• to hold and exercise sovereign power;
• to exercise commanding influence;
• to dominate;
• to exercise control over;
• control as by right or superior force;
• to prevail irresistibly; exist widely or to the exclusion of something else.
That is what the word of God says that sin does in men and with men as they are of themselves.
And until that fact is recognized, no man can be delivered from the
power of sin. The word used, and translated “reigned,” is a word that signifies and relates to governments and the reign of sovereigns.
And when the Word of God thus speaks, it wants us to understand that men in sin are under the government and sovereign power of sin, just as men who are in an earthly kingdom are under the power of that government.
Again: the Scripture describes the condition of the sinner thus: Romans 7:14 I am carnal, sold under sin. In these times a man who was sold was a slave, and was in all things absolutely subject to his master."
A.T. Jones