But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
Parallel Translations
-
But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
-
But now are we delivered from the lawe and deed from that whervnto we werein bondage that we shuld serve in a newe conversacion of the sprete and not in the olde conversacion of the letter.
-
But now we are deliuered from the Lawe, he being dead in whom we were holden, that we should serue in newnesse of Spirite, and not in the oldnesse of the letter.
Cross-references (22)
Passages linked to Romans 7:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Galatians 3:23-25 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, confined for the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
- 2 Corinthians 3:6 who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
- Romans 7:4 Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God.
- Romans 6:4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
- Galatians 2:19-20 For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.
- Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.
- Romans 6:14-15 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!
- Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
- Galatians 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
- Romans 6:22 But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life.
- Romans 12:2 Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
- Colossians 3:10 and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,
- Romans 6:2 May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
- Romans 7:1 Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?
- Romans 2:27-29 Won’t the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.
- Ezekiel 11:19 I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh;
- Romans 1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Good News of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,
- Romans 6:11 Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Romans 6:19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.
- Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;
- Ezekiel 36:26 I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (20 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 6. But now we have been loosed from the…
6. But now we have been loosed from the law, etc. He pursues the argument derived from the opposite effect of things, — “If the restraint of the law availed so little to bridle the flesh, that it became rather the exciter of sin; then, that we may cease from sin, we must necessarily be freed from the law.” Again, “If we are freed from the bondage of the law for this end, that we may serve God; then, perversely do they act who hence take the liberty to indulge in sin; and falsely do they speak who teach, that by this means loose reins are given to lusts.” Observe, then, that we are then freed from the law, when God emancipates us from its rigid exactions and curse, and endues us with his Spirit, through whom we walk in his ways.
Having died to that, etc. This part contains a reason, or rather, indicates the manner in which we are made free; for the law is so far abrogated with regard to us, that we are not pressed down by its intolerable burden, and that its inexorable rigor does not overwhelm us with a curse. — In newness of spirit; He sets the spirit in opposition to the letter; for before our will is formed according to the will of God by the Holy Spirit, we have in the law nothing but the outward letter, which indeed bridles our external actions, but does not in the least restrain the fury of our lusts. And he ascribes newness to the Spirit, because it succeeds the old man; as the letter is called old, because it perishes through the regeneration of the Spirit.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain By the letter he meaneth the law, in respect…
By the letter he meaneth the law, in respect of that old condition: for before that our will be framed by the holy Ghost, the law speaketh but to deaf men, and therefore it is dumb and dead to us, as touching the fulfilling of it.
As if he said, The bond which bound us, is dead, and vanished away, insomuch, that sin which held us, hath not now wherewith to hold us.
Read full note →
For this husband is within us.
Satan is an unjust possessor, for he brought us in bondage of sin and himself deceitfully: and yet notwithstanding so long as we are sinners, we sin willingly.
As becometh them, which after the death of their old husband are joined to the spirit: as whom the spirit of God hath made new men.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 6 But now we are delivered from the law,…
6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Ver. 6. Not in the oldness of the letter] That is, not in that old kind of life that we lived under subjection to the law, to the irritation, co-action, and curse of it.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain But now; i.e. being brought out of our fleshly…
But now; i.e. being brought out of our fleshly state.
We are delivered from the law: see the notes on Rom 7:4.
Read full note →
That being dead wherein we were held; the relative is not in the Greek text, but it is well supplied to fill up the sense. The antecedent must be either sin or the law; by both of these we were held or detained whilst unregenerate; but now neither of these have any power to hold us with. Some read it, he being dead; the old man, of which he spake in the foregoing chapter.
That we should serve in newness of spirit; i.e. that we should serve God, or Jesus Christ, our new husband, in true holiness, which is wrought in us by the renewing of the spirit; or serve him in a new spiritual manner.
And not in the oldness of the letter; i.e. not in an outward and ceremonial manner, according to the letter of the law; which service, or way of worship, is now antiquated, and grown out of date. The word oldness insinuates the abolishing thereof, because of insufficiency, Heb 8:13.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain But now we are delivered from the law,.... From…
But now we are delivered from the law,.... From the ministration of it, by Moses; from it, as a covenant of works; from its rigorous exaction; from its curse and condemnation, all this by Christ; and from its being an irritating, provoking law to sin, through the corruption of nature, by the Spirit and grace of Christ; but not from obedience to it, as in the hands of Christ. The Vulgate Latin version, and some copies read, "from the law of death"; and the Ethiopic version renders it, "we are loosed from the law, and are delivered from the former doctrine"; the doctrine of the legal dispensation.
That being dead; not sin, but the law: in what sense believers are dead to the law, and that to them; see Gill on Rom 7:4.
Read full note →
Wherein we were held: as a woman is by the law to her husband, or as persons guilty, who are detained prisoners; so we were "kept under the law, shut up unto the faith", as in a prison, Gal 3:23; Now the saints deliverance from the law through the abrogation of it, that losing its former life, vigour, power, and dominion, is not that they may live a loose licentious life and conversation, but that they
should serve the Lord their God without slavish fear, and with a godly one, acceptably, in righteousness and holiness, all the days of their lives; and their Lord and Master Jesus Christ, who is King of saints, lawgiver in his church, and whose commandments are to be observed from a principle of love, in faith, and to his glory; yea, even the law itself, as held forth by him, as the apostle says in the close of this chapter, "with the mind I myself serve the law of God", Rom 7:25, the manner in which this service is to be, and is performed, is,
in newness of Spirit; under the influences of the Spirit of God, the author of renovation, of the new creature, or new man created in us, in righteousness and true holiness; and from a new heart, and new Spirit, and new principles of life, light, love, and grace, formed in the soul; and by walking in "newness of life", Rom 6:4, or by a new life, walk, and conversation:
and not in the oldness of the letter; not in the outward observance of the law of Moses, which is the "letter"; not indulging the old man, or walking after the dictates of corrupt nature; nor behaving according to the old former course of living: on the whole it may be observed, that a believer without the law, being delivered from it, that being dead to him, and he to that, lives a better life and conversation under the influence of the Spirit of God, than one that is under the law, and the works of it, destitute of the grace of God; the one brings forth "fruit unto death", Rom 7:5, the other serves the Lord, "in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter".
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Being dead to that whereby we were held -…
Being dead to that whereby we were held - To our old husband, the law. That we might serve in newness of spirit - In a new, spiritual manner. And not in the oldness of the letter - Not in a bare literal, external way, as we did before.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 6. But now we are delivered from the…
Verse 6. But now we are delivered from the law] We, who have believed in Christ Jesus, are delivered from that yoke by which we were bound, which sentenced every transgressor to perdition, but provided no pardon even for the penitent, and no sanctification for those who are weary of their inbred corruptions.
That being dead wherein we were held] To us believers in Christ this commandment is abrogated; we are transferred to another constitution; that law which kills ceases to bind us; it is dead to us who have believed in Christ Jesus, who is the end of the law for justification and salvation to every one that believes.
Read full note →
That we should serve in newness of spirit] We are now brought under a more spiritual dispensation; now we know the spiritual import of all the Mosaic precepts. We see that the law referred to the Gospel, and can only be fulfilled by the Gospel.
The oldness of the letter.] The merely literal rites, ceremonies, and sacrifices are now done away; and the newness of the spirit, the true intent and meaning of all are now fully disclosed; so that we are got from an imperfect state into a state of perfection and excellence. We sought justification and sanctification, pardon and holiness, by the law, and have found that the law could not give them: we have sought these in the Gospel scheme, and we have found them. We serve God now, not according to the old literal sense, but in the true spiritual meaning.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain But now - Under the gospel. This verse states…
But now - Under the gospel. This verse states the consequences of the gospel, in distinction from the effects of the Law. The way in which this is accomplished, the apostle illustrates more at length in Rom. 8 with which this verse is properly connected. The remainder of Rom. 7 is occupied in illustrating the statement in Rom 7:5, of the effects of the Law; and after having shown that its effects always were to increase crime and distress, he is prepared in Rom. 8 to take up the proposition in this verse, and to show the superiority of the gospel in producing peace.
We are delivered - We who are Christians. Delivered from it as a means of justification, as a source of sanctification, as a bondage to which we were subjected, and which tended to produce pain and death. It does not mean that Christians are freed from it as a rule of duty.
Read full note →
That being dead - Margin, “Being dead to that.” There is a variation here in the manuscripts. Some read it, as in the text, as if the Law was dead; others, as in the margin. as if we were dead. The majority is in favor of the reading as in the margin; and the connection requires us to understand it in this sense. So the Syriac, the Arabic, the Vulgate, AEthiopic. The sentiment here, that we are dead to the Law, is what is expressed in Rom 7:4.
Wherein we were held - That is, as captives, or as slaves. We were held in bondage to it; Rom 7:1.
That we should serve - That we may now serve or obey God.
In newness of spirit - In a new spirit; or in a new and spiritual manner. This is a form of expression implying,
That their service under the gospel was to be of a new kind, differing from that under the former dispensation.
(2)That it was to be of a spiritual nature, as distinguished from that practiced by the Jews; compare 2Co 3:6; Note, Rom 2:28-29.
The worship required under the gospel is uniformly described as that of the spirit and the heart, rather than that of form and ceremony; Joh 4:23, “The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; Phi 3:3.
And not in the oldness of the letter - Not in the old letter. It is implied here in this,
That the form of worship here described pertained to an old dispensation that had now passed away; and, That that was a worship that was in the letter.
To understand this, it is necessary to remember that the Law which prescribed the forms of worship among the Jews, was regarded by the apostle as destitute of that efficacy and power in renewing the heart which he attributed to the gospel. It was a service consisting in external forms and ceremonies; in the offering of sacrifices and of incense, according to the literal requirements of the Law rather than the sincere offering of the heart; 2Co 3:6, “The letter killeth; the spirit giveth life;” Joh 6:63; Heb 10:1-4; Heb 9:9-10. It is not to be denied that there were many holy persons under the Law, and that there were many spiritual offerings presented, but it is at the same time true that the great mass of the people rested in the mere form; and that the service offered was the mere service of the letter, and not of the heart. The main idea is, that the services under the gospel are purely and entirely spiritual, the offering of the heart, and not the service rendered by external forms and rites.
(But the contrast here is not between services required under the legal and gospel dispensations respectively, but between service yielded in the opposite states of nature and grace. In the former state, we are “under the law” though we live in gospel times, and in the latter, we are “delivered from the law” as a covenant of works, or of life, just as pious Jews might be though they lived under the dispensation of Moses. 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. “It is evident,” says Prof. Hodge that the clause “in the oldness of the letter is substituted by the apostle, for ‘under the law’ and ‘in the flesh;’ all which he uses to describe the legal and corrupt condition of people, prior to the believing reception of the gospel.”)
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain But now are loosed from the law of death,…
But now are loosed from the law of death, by which many understand from the law of Moses; so called, because it could not of itself give the life of grace, and occasioned death. Others expound these words, free from the law of death, that is, from sins, which before they had been guilty of, and which made them deserve eternal death. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain But now--On the same expression, see on Rom 6:22,…
But now--On the same expression, see on Rom 6:22, and compare Jam 1:15.
we are delivered from the law--The word is the same which, in Rom 6:6 and elsewhere, is rendered "destroyed," and is but another way of saying (as in Rom 7:4) that "we were slain to the law by the body of Christ"; language which, though harsh to the ear, is designed and fitted to impress upon the reader the violence of that death of the Cross, by which, as by a deadly wrench, we are "delivered from the law."
Read full note →
that being dead wherein we were held--It is now universally agreed that the true reading here is, "being dead to that wherein we were held." The received reading has no authority whatever, and is inconsistent with the strain of the argument; for the death spoken of, as we have seen, is not the law's, but ours, through union with the crucified Saviour.
that we should--"so as to" or "so that we."
serve in newness of spirit--"in the newness of the spirit."
and not in the oldness of the letter--not in our old way of literal, mechanical obedience to the divine law, as a set of external rules of conduct, and without any reference to the state of our hearts; but in that new way of spiritual obedience which, through union to the risen Saviour, we have learned to render (compare Rom 2:29; Co2 3:6).
False Inferences regarding the Law Repelled (Rom. 7:7-25).
And first, Rom 7:7-13, in the case of the UNREGENERATE.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 6. But now we are delivered from the law—Delivered…
6. But now we are delivered from the law—Delivered from it as our source of justification as the actuating power of our attainment in holiness, and as a condemning power.
Serve in newness of spirit—As we once served sin with all our heart most freely, so now we serve Christ with all our heart without legal compulsion and freely.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6. now] as the fact stands.
6. now] as the fact stands.
are delivered] Lit., and better, were delivered; by our Representative’s death ideally, and actually through faith in Him.
Read full note →
delivered] Lit. cancelled, abolished. This peculiar expression confirms the remark above on Rom_7:4, that St Paul designedly avoids the idea of the Law’s death, though the metaphor in strictness suggests it. Here, similarly, in strictness, the Law “was cancelled from us;” but we are said to be “cancelled from the Law.”—“From the Law:”—a pregnant phrase=so as to be free from it.
that being dead] i.e. the Law. But a better-supported reading (with a change of one letter only in the Gr.) gives, we being dead to that wherein, &c. This precisely accords with the evident avoidance hitherto of the idea of the Law’s death; for our death (in Christ) to the claim of the Law is thus put where we should expect to read of the death of its claim to us.
we were held] Lit. held down; i.e. from freedom; both as to the claim of the law and as to the consequent influence of sin.
that we should serve] Here the metaphor of marriage gives way to that of bondservice once more. The obedience of the wife is the connecting idea of the two.
newness of spirit] Better, of the Spirit; though the word is without article. The contrast of Spirit and letter has occurred Rom_2:29, (see too Rom_2:27,) and occurs also 2Co_3:6, twice. Comparing those passages, we find that the practical meaning here of “the letter” is the Law (as a covenant), and that of “the Spirit,” the Gospel. The common ground on which they are compared and contrasted is that of Obedience; at which both Law and Gospel ultimately aim. The Law does so “by the letter,” by prescribing its own inexorable terms. The Gospel does so “by the Spirit;” by the Divine plan of Redemption, which brings direct on the soul the influence of “the Spirit of the Son of God,” who “pours out the love of God in the heart” (ch. Rom_5:5). 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”.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (6) That being dead.—Our translators seem to have had…
(6) That being dead.—Our translators seem to have had a false reading here, which is not found in any MS., but arose from an error of Beza and Erasmus in interpreting a comment of Chrysostom’s. The true reading runs thus: “But as it is we were” (not “are”) “delivered from the Law, having died to that wherein we were held.” In the act of our baptism, which united us to Christ, we obtained a release from our old tyrant, the Law.
Wherein we were held.—Oppressed, held in bondage.
Read full note →
That we should serve.—Rather, perhaps, so that we serve; result, not purpose. Our release from one master implied an engagement to another. Our new state is one in which we serve an active living Spirit; our old state was a bondage to the dead and formal letter.
The “Spirit” is here the Holy Spirit, as the animating principle of the new life, and as opposed to a system which proceeds merely by external precepts and requirements.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain But now (meaning, as things are, not at the…
But now (meaning, as things are, not at the present time, as is shown by the aorist following) we have been (properly, we were) delivered (kathrghyhmen , the same verb as in ver. 2; see note on that verse) from the Law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. In the word "serve" (douleuein) we observe a resumption of the idea of Rom_6:16, seq., where we were regarded under the aspect of being still bond-servants, though to a new master. There the apostle intimated that he was but speaking humanly in describing our new allegiance to righteousness as bond-service, such as we had once been under. Here he intimates the true character of our new service by the addition of the words, en kainothti pneumatov kai ou palaiothti grammatov . These are characteristic and significant expressions. "Spirit" and "letter" are similarly contrasted. (Rom_2:29 2Co_3:6) "Spiritum literae opponit, quia antequam ad Dei voluntatem voluntas nostra per Spiritum sanctum formats sit, non habemus in Lege nisi externam literam; quae fraenum quidem externis nostris actionibus injicit, concupiscientiae autem nostrae furorem minime cohibet. Novitatem. vero Spiritui attribuit, quia in locum veteris hominis succedit; ut litera vetus dicitur quae interit per Spiritus regenerationem" (Calvin). Otherwise, with regard to newness and oldness, "Vetustatis et novitatis vocabulo Paulus spectat duo testamenta" (Bengel). That the latter idea may have suggested the expressions seems not unlikely from 2Co_3:6-18. (cf. also Heb_8:6-13) For in both these passages the idea of the verse before us enters, and in both the old and new covenants are contrasted with regard to it. It may be enough here to say that the contrast in its essence is between exacted conformity to an external code (which was the characteristic of the old covenant) and inspired allegiance to the Law of God written on the heart (which is the characteristic of the new).
The new spirit of Christian service.
Read full note →
What God creates he creates for a purpose. When he gives life, there is a special career before the living creature; thus the fish is for the water, the bird for the air. When he imparts spiritual renewal, it is with a view to a new spiritual life. In re-creating human natures in the likeness of his own Son, God has it, so to speak, in his purpose that they should serve him, and that in "newness of the spirit.
I CHRISTIANS HAVE A NEW LORD TO SERVE. They are freed from the dominion of sin, from their state of bondage to the tyrant; they are endowed with spiritual liberty. And they are devoted to the personal service of Christ, that they may do his will, advance his cause, promote his glory.
II CHRISTIANS HAVE A NEW MOTIVE TO SERVICE.
1. The ground of their service is redemption, the distinctive fact and doctrine of the new economy.
2. The impulse to their service is grateful love, awakened by the experience of Christ"s redeeming power and grace.
III CHRISTIANS HAVE A NEW LAW OF SERVICE. This law is widely different from the "oldness of the letter." It extends to the spiritual realm, beginning-in fact within, and working outwardly.
IV CHRISTIANS HAVE A NEW EXAMPLE OF SERVICE. In the Lord Jesus they see the Servant of Jehovah, found in fashion as a man, assuming the form, the guise of a servant, ministering unto God and unto man, and in both relations fulfilling a perfect, flawless ministry.
V CHRISTIANS HAVE A NEW POWER FOE SERVICE. This is the help of the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of zeal and holiness, of patience and of devotion.
VI CHRISTIANS HAVE A NEW MANNER OF SERVICE. They are not as the hireling who serves for wages, or as the bondman who serves from fear; but rather as the freedman who serves willingly and gratefully, as the child who serves from love. Christ introduced into the world a new style and tone of service; taught men the dignity and beauty of consecrated ministration. How precious and powerful this impulse and example have proved is known to every student of the history of Christ"s Church.
VII CHRISTIANS HAVE A NEW SCOPE FOR SERVICE.
1. Mutual service is an obligation in the Church springing from mutual love. The great are to serve the lowly, and the lowly the great.
2. Universal service is enjoined upon all who would do the will of the Divine Master. In both directions the service of those for whom Christ died is the service of Christ himself.
VIII CHRISTIANS HAVE A NEW REWARD FOR SERVICE. Nothing adventitious or external attracts those who are in sympathy with him who is at once the Servant and the Lord of all. Of all privileges, that most alluring and dear to their hearts is the favour of their Master, the joy of their Lord.
HOMILIES BY S.R. ALDRIDGE Ver. 6. "Newness of spirit.
The apostle never tires of contrasting the Sinaitic with the gospel dispensation, to the exaltation of the latter. He thinks of the former as a thraldom. "We were holden," that is, cribbed, confined by the Law.
I AN ESSENTIAL TO DELIVERANCE FROM Law.
1. Death must have intervened. Death is the great liberator, exhausting the penalty of the Law, and giving quittance from its captivity. The wife is released from spousal obligations by the death of her husband, and is free, therefore, to enter into a new covenant.
2. The death of Christ affords the necessary liberation. Prior to full obedience and reception of the utmost penalty of Mosaism, a fresh dispensation had been like adultery; but when the Law had been fulfilled to its extreme requirement, the death of the victim abrogated the authority of the Law.
3. The death of Christ is spiritually enacted in his followers. They repeat in essence his crucifixion of sin. His atonement is realized in their heart, and their baptism is the outward emblem of release by death and burial from a covenant of works. "He died unto sin once, but liveth unto God." Henceforth with Christians "the terrors of law and of death can have nothing to do.
II THE EXCELLENCE OF THE NEW CONDITION. We are not set free to please ourselves, but belong to him "who died for us and rose again." We enter into a fresh service.
1. The fact that it is new is a guarantee of improvement. Not everything new is better than the old. Man frequently retrogrades by his changes of custom. But when the alteration is a direct consequence of Divine intervention, there must be an advance. We cannot conceive of God taking a backward step.
2. The new service has the dewy freshness of youth about it. The resurrection-life is an awakening out of sleep, with the vigour of a glad new morning. The Christian sloughs off the old skin, to be attired in a vesture of beauty, and, like the winged butterfly emerging from the chrysalis state, he enters into an enlarged sphere of existence with corresponding capacities.
3. Voluntary service is substituted for compulsion. "Live and do" takes the place of "Do and live." The heart has been won to God, to obedience and holiness, and "love"s labour is light." The renewed spirit delights to exert itself in loving activity. Gratitude is a sweeter and stronger motive than authority.
4. Rules are exchanged for principles. Not the definite limiting letter governs the service, but a code of action which leaves much to be ascertained and applied by the enlightened judgment. It is the obedience of the instructed manhood, not the strict and rigid enforcement of precepts on children in their pupilage. The Law lay as a burden on men"s souls; the gospel is a "reasonable service," clarifying the vision and guiding men as "with the eye" of God. We serve not to gain heaven, but because Christ has opened to us the kingdom of heaven. As pilgrims relieved of a heavy load, we journey joyously to the city of the King. A bird must sing, and a Christian must serve. S.R.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 6. But now we have been delivered from the…
6. But now we have been delivered from the law. By death. Having died in Christ (6:2–4), we are released from the dominion of the law. See verse 1. So that we should serve in the newness of the spirit. This service of Christ is the new service of those living new lives. It is a spiritual service: “God must be worshiped in spirit and truth.” God's law under the new covenant is “written in the hearts” (Heb. 8:10); hence it is not a bondage, but a free, willing service.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 6. “But we have now been made free from…
6. “But we have now been made free from the law, being dead in that in which we were held, So that we serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” This verse answers all questions relative to the actual personal profession of entire sanctification on the part of the Apostle Paul and his associated ministry. The very fact that he is free from the law, and, as he says here, that everything in him antagonistical to the law had been slain, amounts to his clear and unequivocal testimony to the crucifixion of the “old man,” which is the very salient fact of entire sanctification. Paul dictated this letter to Tertius in Corinth, A. D. 58, twenty- one years after he had been sanctified in Arabia, consequently he was prepared to give, as he does in the verse, a clear and unequivocal testimony to that glorious experience.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain But now we have been discharged from the law,…
But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter . [These verses set forth the change in state and habit which results from our change of husbands, or the different fruitage of our lives, as suggested in Rom_7:4 . As Christians, a different fruitage is expected from that which our lives bore under the law; for before we became Christians, when we were governed by our fleshly nature, the sinful passions--passions which prompted us to gratify them, and which led us to sin if we did gratify them, and which we discovered to be sinful by means of the light of the law--lusted and worked in our bodily members to bring forth the fruit of death: but now we are released from the dominion of our husband (the law), having severed the tie that bound us to him by dying in the person of Christ, our representative, so that now we serve God with our new, regenerated spirit (an inward power), and not in the old-fashioned manner, which was by obedience to a written precept (an external power).]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Cf. Rom 2:29; 2Co 3:6. "The letter" is a…
newness
Cf. Rom 2:29; 2Co 3:6. "The letter" is a Paulinism for the law, as "spirit" in these passages is his word for the relationships and powers of new life in Christ Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 3. a series is presented of contrast of law with "spirit," of the old covenant and the new. The contrast is not between two methods of interpretation, literal, and spiritual, but between two methods of divine dealing: one through the law, the other through the Holy Spirit.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul reminds us that God does not make us holy by the law.
Read full note →
we have been released from the law
You can translate this in an active form. AT: "God has released us from the law" (See: Active or Passive)
we
This pronoun refers to Paul and the believers. (See: Inclusive "We")
to that by which we were held
This refers to the law. You can translate this in an active form. AT: "to the law which held us" (See: Active or Passive)
the letter
This refers to the law of Moses. AT: "the law of Moses" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
law
die
servant
Holy Spirit
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 7:6 the letter of the law (literally the letter):…
7:6 the letter of the law (literally the letter): Paul uses the word letter to refer to the law, which was engraved on tablets of stone and consisted of individual letters (see 2:29; 2 Cor 3:5-7).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.