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Romans 7:5–6
But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter (Rom. 7:6).
What changed when you were saved? Your relationship to the law, for one thing. Paul has shown us that whereas the law once held “dominion” over us, revealing and even provoking sin in us so that we were under condemnation and subject to God’s wrath, we are now “dead to the law through the body of Christ.” Believers who trust Christ are brought into union with Him and thus have a new relationship both to Him and to His law, to the end that they should bear the fruit of holiness to God. In other words, we now have the ability, by God’s enabling grace, to really live for God for the first time.
Paul continues expanding on this theme in today’s verses, showing how great is the contrast between then and now. Before their deliverance from the law, believers were “in the flesh.” The Greek word here translated “flesh” is sarx, which is used often in the New Testament but in several very different ways. It can mean the fleshy parts of the body (Luke 24:39), the whole body (Gal. 2:20), or even all of mankind (Isa. 40:6; 1 Peter 1:24). Here, however, it is part of a phrase that is contrasted with “in . . . the Spirit” in the next verse. The context, therefore, clearly shows that Paul is speaking here of our state before salvation, the condition of lostness, of unbelief. In this state, Paul says, the law aroused “sinful passions” in our bodies, causing us to bear “fruit to death,” earning God’s death sentence for all rebellion against Him. Such “anti-fruit” is the opposite of the fruit of holiness He seeks.
Then comes the contrast—“But now . . .” Paul says we have been “delivered” from the condemnation of the law through our identification with Christ in His substitutionary death. Furthermore, by our identification with His resurrection, we are enabled to serve “in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter,” as Paul puts it. “The contrast is between what we were before our conversion and what we are now,” Dr. James M. Boice writes in his Romans commentary. “It is the same contrast seen in being in Adam versus being in Christ, or being in slavery to the law versus being God’s servants, which we have already seen in earlier sections of Romans.” Now our service to God takes the form of Spirit-empowered living for Him rather than sinful rebellion against the law. By so doing, we actually produce the fruit God desires—holiness.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Even our best deeds as unbelievers were tainted by impure motives, rendering them displeasing to God. We could bear no fruit to God. But now, regenerated by God and with His Holy Spirit living within, we have a new motive—love for God—and we are able to truly serve Him. Ask Him to make you more and more fruitful.
For Further Study
- 2 Corinthians 3:18
- 2 Corinthians 4:16
- Galatians 3:3
- Colossians 3:9–10
- Titus 3:5–6