f. Ruling and non-ruling sin.
This division coincides with the division into mortal and venial sins. With unbelievers, sins always reign, even if individual sins are refrained from according to the outward work. All unbelievers are dead in sins and the devil is the ruling power with them.1664) The state in which sin does not reign is only found in believers Rom. 6:14: "Sin will not be able to reign over you, because you are not under the law, but under grace. Hence the admonition, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body!" Rom. 6:12.