Romans 7:6

Romans 7:6. But now. Comp. chap. Romans 6:22.

We have been delivered, or, ‘loosed,' the same word as in Romans 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. Romans 7:2). ‘Wherein' points to the law, which ‘held' us bound until we died to it (comp. Romans 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.