“4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.”
In verse 4, Paul explained that those who follow Christ no longer belong to sin, and thus are now free to begin producing righteous fruit for God. That is, Christians who have been saved by God’s grace will want to live a life of righteous obedience to God, and live lives that reflect the change God has enacted in our hearts.
Today’s devotional explains that when we were in the flesh, before Jesus saved us from our sin, sin was producing fruit for death. Verse 5 introduces a general principle of the law: The law brings awareness and condemnation of sin, and as a result, sin begins lurking around every corner. When the law makes us aware of our sin, we see it everywhere and in everything we do. The law arouses sin, and sin takes advantage of the law, heaping more and more condemnation upon the sinner. (More on this to come in the following verses and devotionals) But now, just as Paul has explained in the previous verses of Chapter 7, those saved by faith in Jesus are no longer condemned by the law because we died to it when we were buried with Christ in His death. Now we may serve God in a new way, “In the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.” (v. 6) What does it mean to serve God “…in the newness of the Spirit…”? This is just as Paul explained in Romans 2:29, where we are called to be Jews inwardly (circumcision of the heart, newness of the Spirit) rather than Jews outwardly (circumcision of the flesh, old letter of the law).
“For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart — by the Spirit, not the letter. That person’s praise is not from people but from God.” — Romans 2:28-29
Not only is Paul encouraging us to live this way, but here he reveals that we will be helped in our journey of sanctification by the Spirit. Rather than stand condemned before God, we are redeemed by our faith in Jesus and are given the power of the Spirit to enable us to walk rightly in the new life that we have been given. Paul will further address the work of the Spirit in Romans 8.