Romans 6:14 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For sin, &c.— That is, "Sin shall not be your master, to dispose of your members and faculties in its drudgery and service as it pleases: you shall not be under its controul, in subjection to it, unless by your own free choice you enthral yourselves to it, and by a voluntary obedience give it the command over you, and are willing to have it your master." We must bear in mind, that St. Paul here, and in the following chapter, personifies sin, as striving with men for mastery to destroy them. The force of his reasoning here stands thus: "You are obliged, by your taking on you the profession of the Gospel, not to be any longer slaves and vassals to sin, not to be under the sway of your carnal lusts, but to yield yourselves up to God, to be his servants, in a constant and sincere purpose and endeavour to obey him in all things. This if you do, sin shall not be able to procure you death; for you are not now under a law which condemns to death for every the least transgression, though it be but a slip of infirmity; but by your receiving Jesus Christ with genuine faith you are entered into the covenant of grace: and being under grace, God accepts of you, and, if you persevere in that faith which works by love, will give you eternal life through Jesus Christ. But if you, by a willing obedience to your lusts, make yourselves vassals to sin, Sin, as the lord and master to whom you belong, will pay you with death, the only wages he has to give." Compare Romans 6:23. Mr. Locke is of opinion, that by law and grace, the Apostle here means the Jewish and Christian dispensations. See the next chapter. But others observe, that by law is here meant strict rigid law, which was but a part of the Jewish dispensation, threatening death to every transgression; and that bygrace are meant the gracious terms, provisions, and discoveries of the Gospel; and that both are to be understood as they relate to sanctity of life, the subject upon which the Apostle is writing.