“But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” – Romans 7:6 (NASB)

Not Freedom to do what God’s law forbids, Not freedom to live however we please to satisfy our fleshly desires, but freedom from the spiritual liabilities and penalties of God’s law. Yesterday’s verse declares that we “were made to die.”  The Greek construction of this verb emphasizes two important points: 1) this death happened at a point in time, with results that are complete and final; and 2) someone else—in this case God Himself—initiated this death (lit. “you also were made to die”). Because we died in Christ when He died, the law with its condemnation and penalties no longer has jurisdiction over us. Not a reference to the believer’s ongoing daily struggle with sin, but to a one-time event completed in the past. Because we are “in Christ,” and He died in our place (Romans 5:6–8), we are counted dead with Him. A new state of mind which the Spirit produces, is characterized by a new desire and ability to keep the law of God. It compares to the oldness of the letter which is any legalism, any external, understood or written law code that produced only hostility and condemnation.

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