Changed

Romans 7:5-6 Changed

Comparison

we were . . . we are

the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Constrained Condition v 5 For while we were

Problem living in the flesh there are several uses of the term flesh in scripture: 1) It refers to all human beings, the world 1 Peter 1:24, Luke 3:6. 2) It refers to the human body Gal 2:20. 3) It refers to the sensual aspect of our being Gal 5:17. 4) It refers to the old nature, “the old Adam”, the antithesis of being “in the Spirit”. (Jones). As described in Romans 8 to be "in the flesh" is described in four ways: 1) v 7a, "the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God;" 2) v 7b, "it does not subject itself to the law of God;" 3) v 7c, "it is not even able to do so [to subject itself to God's law];" 4) v 8, "those who are in the flesh cannot please God." And the opposite of being in the flesh is being "in the Spirit" (verse 9a); or to have the Spirit of God dwelling in you – to be a Christian, to belong to Christ (verse 9b) (Piper). Unregenerate people are in the flesh. Believers are not in the flesh. Although “the flesh” keeps getting in the way of your sanctification, it no longer engulfs you. It no longer makes you its captive. You no longer have to yield yourself to it. You may do fleshly things because the flesh is in you, but you’re not in the flesh (Mac Arthur). The flesh will finally and fully removed when we receive the new body at our glorification (1 Cor 15:51-53). An alternate term would be “carnal” or fleshly (Rom 8:4-9, 1 Cor 3) (Jones). There are only two possible positions: all people in this world are in one of these two conditions: in the flesh and under the law or in the Spirit and under grace. You either are a Christian or not a Christian, you cannot be partly Christian, You are either dead or alive, you are either born of the flesh or born of the Spirit, you are either in Christ or in Adam, Becoming a Christian is not a gradual process. You are one or the other, in the flesh or in the Spirit. (Jones)

Passion our sinful passions, aroused by the law We were held captive by the natural appetites and desires of our flesh. We lived our lives according to the impulses of our lost flesh, Eph. 2:1-3 Before you came to Christ you were living under the Law but you couldn't obey the Law, all the Law did was arouse your sinful passions. The Law stimulates sin. Rom 7:9, once you come across the Law of God, it just exacerbates your sin. It's almost like finding out what sin is so that you can do it, since you can't restrain yourself. For the Law, all the Law of God

does is stir up sin. All the Law of God does is exacerbate sin. You have such sinful impulses, it's like putting a sign out in front of your children that says, "Don't touch this," they probably wouldn't if the sign wasn't there, but if the sign is there, you can be certain they will touch it.

The Law, which was given to show us a right way to live, became a thing that lead us into evil.

The essence of our sinful condition before our conversion – before we die with Christ and receive the Holy Spirit – is not that we break specific laws. The essence of our condition is that we are hostile to God (Rom 8:7), and so we do not and cannot submit to God's will – God's law. The essence of our sinful condition is the unwillingness to be told what to do. The essence of sin is a passion for self-rule. We will decide for ourselves where joy is to be found. We will not admit any final, decisive power or authority above self. In short, the essence of sin is self-deification – the passion to be our own god. That is what it means to be "in the flesh." (Piper).

Product at work in our members to bear fruit for death. The sinful passions, lusts and affections were working powerfully and inwardly upon our “members” to bring froth fruit unto death. With every sin, with every rebellion, the sinner was hastening and worsening his own doom. When we thought we were free, we were actually the prisoners of our vices and we were digging our own pits deeper with every single sin we committed. All sinful actions lead always and only to death (James 1:12-14). This shows the absolute necessity of the Lord Jesus Christ and his work. The depths of sin and the inability of the law to save, but rather to condemn us leads to only one answer. Jesus and his perfect work on our behalf. It is because the whole of mankind was “in the flesh”” and that the “motives of sins which were by the law worked powerfully with in us, in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death” that the Son of God left the courts of heaven and was born as a babe in Bethlehem, gave perfect obedience to the law, bore our sins in His own body in the tree, was dead and buried, and rose again. That is why he came. The condition of man was such that nothing else, no one else, could save him (Jones). Bearing fruit to God is obedience to his law v. 4. When we were under the law we could only produce the fruit of death which was the sin that was in our life our disobedience to God (1 Joh 3:4-10).

Complete Change v 6 But now we are

Deliverance released from the law, a better translation is that you have been delivered it is something that has happened once and forever. We are discharged, set free, liberated from the control, dominion, power and authority of the Law. Your freedom from the Law is because of what Christ did on the cross. Christ bore the Law's penalty and fulfilled the Law's demand for all who believe. The Law's condemnation and demand for perfection have been satisfied for all who are in Christ (Piper). We are delivered from the law as a way of salvation and as an instrument of condemnation (Rom 8:1), but not as a pattern of life. Every one of the ten commandments still refers to a life that is pleasing to God (Alexander)

Death having died to that which held us captive, Here Paul is very specific. The law held us as captives and our death with Christ broke the death grip that the law had on us. We became free from the rule of the Law over us. We are no longer captives of the Law. We were held captive by the flesh, by its sinful impulses, by the law, and by death. They held us captive. They don’t hold us anymore (Carr). Jesus bore fully and finally bore the condemnation of the law for those who are united to him through faith (Alexander).

Desire so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. Douleuō, obedient servanthood We have been saved unto service we serve in newness of spirit, newness, kainos, new in quality, not new in chronology, a whole different kind of service. Not an external service, but an internal one. When you become a Christian, you are set free from the law. You’re set free in the sense that the law can no longer condemn you. But you’re set free to serve that same law, not in a perfunctory, external manner, but from deep within your heart. For the believer the law is not binding in the sense that our acceptance with God depends on it. It is binding in the sense that our new life seeks to serve it. The law couldn’t save you because you couldn’t keep it. Now that God saved you, the law can’t condemn you, and for the first time in your life by the power of the Holy Spirit, you can keep it (Mc Arthur). We can serve from the heart in the newness of Spirit and produce fruit that pleases God. We serve not because the Law is our master and we have to or be damned, but we can't. We serve and we can because Christ is our husband and we have the power by the Spirit within us to do what we love to do and what we know pleases the one we love. It is an evidence of our transformation (1 John 2:3).

What that Spirit does is work a "newness" from the inside out. He writes the law on the heart and shapes the will and the affections into Christlike, loving service. We are freed from the "letter" carved in stone, or written on paper – an external list of duties pressing on your will from outside to comply when there is no heart to comply. You have died to that. If you are justified by faith, you are united to Christ by faith. You are married to him. He is the satisfying love of your life. And you bring forth fruit from fellowship with him. Or to put it another way, if you are justified by faith, you are inhabited by the Spirit of Christ and he is not neutral or passive. He is at work in you to create a newness of mind and heart that loves and serves (Piper).

The idea here is that of a slave. It is the picture of a person who lives for nothing else, but to do the will of his master. We are free from the Law, but we are not the servants of Jesus. While we are not bound by lists of right and wrong, we are bound by the fact that we are His slaves (Carr).

Romans 8:2 speaks of the Law of the Spirit setting us free. This is true of all Christians, not just a select group (Jones)

So the key to living the Christian life – the key to bearing fruit for God is to die to the law and be joined not to a list of rules, but to a Person, to the risen Christ. The pathway to love is the path of a personal, Spirit-dependent, all-satisfying relationship with the risen Christ, not the resolve to keep the commandments. (Piper)

This is introduced in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New.

New relationship to the Law Jeremiah 31:31-34

The New Covenant when it comes the Law will no longer mainly be external, written on stone ("letter"), but will be mainly internal, written on the heart (v 33). The decisive thing about the Law will no longer be that it is a demand from outside, but it will be a desire from inside. God will not be an external command so much as an internal experience (v 34) the Law of God is being written on your heart. The will of God does not crush you from outside with its demand for unattainable perfection. That Law is satisfied in Jesus. Now the will of God rises in your heart as the Spirit transforms your desires and makes you free. (Piper)

A New response to the Law Ezekiel 36:26-27

A new Spirit has been given to you; God has put his own Spirit within you. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the Father. Ezek tells us what will the Spirit do when he comes to dwell in believers. The Holy Spirit’s ministry in the believer is to incline his heart to keep the law of God. How do you know that the Holy Spirit lives in you? He will incline your heart so you will want to obey the law of God. When the fruit appears it will be fruit unto holiness. (Eric Alexander) Ezek 11:19-20,.

Why do we now serve God? Not because the law is our master and we have to, but Christ is our husband and we want to. Not because obedience leads to salvation, but because salvation leads to obedience. (John Stott)