The Christian finds himself with an altogether new and different set of principles to guide him in choosing that to which he will yield himself.

Sin is the power that rules the sinner’s life, not the Christian’s.

The point is this: Even though a believer really has a new master and sin is no longer his master, he must be warned against listening to the sin that used to be his master. He must not obey sin as though sin were still his master for sin’s rule has been broken.

We refuse to continue to hearken to the body’s passions, and in so doing we assert that sin is no longer the sovereign to whom we yield the control of our lives.

If before his members were tools for sin to produce unrighteousness, now those same members are tools for God to produce righteousness. And it all depends on what master we choose to yield to, to submit to, and to obey.

We must not allow sin to exercise lordship over us. We do not have to, because sin’s power has been broken (back to verse 6).

This assurance is presented as both a reason we must not allow sin to exercise dominion and as a source of confidence that we do not have to be overcome by sin.

If we were still under law, sin would continue to rule us, and that for two reasons: (1) “Law” does not deliver, but make’s sin known (Romans 3:20) and thus makes sin “exceeding sinful” (Romans 7:13); (2) “Law” demands the penalty, and if we were still living there we would still be condemned to pay the penalty demanded thus still “ruled over” by sin.