Romans 7:5–6

Freedom from the domination of the law

It goes without saying that in our new state of being free from the law, the law can’t be the motivating force for bearing fruit for God. In fact, a person subject to the law bears quite different fruit.

For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Paul is careful to avoid saying that the law of God is something bad. Read his words carefully here to catch his emphasis that it is “the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law” that are the problem. They, not the law, result in the sinner’s producing “fruit for death.” Paul will shortly be saying a great deal about the proper place and role of the law. For the moment he is concentrating on just one point, namely, that the law is not the driving and energizing force that enables the Christian to lead a life of holiness. That ability has to come from a different source. It comes from the Spirit. “But now, by dying to what once bound us [the law], we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code [the law].”

When Paul calls this the “new way of the Spirit,” we need to realize that it is new only in the sense that it is the followup and the successor to the previous, old stage where the law was in control. For a very similar statement regarding the new status of the Christian after being freed from sin, review 6:14. There Paul wrote, “Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” The Holy Spirit works in the believer an appreciation for God’s grace, and that appreciation reflects itself in a new life of love and service to God and our neighbor. Incidentally, this is the first time in the letter that Paul mentions the Holy Spirit. In the next chapter, Paul will be speaking in detail about the Spirit’s work.