Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 7:6
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.
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.
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”.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
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.)
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
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.
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But now; i.e. being brought out of our fleshly state.
We are delivered from the law: see the notes on Rom 7:4.
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. But nowOn the sameexpression, see on Ro 6:22, andcompare Jas 1:15.
we are delivered from thelawThe word is the same which, in Ro6:6 and elsewhere, is rendered “destroyed,” and is butanother way of saying (as in Ro 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 toimpress upon the reader the violence of that death of theCross, by which, as by a deadly wrench, we are “delivered fromthe law.”
that being dead wherein wewere heldIt is now universally agreed that the true readinghere is, “being dead to that wherein we were held.” Thereceived reading has no authority whatever, and is inconsistent withthe strain of the argument; for the death spoken of, as we have seen,is not the law’s, but ours, through union with the crucifiedSaviour.
that we should“soas to” or “so that we.”
serve in newness ofspirit“in the newness of the spirit.”
and not in the oldness of theletternot in our old way of literal, mechanical obedience tothe divine law, as a set of external rules of conduct, and withoutany reference to the state of our hearts; but in that new way ofspiritual obedience which, through union to the risen Saviour, wehave learned to render (compare Rom 2:29;2Co 3:6).
False Inferences regarding theLaw Repelled (Ro7:7-25).
And first, Ro7:7-13, in the case of the UNREGENERATE.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 comments on Ro 7:4].
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, Ga 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”, Ro 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”, Ro 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”, Ro 7:5, the other serves the Lord, “in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
But now ( ). In the new condition.
Wherein we were holden ( ). Imperfect passive of , picture of our former state (same verb in 1:18).
In newness of spirit ( ). The death to the letter of the law (the old husband) has set us free to the new life in Christ. So Paul has shown again the obligation on us to live for Christ.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
We are delivered [] . Rev., have been discharged, as the woman, ver. 2. See on ch. Rom 3:3.
We were held. Lit., held down. See on ch. Rom 1:18.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “But now we are delivered from the law,” (nuni de katergethemen apo tou nomou) “But now and for hereafter, we were discharged (released) from the obligations of law worship and service,” though under the inherent law of sin and physical death, Gal 3:13.
2) “That being dead wherein we were held,” (apothanotes en ho kateichometha) “Having died (became barren) to that (law) in which we were held fast,” or obligated until the coming and death of Christ –Dead, no longer obligated to the old law of sin in the body, or to the law of Mosaic Worship, Joh 8:36; Rom 7:4; Gal 2:19.
3) “That we should serve in newness of Spirit “ (hoste douleuein (hemas) en kainoteti pneumatos) “So that we might serve in newness of Spirit,” both in the new nature of the believer and serve thru the new order of worship and service (the church), Mat 28:18-20; Act 20:28; Eph 3:21.
4) “And not in the oldness of the letter,” (kai ou palaioteti grammatos) “And not in oldness of letter,” the letter of the law worship and service program, 1Co 3:6; Gal 5:25; Heb 8:13.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
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. (207)
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. (208) — 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.
(207) That the moral, and not the ceremonial law, is meant here, is incontestably evident from what the Apostle adds in the following verses. He quotes the moral law in the next verse; he calls this law, in Rom 7:10, the commandment, την ἐντολὴν, which was unto life, see Mat 19:16; and he says, that “by it” sin “slew” him, which could not have been said of the ceremonial law. — Ed.
(208) Our common version is evidently incorrect as to this clause. The pronoun αὐτῷ or ἐκεινῷ, is to be supplied. There is an exactly similar ellipsis in Rom 6:21 [ Beza ] and several others, as well as our version, have followed a reading, αποθανοντὀ, which [ Griesbach ] disregards as of no authority; and it is inconsistent with the usual phraseology of the Apostle. See Rom 7:4, and Gal 2:19. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(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 Chrysostoms. 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.
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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so as to serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.’
But now we (our ‘old man’) have died with Christ, and we are therefore now discharged from the Law, having died to that in which we were held (note that here it is seemingly ‘the wife’ (we) who has died in Christ’s death). The coroner has, as it were, declared us dead and therefore untouchable by the Law. And the consequence is that we are free to serve in newness of Spirit, as our ‘new man’ responds to and obeys the Spirit and walks step by step with Him (Gal 5:16-24), and not in the oldness of the letter (by our old man striving to keep the written Law). That we are to see ‘the Spirit’ as mentioned here as being the Holy Spirit, rather than our spirit (or included with our spirit), comes out in the contrast with the flesh (Rom 7:5). This is a contrast continually made by Paul (Rom 8:4-14; Gal 5:16-17). We can compare the difference between ‘the Law written in the heart’ (Jer 31:31-34), that is, by the Spirit on the fleshy table of the heart (2Co 3:3), and the Law written in stone.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 7:6. But now we are delivered, &c. But now,that is, under the Gospel. Now is frequently used in this sense;which should be well observed, as it may prove a key to many texts. However, here, as the Apostle had given in the foregoing verse a summary account of the state of the sinner under the law, he gives us in this verse a summary description of the nature and design of the Gospel: and this he resumes and comments upon, chap. Rom 8:1-12. The Jews, who had not a living faith in the true Messiah, were held in obedience to the whole letter of the law, without regarding the spiritual meaning which pointed at Christ. This the Apostle calls here serving in the oldness of the letter; and this he tells them they should leave, as being freed from it by the death of Christ, who was the end of the law for the attaining of righteousness (chap. Rom 10:4.); that is, in the spiritual sense of it, which in 2Co 3:6 he calls spirit. That chapter and the present verse give light to one another. Serving in the newness of spirit, opposed as it is to the oldness of the letter, must signify, following the law so far as it is revised, and asit is explained in the Gospel for theattainingofevangelicalrighteousness.Butforthefartherelucidationofthismatter, it may be worth while to inquire, how far the law is abolished, and how far not? I. The law is abolished only in three respects. 1st, As it was a polity. God was the king of the Jewish nation, as much as any men are the kings and governors of other nations: and as the king of the Jewish nation, God delivered the law to them. By this means religion was incorporated into their civil government, and their polity was religious, and their religion political. But in this respect, the law to us Christians is quite abolished; religion under the Gospel, is set upon its original bottom; stands entirely independent of all civil government, and is quite exempt from the authority and jurisdiction of the civil magistrate. 2nd, The law is also abolished, as it was a dispensation of types and figures, wherein, under earthly emblems, external rites or ceremonies, the good things which were to come under the Gospel were shadowed and represented; the divine wisdom judging this in those times a proper means of instruction. But now this veil is done away, and we all with open face, as in a glass, beheld the glory of the Lord. 3rdly, The law, as it was the ministration of death, and subjected the transgressors of it to the curse, and to condemnation, without affording any hope or remedy, is also happily abolished. II. But on the other hand, the law of Moses is not abolished; first, as it contains the moral law; as such it must stand under every dispensationthe Gospel, as well as any other,in its full force and extent; that is, requiring and obliging us, so far as our capacities reach, to perfect obedience: for God can never require imperfect obedience, or by his holy law allow us to be guilty of any one sin, how small soever: and ifthe law, as a rule of duty, were in any respect abolished, then we might in some respects transgress the law, and yet not be guilty of sin. The moral law is truth, everlasting and unchangeable, and therefore, as such, can never be abrogated. On the contrary, our Lord Jesus Christ has promulgated this law anew under the Gospel, and having added to its precepts the sanction of his own divine authority, and the powerful and attractive motives of the law of God, and of his own love to mankind, with the brightest hopes and prospects of eternal life, he has hereby enforced and secured the observance of it, infinitely beyond any thing that the wisest philosophers ever could find in the law of nature, and far beyond any thing plainly and expressly offered in the Mosaical constitution. See Eph 2:15. Secondly, Nor is the law, as it is the ministration of death, so abolished as never more to be in force. It is indeed so far abolished, through the mercy of the Lawgiver, that although a man does transgress, yet he is not at present irrecoverably subjected for his transgressions to final wrath and condemnation, though he may at present be so far involved in guilt, as to be nigh unto cursing (Heb 6:8.); but is allowed the favour of repentance and pardon; and if he continues sincerely obedient, is sure of eternal life, and shall never come into condemnation, or under the power of the law, for any of his past transgressions. This demonstrates that no man in this world is under law, the covenant of works, or the broken law of works, for if we were now at any time under the broken law of works, then should we be in a state of final and eternal damnation, without hope or remedy, because there now remains no more sacrifice for sins, Heb 10:26-29. See 2Co 6:2. Heb 2:3; Heb 12:25. 1Co 16:22.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 7:6 . .] See on Rom 7:2 .
.] dead (see Rom 7:4 ) to that (neuter) wherein we were held fast . So also Fritzsche and Reiche in his Comm. crit . The construction is consistent and regular, so that is to be understood before (Winer, p. 149 f. [E. T. 203 f.]). That wherein we were held fast (as in a prison), is self-evident according to the text; not as the government of sin (van Hengel, Th. Schott), or as the (Hofmann), but as the law , in whose grasp we were. Comp Gal 3:28 . Were we with the majority (including Rckert, de Wette, Kllner, Krehl, Philippi, Maier, Winer, Ewald, Bisping, and Reithmayr) to take as masculine (and how unnecessarily!), the as modal definition of . would have an isolated and forlorn position; we should have expected it behind .
. . [2] ] actual result, which has occurred through our emancipation from the law: so that we (as Christians) are serviceable in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter; that is, so that our relation of service is in a new definite character regulated by spirit, and not in the old constitution which was regulated by literal form. That the in . was a service of God , was just as obvious of itself to the consciousness of the readers, as that in . it had been a service of sin (Rom 6:20 ). On account of this self-evident diversity of reference no definition at all is added. On the in the contrast (not ) see Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 300.
indicates the sphere of activity of the , and is to be understood again along with .; comp Rom 2:29 . The qualitatively expressed , meaning in concrete application the Holy Spirit as the efficient principle of the Christian life, and the qualitative , characterising the law according to its nature and character as non-living and drawn up in letters, are the specifically heterogeneous factors on which the two contrasted states are dependent. The in accordance with the nature of the relation in which the law, presenting its demands in the letter but not inwardly operative, stands to the principle of sin in man was necessarily sinful (not merely in actual abnormality, as Rothe thinks; see Rom 7:7 ff., and comp on Rom 6:14 ); just as on the other hand the , on account of the vitally active , must also necessarily be moral. Where this is contradicted by experience and the behaviour of the Christian is immoral, there the has ceased to operate, and a is in fact not present at all. Paul however, disregarding such abnormal phenomena, contemplates the Christian life as it is constituted in accordance with its new, holy, and lofty nature. If it is otherwise, it has fallen away from its specific nature and is a Christian life no longer.
[2] . . . .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
6. ] But now (opposed to , Rom 7:5 ) have we been delivered (annulled) from the law, having died (to that) wherein we were held (the reading cannot even be brought into discussion, as it appears to be only a conjecture of Beza’s, arising from a misunderstanding of the text (and of Chrysostom’s commentary, who did not read it), see the analogy explained on Rom 7:1 ; the other reading, , is a correction to suit Rom 7:5 . So that either refers directly to , being absolute and parenthetic, or we must understand aft. . I prefer the latter, as suiting better the style of the Apostle and the whole connexion. The omission of the demonstrative pron. probably is occasioned by a desire to give especial prominence to the fact of , or perhaps on account of the prepos. in composition, as in ch. Rom 10:14 , ;), so that we serve (not ‘ should serve ,’ as E. V.: the pres. describes the actual state: understand ‘ God ’ after serve) in the newness of the Spirit (i.e. of the Holy Spirit of God, who originates and penetrates the Christian life: the first mention of the Spirit so much spoken of in ch. 8) and not in the oldness of the letter (the law being only a collection of precepts and prohibitions, but the Gospel a service of freedom, ruled by the Spirit, whose presence is liberty), and are not as in ch. Rom 6:4 , , attributes of the genitives which follow them, but states in which those genitives are the ruling elements .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 7:6 . as things stand, considering what we are as Christians. : cf. Rom 7:2 . We are discharged from the law, by our death to that in which we were held. But what is this? Most expositors, say the law; Philippi even makes the antecedent of , rendering, we have been delivered, by dying, from the law in which we were held. This construction is too artificial to be true; and if we supply with , something vaguer than the law, though involving and involved by it (the old life in the flesh, for instance) must be meant. . . .: “enabling us to serve” (S. and H.): for with inf in N.T., see Blass, Gramm. des N.T. Griech. , 219. . . . = in a new way, which only the possession of the spirit makes possible, not in the old way which alone was possible when we were under the letter of the law. For the Pauline contrast of and , see 2Co 3 ; for in this expression, see Burton, 481.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
delivered. Greek. katargeo. See Rom 7:2.
that . . . held = having died (to that) in which we were held.
wherein = in (App-104.) which.
that = so that.
serve. App-190. Compare Rom 6:6.
newness. See Rom 6:4.
spirit. App-101.
not. App-105.
oldness. Greek. palaiotes. Only here. We now serve, not, as in our old nature, the letter of the Law, but, following the new nature, on a new and different principle. Compare Rom 2:29. 2Co 3:6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
6.] But now (opposed to , Rom 7:5) have we been delivered (annulled) from the law, having died (to that) wherein we were held (the reading cannot even be brought into discussion, as it appears to be only a conjecture of Bezas, arising from a misunderstanding of the text (and of Chrysostoms commentary, who did not read it),-see the analogy explained on Rom 7:1; the other reading, , is a correction to suit Rom 7:5. So that either refers directly to , being absolute and parenthetic, or we must understand aft. . I prefer the latter, as suiting better the style of the Apostle and the whole connexion. The omission of the demonstrative pron. probably is occasioned by a desire to give especial prominence to the fact of , or perhaps on account of the prepos. in composition, as in ch. Rom 10:14, ;), so that we serve (not should serve, as E. V.: the pres. describes the actual state:-understand God after serve) in the newness of the Spirit (i.e. of the Holy Spirit of God, who originates and penetrates the Christian life:-the first mention of the Spirit so much spoken of in ch. 8) and not in the oldness of the letter (the law being only a collection of precepts and prohibitions, but the Gospel a service of freedom, ruled by the Spirit, whose presence is liberty), and are not as in ch. Rom 6:4, , attributes of the genitives which follow them, but states in which those genitives are the ruling elements.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 7:6. , being dead) So Rom 7:4, ye became dead, said of that party, which corresponds to the wife: comp. Gal 2:19. I have shown in der Antwort wegen des N. T. p. 55. A. 1745, that Chrysostom also read , not .[68]-) A plain construction in this sense: we have been set free by death from the law, which held us fast.-) an expressive term; comp. , ch. Rom 11:32, , Gal 3:23.- , , in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter) We have the same antithesis, ch. Rom 2:29; 2Co 3:6. The letter is not the law considered in itself, inasmuch as, thus considered, it is spiritual and living [instinct with life] Rom 7:14; Act 7:38 [the lively oracles], but in respect of the sinner, to whom it cannot give spirit and life, but leaves him to death, nay even it to a more profound extent hands him over to its power: although he may in the mean time aim at the performance of what the letter and its mere sound command to be done; so that the appearance and the name may still remain, just as a dead hand is still a hand. But the Spirit is given by the Gospel and by faith, and bestows life and newness, 2Co 3:6; comp. Joh 6:63. The words oldness and newness are used here by Paul in relation to the two testaments or covenants, although believers have now for a long time enjoyed the first fruits of the New Testament; and at the present day unbelievers retain the remnants, nay rather the whole substance, of the Old Testament. Observe too, the , in. is put once, not twice [The Engl. Vers. wrongly supplies in before the oldness. But Beng. That we should not serve the oldness, etc.] We have served oldness not God: comp. Gal 4:9, , to which [The beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage]; now we serve not newness, but [we serve] God in newness, ch. Rom 6:22.
[68] So also A (B?) C, both Syr. Versions, Memph. The first correction of the Amiatine MS. of Vulg. read . D () G fg Vulg. read [The law of death]. Rec. Text (and B?) .-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 7:6
Rom 7:6
But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held;-[We were held in the law, as in the power of a master, and were so held till we died in the person of Christ when he died on the cross. By that death we were released from the law, and so passed under grace, where we now stand.]
so that we serve in newness of the spirit,-That we may in the new spiritual state, or in union with Christ, serve God. This service is the new service of those living new lives. It is a spiritual service. The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. (Joh 4:23).
and not in oldness of the letter.-The oldness of the letter was after the flesh, complying with the letter, not in spirit. The obedience to the Jewish law did not necessarily require the service of the spirit, or from the heart. Under Christ all service must be from the heart. The weakness of the law was that it condemned sin, but did not enlist and purify the heart.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
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.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
But: Rom 7:4, Rom 6:14, Rom 6:15, Gal 3:13, Gal 3:23-25, Gal 4:4, Gal 4:5
that being dead: or, being dead to that, Rom 7:1, Rom 7:4, Rom 6:2
serve: Rom 1:9, Rom 2:27-29, Rom 6:4, Rom 6:11, Rom 6:19, Rom 6:22, Rom 12:2, Eze 11:19, Eze 36:26, 2Co 3:6, 2Co 5:17, Gal 2:19, Gal 2:20, Gal 6:15, Phi 3:3, Col 3:10
Reciprocal: Rom 2:29 – spirit Rom 7:9 – and I died Gal 4:21 – ye that Gal 5:1 – the liberty 1Pe 2:24 – being
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
SPIRIT OR LETTER
That we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Rom 7:6
The man who lives by rule and by rote has not yet entered on the fullness of Christian freedom. Christianity is not a set of rules, but a set of principles. These principles have an endless capacity for adapting themselves to the exigencies of every persons life. To adapt them to the peculiar and changing circumstances of your own life, you must exercise thought and trouble.
I. When the Jewish Church was in its infancy, God gave it rules for its guidance.He gave it the Ten Commandments and the ceremonial law. This do, and thou shalt live, was the command. Not that faith was unnecessaryAbraham was justified by faith before the law was giventhe law was added because of transgressions and as a help to the religious life, just as we give help to a little child to teach it to walk, or as we erect a scaffolding to a building to support it until it is finished. The outward expression of religious faith to a Jew, was obedience to a code of lawslaws were his tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father.
II. The danger of law is that it is apt to become rigid and stereotyped.The Jewish law had become so in the time of our Lord. The rich young man who came to our Lord and said, What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? thought he was a model Jew, because he was not conscious of having broken any of the Commandments; but when the test of self-sacrifice was applied to him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come follow Me, he went away sorrowful. He had kept the law, what more could be expected of him was implied in the question What lack I yet? The Pharisees taught we may forgive seven times, but not more. We must do no manner of work on the Sabbath-day. It is better to hunger, or to let your beast perish, or a soul be lost, than to work or to travel one step farther than a Sabbath-days journey. So they regarded the day itself with superstitious reverence, rather than the spirit and intention for which the day was given. They kept it not in the newness of spirit, but in the oldness of the letter.
III. But when the fullness of time was come, and God sent forth His Son, the letter gave way to the spirit.Judaism, the child, grew into Christianityinto spiritual manhood. Forgive not seven times, but seventy times seven. There is no limit to the number of times we should forgive a repentant brother. Forgiveness is not a limited rule, it is a boundless spirit. The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. The day itself was nothing, the spirit and intention for which the day was set apart was the point: to rest the body and to refresh the soul. It were better to transgress the letter of the Commandment than to leave these objects unattained.
Rev. C. Rhodes Hall.
Illustration
It is in the spirit, and according to the principles taught by our Lord Himself, that we invite you to submit yourselves to the discipline of Lent. If a simple rule of life is a help to you, by all means use it. Still, in doing so, do not mistake the means for the end. The heart knoweth his own bitterness. Every earnest soul knows its own special weakness, and is conscious of its own besetting sin. The season of Lent is a time to wage war with this worst self of ours. If, in doing so, we find it necessary to deny ourselves this pleasure, or to abstain from that food or drink, remember they are only good in proportion as they serve towards the end you have in view. To refrain from indulging in unnecessary food and drink for its own sake is not religion. But if, in consequence, you are better in health and purer in mind, and have somewhat to give to them that need, that is the very spirit of Christianity.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Rom 7:6. But now. Comp. chap. Rom 6:22.
We have been delivered, or, loosed, the same word as in Rom 7:2. The annulling of the marriage relation is referred to in both cases. Here the exact reference is to the simple past act of release or discharge from the law, at the time of justification.
Having died to that, etc. This is the sense of the reading now generally accepted. The figure of marriage is retained; we died so far as the law is concerned, hence the marriage tie is dissolved (comp. Rom 7:2). Wherein points to the law, which held us bound until we died to it (comp. Rom 7:1).
So that we serve; serve God, as the whole passage shows. A present result, of which the readers were aware, is expressed in the original, but obscured in the E. V.
In newness of the Spirit, i.e., the Holy Spirit. The sphere of the Christian service of God is a new one, of which the Holy Spirit is the ruling element or force. Comp. the life in the Spirit as described in chap. 8. The former service was in oldness of the letter. This is not simply old letter, nor is it exactly the same as in the flesh, or, under the law. The religious service, before death to the law, was ruled by the letter, by the outward form; hence it had an element of decay, it was a grievous yoke. This does not imply an antithesis between the grammatical sense of Scripture and some spiritual sense, but points to the legal state where the attempt at obedience is prompted not by the Holy Spirit but by the restraint of an external, literal rule. The new service is the only true service; under the law such a service was not possible. The law said: Do this and live; the gospel says: Live and do this, and the doing is of a different character from all the previous attempts to earn eternal life.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Vv. 6. But now we are delivered from the law, being dead to him under whom we were held; so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
The contrast between this but now and the when we were of Rom 7:5, corresponds exactly, both as to form and substance, with the contrast between the when ye were and the but now, Rom 6:20; Rom 6:22; only with an application to another domain (that of the law). In the , literally, we were annulled, we again find the form already explained in Rom 7:2, where it was said of the woman deprived of her standing as a married wife by the death of her husband: , she is abolished, she has ceased to be (as a wife). Here, as in the former case, this verb, construed with the preposition , from, contains the idea of the most complete deliverance. We have seen in Rom 7:4 that this deliverance resulted from the death undergone in Christ (ye were put to death). It is this last idea which is recalled by the being dead, . The reading of the T. R.: , that under which we were held (the law) being dead, arises, according to Tischendorf, from a mistake of Beza, who followed Erasmus in a false interpretation which he gives of a passage from Chrysostom. In point of fact, as we have seen, the idea of the abolition of the law is foreign to this passage. As to the reading of the Greco-Latins: We are delivered from the law of death under which we were held, it has probably been occasioned by the expression: to bring forth fruit unto death, Rom 7:5; but this qualification of the law is equally foreign to the passage before us.
Could the master, under whom we were held, possibly be, as Hofmann would have it, the flesh, taking the as a neuter pronoun? But the whole context, as well as the parallel passage, Rom 7:4, shows clearly that the subject in question is the law. The antecedent of is the demonstrative pronoun (him, that is to say, the master) understood. The last words: under whom we were…, appear superfluous at first sight; but they are intended to remind us of the example taken from the law, which was the starting point of this demonstration (Rom 7:1-3).
But this liberation does not tend to license. On the contrary, it is to issue in a , a new servitude of the noblest and most glorious nature, which alone indeed deserves the name of liberty. This term , to serve, is chosen as alone applicable to the two states about to be characterized.
In newness of spirit, says the apostle; he thus designates the new state into which the Holy Spirit introduces the believer, when He establishes a full harmony between the inclination of the heart and moral obligation; when to do good and renounce self for God has become a joy. With this state, of which he gives us a glimpse, and which he reserves for description (chap. 8), the apostle in closing contrasts the former state. This he puts second, because it is the state which he proposes to describe immediately, Rom 7:7-25. He calls it oldness of the letter: there may be in this expression an allusion to the old man, , Rom 6:6; but anyhow Paul wishes to designate this state as now past for the believer; it is from the viewpoint of his new state that he can characterize it thus. The letter is the moral obligation written in the code, imposing itself on man as a foreign law, and opposed to his inward dispositions. Is it not legitimate (Rom 7:1-4) and advantageous (Rom 7:5-6) to break with such a state, and enter upon the other, as soon as this possibility is presented by God Himself?
The apostle has shown in the first section that the gospel has the power to sanctify, and thereby to put an end at once to the reign of sin and law, which are one and the same state. He proceeds to explain that the law need not be an object of regret, since it is powerless to sanctify. It has therefore no well-founded protest to raise against the judgment which falls on it. Such is the subject of the following section.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
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).]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
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.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that {i} being dead {k} wherein we were {l} held; that we should serve in {m} newness of spirit, and not [in] the oldness of the {n} letter.
(i) As if he said, “The bond which bound us is dead, and has disappeared, in as much that the sin which held us does not have anything to hold us with now.”
(k) For this husband is within us.
(l) Satan is an unjust possessor, for he deceitfully brought us into bondage to sin and himself: and yet nonetheless, as long as we are sinners, we sin willingly.
(m) As is appropriate for those who, after the death of their old husband, are joined to the Spirit, the ones whom the Spirit of God has made new men.
(n) By the letter he means the law, with respect to that old condition: for before our will is shaped by the Holy Spirit, the law speaks but to deaf men, and therefore it is dumb and dead to us, with regard to the fulfilling of it.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Paul summarized Rom 7:1-5 here. We died to the Law just as we died to sin (Rom 6:5). The same Greek word (katargeo) occurs in both verses. Christ’s death as our representative changed (lit. rendered idle) our relationship to both entities. It is as though God shifted the transmissions of our lives into neutral gear. Now something else drives our lives, namely, the Holy Spirit. Sin and the Law no longer drive us forward, though we can engage those powers if we choose to do so and take back control of our lives from God.
The contrast between the Spirit and the letter raises a question about whether Paul meant the Holy Spirit or the spirit of the Law (cf. Rom 2:27-29). Both meanings are true, so he could have intended either one or both. The definite article "the" is not in the Greek text. On the one hand, the spirit of the Mosaic Law, restated by Christ and the apostles, is what we are responsible to obey (Rom 6:13-19) rather than the letter of the Mosaic Law. On the other hand, we serve with the enablement of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which most Old Testament believers did not possess. [Note: See Leon Wood, The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.] "Newness" or "new" (Gr. kainoteti) suggests something fresh rather than something recent. Our service is more recent, but Paul stressed the superiority, freshness, and vitality of the believer’s relationship to God having experienced union with Christ.
Perhaps the Holy Spirit was Paul’s primary referent since he developed the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life in chapter 8. But spirit and flesh probably refer to the new and old covenants respectively. [Note: Moo, p. 421.] The verse, of course, is saying nothing about the non-literal as contrasted with the literal interpretation of Scripture.
Paul did not say, We have been released from the ceremonial part of the Law. The Mosaic Law was a unified code that contained moral, religious, and civil regulations that regulated the life of the Israelites (Exodus 20 -Numbers 10). God has terminated the whole code as a regulator of Christians’ lives (cf. Rom 10:4). Christians have received a new code that Paul called the Law of Christ (Gal 6:2). It contains some of the same commandments as the old Mosaic Code, including nine of the Ten Commandments. The one that Jesus did not carry over was the fourth commandment about Sabbath observance. Nevertheless the Law of Christ is a new code. Thus Paul could say that God has released us from "the Law" of Moses. The Law of Christ consists of the teachings of Jesus Christ that He communicated during His earthly ministry that are in the New Testament. It also consists of teachings that He gave through His apostles and prophets following His ascension to heaven. [Note: See Charles C. Ryrie, "The End of the Law," Bibliotheca Sacra 124:495 (July-September 1967):239-47.] This is one of several passages that reveal that as Christians we have no obligation to keep the Law of Moses (cf. Rom 10:4; Rom 14:17; Mar 7:18-19; Joh 1:17; Act 10:10-15; 1Co 8:8; 2Co 3:7-11; Heb 7:12; Heb 9:10; Gal 3:24; Gal 4:9-11; Gal 5:1).