Romans 7:6

King James Version (KJV)

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.

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

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.

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Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

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 Romans 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 Romans 7:4.

Wherein we were held - That is, as captives, or as slaves. We were held in bondage to it; Romans 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,

(1)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 2 Corinthians 3:6; Note, Romans 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; John 4:23, “The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; Philemon 3:3.

And not in the oldness of the letter - Not in the old letter. It is implied here in this,

(1)That the form of worship here described pertained to an old dispensation that had now passed away; and,

(2)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; 2 Corinthians 3:6, “The letter killeth; the spirit giveth life;” John 6:63; Hebrews 10:1-4; Hebrews 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.”)

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Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary

So long as a man continues under the law as a covenant, and seeks justification by his own obedience, he continues the slave of sin in some form. Nothing but the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, can make any sinner free from the law of sin and death. Believers are delivered from that power of the law, which condemns for the sins committed by them. And they are delivered from that power of the law which stirs up and provokes the sin that dwells in them. Understand this not of the law as a rule, but as a covenant of works. In profession and privilege, we are under a covenant of grace, and not under a covenant of works; under the gospel of Christ, not under the law of Moses. The difference is spoken of under the similitude or figure of being married to a new husband. The second marriage is to Christ. By death we are freed from obligation to the law as a covenant, as the wife is from her vows to her husband. In our believing powerfully and effectually, we are dead to the law, and have no more to do with it than the dead servant, who is freed from his master, has to do with his master's yoke. The day of our believing, is the day of being united to the Lord Jesus. We enter upon a life of dependence on him, and duty to him. Good works are from union with Christ; as the fruitfulness of the vine is the product of its being united to its roots; there is no fruit to God, till we are united to Christ. The law, and the greatest efforts of one under the law, still in the flesh, under the power of corrupt principles, cannot set the heart right with regard to the love of God, overcome worldly lusts, or give truth and sincerity in the inward parts, or any thing that comes by the special sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. Nothing more than a formal obedience to the outward letter of any precept, can be performed by us, without the renewing, new-creating grace of the new covenant.

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SDA Bible Commentary (limited)
Volume 1-7

6. Delivered. Gr. katargeÅÂ (see on ch. 3:3). The word is used in ch. 7:2 to describe the loosing of the wife from the law of her husband. “Delivered from the law” is equivalent to not being “under the law,” for the meaning of which see on ch. 6:14.

That being dead. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the following reading of the passage: “having died [to that] wherein we were held.” The reading of the KJV is found in the Textus Receptus (see Vol. V, p. 142) but not in any manuscript. This reading has seemed to give support to the idea that under the gospel the law is dead. Paul is simply restating the means by which we are discharged from the law. It is accomplished by the death of the old sinful man (v. 4), in the same way as the death of the husband gave freedom to the wife (v. 2). When our old man is crucified with Christ (ch. 6:6), we ourselves, like the wife in the figure, die to the law (ch. 7:4), which formerly exercised oppressive dominion over us because of the unhappy union between ourselves and our old sinful nature (see on ch. 6:14).

That we should serve. Or, “so that we serve.” The clause may be understood as expressing either purpose (cf. v. 4) or result (cf. ch. 6:22).

In newness of spirit. Believers who have died to sin and risen to newness of life (ch. 6:2, 4) now render a service that is new and spiritual. Their obedience to God’s law is no longer legalistic and mechanical, as if righteousness consisted merely of compliance with a set of external rules of conduct, without any reference to the condition of the heart. Through union with the risen Saviour believers have learned a new way of true, heartfelt, spiritual obedience. Such service and worship is possible only to those who have been born again of the Holy Spirit and live under His influence. Paul explains this further in ch. 8.

In the oldness of the letter. Literally, “in oldness of letter.” This describes the legalistic obedience of those who attempt to secure salvation by works of law. Such was the service of the Pharisees, who were careful to “pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin” but at the same time omitted the “weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith” (see on Matt. 23:23). These “weightier matters” were matters of the heart and spirit. Service “in oldness of letter” can lead only to sin and death (Rom. 7:5). But the gospel brings God’s offer to make men capable of spiritual service from the heart. To be born again of the Holy Spirit means the creation of a clean heart and the renewal of a right spirit (see Ps. 51:10), so that from henceforth the believer no longer serves God from a sense of legal bondage and fear, but in a new spirit of freedom and love (see John 4:23; 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:6).

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Ellen G. White
Selected Messages Book 1, 213

Sin did not kill the law, but it did kill the carnal mind in Paul. “Now we are delivered from the law,” he declares, “that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter” (Romans 7:6). “Was that then which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful” (Romans 7:13). “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12). Paul calls the attention of his hearers to the broken law, and shows them wherein they are guilty. He instructs them as a schoolmaster instructs his scholars, and shows them the way back to their loyalty to God. 1SM 213.1

There is no safety nor repose nor justification in transgression of the law. Man cannot hope to stand innocent before God, and at peace with Him through the merits of Christ, while he continues in sin. He must cease to transgress, and become loyal and true. As the sinner looks into the great moral looking glass, he sees his defects of character. He sees himself just as he is, spotted, defiled, and condemned. But he knows that the law cannot in any way remove the guilt or pardon the transgressor. He must go farther than this. The law is but the schoolmaster to bring him to Christ. He must look to his sin-bearing Saviour. And as Christ is revealed to him upon the cross of Calvary, dying beneath the weight of the sins of the whole world, the Holy Spirit shows him the attitude of God to all who repent of their transgressions. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). 1SM 213.2

We need, individually, to take heed as we have never done before to a “Thus saith the Lord.” There are men who are disloyal to God, who profane His holy Sabbath, who cavil over the plainest statements of the Word, who wrest the Scriptures from their true meaning, and who at the same time make desperate efforts to harmonize their disobedience with the Scriptures. But the Word condemns such practices, as it condemned the scribes and Pharisees in Christ's day. We need to know what is truth. Shall we do as did the Pharisees? Shall we turn from the greatest Teacher the world has ever known to the traditions and maxims and sayings of men? 1SM 213.3

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Ellen G. White
This Day With God, 162.5

Many are falling into the sin of sacrificing their religion for the sake of worldly gain, preserving a form of piety, yet giving all the mind to temporal pursuit. But the law of God must be considered first of all, and obeyed in spirit and in letter. Jesus, our great exemplar, in His life and death, taught the strictest obedience. He died, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, that the honor of God's law might be preserved and yet man not utterly perish.... TDG 162.5

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