Heaven. To be dead to sin, is to feel a disgust at it. We know what is meant by disgust. Take, for instance, the case of a sick man, when food of a certain kind is presented to him,--and there is no doubt what is meant by disgust. Consider how certain scents, which are too
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

'The Form of Teaching'
... Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.'--ROMANS vi. 17. There is room for difference of opinion as to what Paul precisely means by 'form' here. The word so rendered appears in English as type, and has a similar variety of meaning. It signifies originally a mark made by pressure or impact; and then, by natural transitions, a mould, or more generally a pattern or example, and then the copy of such an example or pattern, or the cast from such a mould.
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Christ's Resurrection an Image of Our New Life.
(Easter Sunday.) Praise and glory be to God, and peace with all who with joyful hearts greet one another with the cry, The Lord is risen! Amen. TEXT: ROM. vi. 4-8. IT is natural, my friends, that the glorious festival of our Saviour's resurrection should attract the thoughts of believers to a far remote time, and that it should make them rejoice to think of the time when they shall be with Him who, after He had risen from the dead, returned to His and our Father,--a joyful prospect, expressed in
Friedrich Schleiermacher—Selected Sermons of Schleiermacher

Death to Sin through Christ
"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."-Romans 6:11. THE connection of this passage will help us to understand its meaning. Near the close of the previous chapter Paul had said, "The law entered that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." He speaks here of
Charles G. Finney—Sermons on Gospel Themes

Baptism --A Burial
I do not understand Paul to say that if improper persons, such as unbelievers, and hypocrites, and deceivers, are baptized they are baptized into our Lord's death. He says "so many of us," putting himself with the rest of the children of God. He intends such as are entitled to baptism, and come to it with their hearts in a right state. Of them he says, "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" He does not even intend to say that those who were
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 27: 1881

The Doctrines of Grace do not Lead to Sin
No sooner is this doctrine set forth in a clear light than men begin to cavil at it. It is the target for all carnal logic to shoot at. Unrenewed minds never did like it, and they never will; it is so humbling to human pride, making so light of the nobility of human nature. That men are to be saved by divine charity, that they must as condemned criminals receive pardon by the exercise of the royal prerogative, or else perish in their sins, is a teaching which they cannot endure. God alone is exalted
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 29: 1883

Christ's Resurrection and Our Newness of Life
The idea that the grace of God should lead us to licentiousness is utterly loathsome to every Christian man. We cannot endure it. The notion that the doctrines of grace give license to sin, comes from the devil, and we scout it with a detestation more deep than words can express. "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" On our first entrance upon a Christian profession, we are met by the ordinance of baptism, which teaches the necessity of purification. Baptism is, in its very
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

Death and Life in Christ
I. THE FACTS REFERRED TO IN THESE FOUR VERSES CONSTITUE THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL WHICH WE PREACH. 1. The first fact here very clearly indicated is that Jesus died. He who was divine, and therefore immortal, bowed his head to death. He whose human nature was alhed to the omnipotence of his divine nature, was pleased voluntarily to submit himself to the sword of death. He who was pure and perfect, and therefore deserved not death, which is the wages of sin, nevertheless condescended for our sake to yield
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 9: 1863

Alive unto God.
(Sixth Sunday after Trinity.) ROMANS vi. 11. "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Every baptised person belongs to God. He is His absolute property, marked with the sign of the great King. As the broad arrow is the mark that certain property belongs to the British Government, so the Cross of Holy Baptism is the sign and pledge that we are God's. Think of that, my brothers, you are not free to choose your own way, your
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton—The Life of Duty, a Year's Plain Sermons, v. 2

Servants of Sin.
(Seventh Sunday after Trinity.) ROMANS vi. 20. "The servants of sin." There is no existence in the world so sad as that of a slave; and there is no slavery so hard as that of sin, no taskmaster so bitter as the devil. There was a tyrant in the old times who ordered one of his subjects to make an iron chain of a certain length, in a given time. The man brought the work, and the tyrant bade him make it longer still. And he continued to add link to link, till at length the cruel taskmaster ordered
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton—The Life of Duty, a Year's Plain Sermons, v. 2

The Parable of the Householder. A Sermon, by Bishop Latimer.
MATTHEW XX.--The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that was an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. This parable is written by the evangelist Matthew in the twentieth chapter, and is very dark and hard to be understood; yea, there is no harder piece of scripture written by any evangelist. Therefore it may well be called hard meat; not meat for mowers nor ignorant people, who are not exercised in the word of God. And yet there is no other diversity
John Knox—The Pulpit Of The Reformation, Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

"But if Ye have Bitter Envying and Strife in Your Hearts, Glory Not," &C.
James iii. 14.--"But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not," &c. It is a common evil of those who hear the gospel, that they are not delivered up to the mould and frame of religion that is holden out in it, but rather bring religion into a mould of their own invention. It was the special commendation of the Romans, that they obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine into which they were delivered, (Rom. vi. 17) that they who were once servants, or slaves of sin, had now
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Schleiermacher -- Christ's Resurrection an Image of Our New Life
Friedrich Ernst Daniel Schleiermacher, German theologian and philosopher, was born at Breslau in 1768. He was brought up in a religious home and in 1787 went to the University of Halle, and in 1789 became a Privat-Docent. In 1794 he was ordained and preached successively at Landsberg and Berlin. The literary and philosophical side of his intellect developed itself in sympathy with the Romanticists, but he never lost his passion for religion, a subject on which he published five discurses in 1799.
Grenville Kleiser—The world's great sermons, Volume 3

How Christ is to be Made Use Of, in Reference to the Killing and Crucifying of the Old Man.
Having thus shortly pointed out some things in general, serving to the clearing and opening up the way of our use-making of Christ for sanctification, we come now more particularly to the clearing up of this business. In sanctification we must consider, first, The renewing and changing of our nature and frame; and, next, The washing and purging away of our daily contracted spots. The first of these is commonly divided into two parts, viz. 1st, The mortification, killing, and crucifying of the
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Evening Prayer for a Family.
O eternal God and most gracious Father, we thine unworthy servants here assembled, do cast down ourselves at the footstool of thy grace, acknowledging that we have inherited our fathers' corruption, and actually in thought, word, and deed, transgressed all thy holy commandments, so that in us naturally there dwelleth nothing that is good; for our hearts are full of secret pride, anger, impatience, dissembling, lying, lust, vanity, profaneness, distrust, too much love of ourselves and the world, too
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Sanctification and Justification.
"Yield your members servants to righteousness unto sanctification." --Rom. vi. 19. Sanctification must remain sanctification. It may not arbitrarily be robbed of its significance, nor be exchanged for something else. It must always signify the making holy of what is unholy or less holy. Care must be taken not to confound sanctification with justification; a common mistake, frequently made by thoughtless Scripture readers. Hence the importance of a thorough understanding of this difference. Being
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

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