For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Parallel translations
- WEB For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.
- KJV For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
- NKJV For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
- NASB For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace.
- NLT Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Sin will not master those who are under grace rather than law. Grace, not the law, breaks sin's dominion and empowers obedience.
Overview
Paul promises that sin will not have dominion, a statement of assurance grounded in the believer's new standing. Being 'under grace' means belonging to the realm of God's saving favor in Christ, which both pardons and transforms. Far from licensing sin, grace is the very power by which sin's reign is overthrown.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 21
- Gal 5:18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
- Rom 8:2For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.
- Rom 7:4–11Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
- Heb 8:10For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.
- Rom 6:12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.
- Gal 4:4–5But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
- Rom 3:19–20Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
- John 8:36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
- John 1:17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
- 2 Cor 3:6–9And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
- Ps 130:7–8O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is loving devotion, and with Him is redemption in abundance.
- Gal 3:23Before this faith came, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.
- Rom 5:20–21The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
- Rom 11:6And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.
- Titus 2:14He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
- Gal 4:21Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand what the law says?
- Mic 7:19He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.
- Matt 1:21She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”
- Rom 8:12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.
- Rom 6:15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not!
- Rom 4:16Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may rest on grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 6:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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