f. DOMINANT AND NON-DOMINANT SINS

This division is practically the same as the division into mortal and venial sins. In unbelievers the sins are always dominant, even though individual sins do not become acts. All unbelievers are dead in sins, and Satan is the ruling power in them (Eph. 2:1-3; Col. 1:13; Acts 26:18). The state of grace in which sin no longer rules is found only in the believers. Rom. 6:14: “Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the Law, but under grace.” When in the lives of erstwhile believers the struggle of the spirit against the flesh has ceased and the sins have again become dominant, then these believers have fallen from faith. Hence the admonition: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body” (Rom. 6:12).