Romans – The Gospel of God (Part 96)

We are currently studying Romans Chapter 7. In Chapter 6 we learned that Christians are dead to sin and alive to God. We used to be slaves to sin, but are now slaves (servants) to God.

In the last part of our series, we looked at Roman 7:1-4 where we began learning what it means to be freed from the Law.

The Apostle Paul used an example from marriage to help his readers understand what it means to be freed from the Law.

Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.

Paul continued his idea in the following verses.

Verse Five

For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.

οτε γαρ ημεν εν τη σαρκι τα παθηματα των αμαρτιων τα δια του νομου ενηργειτο εν τοις μελεσιν ημων εις το καρποφορησαι τω θανατω

οτε γαρ ημεν εν τη σαρκι (hote gar ēmen en tē sarki) “while for we were in the flesh” .. the phrase “en tē sarki” speaks to the time in life prior to a person’s salvation .. the idea of being “in the flesh” is control .. an unsaved person is “in the flesh” in the sense that the flesh (the sin nature) controls their thinking and behavior .. the word hote concerns time (when) .. the word gar refers to a continuation .. Paul reminded his readers of their life before they became Christians .. he included himself, “For when we were in the flesh” ..

τα παθηματα των αμαρτιων (ta pathēmata tōn hamartiōn) “the passions of sins” .. the word pathēmata means “affection, impulse, passion, strong emotion” .. passion is not in itself a bad thing .. strong emotions can be connected to positive thoughts and behavior .. however, the strong emotion Paul referred to concerns hamartiōn (sins, failure, missing the mark) .. it is a negative passion .. Paul used the phrase to help explain the full implication of what it means to be “in the flesh” .. someone who is in the flesh is controlled by sinful passions .. (see Ephesians 2:1-3) ..

τα δια του νομου (ta dia tou nomou) “that were through the law” .. the word dia means “through, on account of, because of” .. it has the idea of going across something successfully .. sinful passions were “because of, on account of” the “law” .. Paul used the word “law” in Romans and other writings to refer to the Mosaic Law .. interesting that the NKJV, NIV and ESV chose to use the word “aroused” to translate the word .. the NASB chose the words “brought to light by” to translate..

We are reminded of what Paul wrote in Romans 3:30 — “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” We know about “sin” because we know the “law.” The Law of God reveals our sinfulness. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians — “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:56)

ενηργειτο εν τοις μελεσιν ημων (enērgeito en tois melesin hēmōn) “were at work in the members of us” .. enērgeito is a verb that means “to be at work, be energized, be operative, be active, put forth power, accomplish” .. this powerful action occurs “in the members of us” .. the word “members” is melesin and means “member of limb of the body, part belonging to the whole” .. the sinful passions we experienced as unbelievers had a powerful impact on our thinking and behavior .. what was that impact?

εις το καρποφορησαι τω θανατω (eis to karpophorēsai tō thanatō) “to the bringing forth of fruit to death” .. karpophorēsai means “to bear fruit, bring forth fruit” .. thanatō means “death – physical or spiritua, separation from life” ..

This is in direct contrast to verse four where Paul wrote – “we should bear fruit to God.” In verse four we see that becoming “dead to the law through the body of Christ” will bear fruit to God. In verse five we see that sinful passions aroused by the law “were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.” The Bible clearly tells disciples of Christ that they are to bear fruit to God (e.g. John 4; 12; 15). Only a saved person can bear fruit to God. All others bear fruit to death.

Verse Six

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.

νυνι δε κατηργηθημεν απο του νομου αποθανοντες εν ω κατειχομεθα ωστε δουλευειν ημας εν καινοτητι πνευματος και ου παλαιοτητι γραμματος

νυνι δε κατηργηθημεν απο του νομου (nuni de katērgēthēmen apo tou nomou) “now however we have been released from the law” .. katērgēthēmen is a verb that means “make idle, make inactive, abolish, rendered inoperative, make of no effect, sever, separate from, make completely inoperative, put out of use” ..

Paul uses a powerful contrast to make a powerful point. Even as a wife is released from her legal obligation when her husband dies, so a new believer is released (delivered) from the Law. Even as a widow is free to marry again, so a new believer is free to marry another – “to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”

That speaks to a personal relationship. The relationship of a wife to a husband is an intimate, personal relationship. If she were to have an intimate, personal relationship with another man while still married to her husband, that would adultery. However, as a widow, she is free to develop a new intimate, personal relationship with another man who becomes her husband. The same is true with God. We cannot have an intimate, personal relationship with God as long as we are under the law of sin and death. However, as true believers in Jesus Christ, we are free to have an intimate, personal relationship with God.

αποθανοντες εν ω κατειχομεθα (apothanontes en hō kateichometha) “having died to that which we were bound” .. kateichometha is a verb that means “restrain, hold fast, hold back, hold down) .. The Law is confining, restraining on the unbeliever .. it keeps the unbeliever down, holds them back, from being able to serve God ..

ωστε δουλευειν ημας εν καινοτητι πνευματος (hōste douleuein hēmas en kainotēti pneumatos) “in order for to serve us in newness of the spirit” .. douleuein is a verb that means “to serve willingly as a slave, to obey from devotion” .. kainotēti is a noun that means “freshness, newness” .. pneumatos is a noun that means “wind, breath, spirit” ..

και ου παλαιοτητι γραμματος (kai ou palaiotēti grammatos) “and not in oldness of the letter” .. palaiotēti is a noun that means “obsolete, oldness” .. grammatos is a noun that means “writing, that which is written, document, letter” ..

This is another powerful contrast from Paul. A new believer dies to the Law that had previously restrained them from serving God freely. Instead of being an unwilling slave to the Law and sin, they become a willing and devoted slave (servant) of God. Their life is fresh and new, not like the old and obsolete life they had under the Law. We can serve God in the Spirit freely and fully, holding nothing back because nothing is holding us back from that service.

Other Commentaries

By the believer’s death with Christ on the Cross, he was discharged from the law as the woman was discharged from the law which bound her to her husband. The believer is not under the law anymore, nor subject to it. Kenneth Wuest, Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, Romans, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1955

By dying to that which was once in control, the believer is now released from the law and freed to serve in a new way. Formerly we were in bondage to written regulations. Law was our old master. But now we are set free to serve our new master in a new way, in the Spirit. The shift from law to Spirit is a shift from legalism to true spirituality. How unfortunate that so many believers continue to understand their Christian experience within an ethical framework determined by law. To serve in the Spirit is to live the resurrected life, to claim our rightful place in Christ. Dead to sin and freed to live for righteousness, we now live lives that bear fruit for God. Robert H. Mounce, New American Commentary Vol 27: Romans, B&H Publishing Group, 2012

By death we are freed from obligation to the law as a covenant, as the wife is from her vows to her husband. In our believing powerfully and effectually, we are dead to the law, and have no more to do with it than the dead servant, who is freed from his master, has to do with his master’s yoke. The day of our believing, is the day of being united to the Lord Jesus. We enter upon a life of dependence on him, and duty to him. Good works are from union with Christ; as the fruitfulness of the vine is the product of its being united to its roots; there is no fruit to God, till we are united to Christ. The law, and the greatest efforts of one under the law, still in the flesh, under the power of corrupt principles, cannot set the heart right with regard to the love of God, overcome worldly lusts, or give truth and sincerity in the inward parts, or any thing that comes by the special sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. Nothing more than a formal obedience to the outward letter of any precept, can be performed by us, without the renewing, new-creating grace of the new covenant. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

The design of God in delivering us from the Law, is, that we might “serve him in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter,” that is, in such a spiritual way as the new state requires, and from such spiritual motives and aids as it furnishes; and not in the manner we were accustomed to do, under our old condition of subjection to the Law, in which we could yield only an external and forced obedience. Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

The Gospel thus both intends, and effects, the submission of the will to the will of God; a submission absolute and real; a bondservice. But the bond is now the power of adoring and grateful love.—It will be seen that we take ‘Spirit’ here to mean the Holy Paraclete. The Gr. word rarely, if ever, bears our modern sense of ‘the spirit of a law, of an institution, &c.’ It must here be, then, either the human spirit or the Divine Spirit. And as the idea of “the letter” is that of an objective ruling power, so it is best to explain ‘the Spirit’ as objective also to the man, and therefore here the Divine Spirit.—We may now paraphrase the last words, ‘so that we might live as bondmen still, but in the sacred novelty of the bondservice which the Holy Ghost constrains, not in the now-obsolete way of the bondservice prescribed by the covenant of merit’. Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges