Newness of the Spirit

Let’s open the word of the Lord written by the hand of Tertius, as directed him by Paul, the slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, having been set apart for the gospel of God, to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints, words of grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Romans 7:1–2 LSB

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is master over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman has been bound by law to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.

Romans 7:3–4 LSB

So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. So, my brothers, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

Romans 7:5–6 LSB

For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were constrained, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

It is in these last few verses that we find ourself wrapping up this first partition of this great chapter regarding the Christian’s relationship with the Law, and why being no longer under Law but now under grace doesn’t result in lawless and unrighteous living. And we cannot fail to notice, that to the mind of Paul, our present relationship to the law, and even this larger question of sanctification, is directly and completely bound up in a proper understanding of the miracle of salvation!

For I trust you will recall that last time we realized just how unable a person yet in the flesh is to overcome that sorry estate on their own. Having begun in the flesh, to remain in the flesh is to be opposed to the Spirit of God, it is to live life still married to, and under the authority and rule of, the law, just as such a person remains under the reign and realm of sin.

And I want us to re-read this 6th verse once again, and observe the absolute grandeur of it. Just as last time we emphasized the negative aspect of life “in the flesh”, in this verse we celebrate the positive of life in the Spirit:

Romans 7:6 LSB

But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were constrained, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

And I trust you will immediately recognize once again that this is a description of the Christian now, in this present time, in this present age. “But now,” Paul writes, something which we must enthusiastically embrace, even as he did! For in this statement, Paul is describing every person who is in Christ Jesus, not just some of them, but all who are in Christ Jesus. Once again, if you are a true believer in Christ Jesus, this is true of you; conversely if this is not true of you, you cannot be a Christian at all. So for those keeping score, there are still absolutely no commands so far in Romans 7 – these first 6 verses only indicate what is true of us!

For it takes a death to fully and finally separate us from that law, on account of that holy and good thing constraining us, holding us fast to itself as those unable to escape its grasp. There are no gradations, there are no partial Christians.

It is as stark a contrast as death and life, as born and not-born; it is this same fundamental truth that our Lord spoke to Nicodemus – a person wishing to enter the kingdom of God must be born once again. To remain as they are is all wrong; nothing but a divine, supernatural intervention from God can possibly cause this re-birth.

It is a gross misinterpretation of the Law, both the explicit Law of Moses, and the works of the law written in the hearts of the gentiles, it is a denial of the plain truth of Scripture, to think that you may be saved or sanctified by looking to the Law. It cannot save, it can only condemn, for it can only arouse the sinful passions within us. It defines sin, it makes plain to us the nature of our sin, and our desperate need for a Savior; but it produces only death.

But now, now that we are in Christ Jesus – we who have faith like that of Abraham in the finished work of Christ alone – now, we have been released from that Law. It formerly constrained us, it had possessed and held on to us, it would not simply let us go, it would not give us up, it demanded custody of us “that the transgression would increase.”

Speaking of this, Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes, “Every man until he becomes a Christian is in bondage under the Law; he is ‘held’ by it, he is dominated by it, he is married to it; it controls him and governs the whole of his activity.”

Try as we might, we could never find justification through the law, for Rom 3:20 declares “... by the works of the Law NO FLESH WILL BE JUSTIFIED IN HIS SIGHT, for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” In fact, rather than help, from a certain perspective we were hindered by the law, for as we became ever more aware of what was sin, the more those sinful passions were aroused within us.

But now, we have been released from that same Law which once held us and dominated us, and that release came through our union with Christ Jesus – this is why I took such time to fully explicate Rom 7:4, “So, my brothers, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.” We were joined to Christ Jesus, and in His death on the cross, we died on the cross through that organic union with Him; His death became our death, His burial became our burial, His resurrection became our resurrection.

And so the law which once constrained us and dominated us, is now powerless over us, it can no longer condemn us, Rom 7:1 reminding us “...that the law is master over a person as long as he lives”! Through our death, we are released from our first husband, the Law, we have, once and for all, “died to that by which we were constrained.”

As certainly and as surely as if we had been a wife bound to her husband, whose husband has now died and she is free to marry another, even so are we now no longer are bound to our former husband, the Law. Not by the Law’s death, mind you, Paul is very careful in what he says here, both to bring out the point in a manner we can understand our new freedom to be married to another in verses 2 and 3, and then in 4 through 6 he is clear that it is we who have died, even though we yet live now in Christ.

For the Law can never die, God’s word has been established as certain and eternal, Ps 119:89 declaring “Forever, O Yahweh, Your word stands firm in heaven.” Rather, it must be our death, through our organic union with Christ Jesus, which frees us to now be married to Jesus Christ, “to Him who was raised from the dead.”

And it is this last part, that we are now married – betrothed, though not yet consummated in our marriage – to Jesus Christ, which brings us to the point and purpose of this entire chapter: “so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” It’s much the same idea that Paul had introduced in Romans 7:4, “in order that we might bear fruit for God”, but now he adds to it, expands it, going further than in verse 4, and we are well-advised to pay attention as he does so!

For just as he brings into verse 4 the first half of Romans 6, even so here he reminds us of those principles he laid out in the second half of Romans 6. When we read “serve”, although it is a good, proper, understandable translation, the actual word used here is δουλεύω, meaning more along the lines of “to slave”, than “to serve”, although to our western minds it’s rather foreign. This is the same idea expressed in Romans 6:16, we once presented ourselves as a slave to sin, we “slaved” for sin, as it were. And now, we who are in Christ Jesus “slave” for obedience unto righteousness. Even so, now turning to our present verse, “we slave in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.” As a slave serves his master, so do we in Christ now serve God “in newness of the Spirit”.

Now, there are some translations such as the ESV and NIV that insert the word “way” into this – “so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code”, as the ESV puts it. This is a wrong translation, and it alters what Paul is saying here. If you have one of those translations that add the word “way”, I would go so far as to suggest taking your pen and striking that word out. It is not in the original.

It is these two contrasts – old as opposed to new, Spirit as opposed to letter, that help us understand that Paul is talking in terms of the new covenant here. The only other place in Paul’s writings where he uses these two terms together , Spirit (πνεῦμα) and letter (γράμμα), is in 2 Corinthians 3:5-6

2 Corinthians 3:5–6 LSB

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Once again, these terms are shown to be in opposition to one another, yet in Corinthians Paul takes it even further, making it even more plain and clear that he is talking covenant-language when speaking of the letter which kills opposed to the new covenant of the Spirit.

And the “new” in each of these is καινός, both when he says “new covenant” in 2 Corinthians 3, or in “newness of the Spirit” in Romans 7, isn’t merely something that is young in terms of its chronology, that would be “νέος”. Rather, he uses καινός, to speak of an original quality, something not really seen or experienced before.

Where did Paul get this idea? From the very Scriptures that he knew and loved since childhood! So let’s take a journey into the old testament, to see precisely what he is talking about. Turn with me to Jeremiah 31, starting in verse 31:

Jeremiah 31:31–32 LSB

“Behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I cut with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, but I was a husband to them,” declares Yahweh.

So we remember that the first covenant God cut with Israel came with smoke, and fire, the mountain itself trembling, and the people were terrified at the voice of Yahweh from the mountain, such that they begged Moses to go up and speak with Yahweh alone, to be an intermediary for them in Exodus 19 and 20.

But now, Jeremiah is standing at the end of a very long line of disappointments and despair; 10 of the tribes of Israel had rebelled under Jereboam the son of Nebat, not just against their lawful King in Jerusalem but also against God, each successive generation turning worse and worse as they follow after the sin of Jereboam the son of Nebat in the sins which he made Israel sin, provoking Yahweh to anger, eventually exiling them from the land of their inheritance at the hand of the Assyrians. And now, a little over 100 years later, in his own lifetime Judah is facing a similar crisis at the hands of the Babylonians.

And Jeremiah is all too aware of the cause for Judah’s present distress – it’s right here in our text in Jeremiah 31, the people had broken the covenant. Even though Yahweh was a husband to them – He had wooed them, He had provided for them an escape from the slavery of Egypt, He had secured their release and sealed it in their passage through the Red Sea, and more. And yet still, they had forsaken Him; at Kadesh Barnea refusing to trust Him at His word, later when they finally entered the land under Joshua they failed to destroy all of its inhabitants, later still under the judges they continually fell away, Even with the memory of Yahweh’s glory filling the temple in Jerusalem fresh in their minds they rebelled against Rehoboam at Shechem and the northern kingdom of Israel’s sinking ever more into the depravity begun by Jereboam the son of Nebat by going after other gods, and then even the kings of Judah continually rebelled against Yahweh despite knowing His word and having His Law.

And then we read:

Jeremiah 31:33 LSB

“But this is the covenant which I will cut with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Yahweh: “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Now to be clear, in Romans, Paul makes it clear that not all are Israel who are descended from Israel (Rom 9), but rather in Romans 4:16-17 he explains that “it is by faith, in order that it may be according to grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the seed, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all— as it is written, 'A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU’.”

So this promise includes all who have faith like that of Abraham, who are justified by that faith and thus are in Christ Jesus, as we learned in Romans 6, and married to Him as we learned in Romans 7.

So Jeremiah is declaring that the law will no longer be an external demand like the Law of Moses given on tablets of stone, but instead will be an internal desire written on our hearts.

God goes on to say in the next verse,

Jeremiah 31:34 LSB

“And they will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares Yahweh, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

In other words, under this new covenant, there will be a personal and intimate relationship with Yahweh; God will no longer be some distant deity you merely hear about from an old writing, but will instead be close and present companion to those who are partakers of this new covenant in which not only is He close and personal, but there is also forgiveness of sins and iniquities!

Ezekiel, too, helps us to understand this new covenant, starting in Ezekiel 36:25 with God declaring much the same as He had in Jeremiah, “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from all your idols.” It’s the same thing as iniquity being forgiven, and sins being remembered no more, but with this addition of being cleansed within. And then He goes on yet further,

Ezekiel 36:26–27 LSB

“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to do My judgments.

Do you begin to see why I am saying that Paul is invoking new covenant language in Romans 7:6?

Romans 7:6 LSB

But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were constrained, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

Are we beginning to realize what Paul means when he contrasts life int he new covenant with life under the old covenant? Do we realize – I mean do we comprehend in a earth-shaking realization which shakes us to the core of our being, even as the Israelites were shaken to the core of their being when God spoke to Moses in their hearing such that they despaired even of life itself should He continue, that we are not commanded to simply try to keep the Law of Moses just with more feeling and more fervor, a better spirit than the Jews had tried to do and failed so miserably?

It is for this reason that Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 that he must be born again, it’s not just something additional you do on top of the Law you already have, but in verse 3 “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”” It is for this reason that Jesus answered the disciples of John, who preached “Make straight the way of the Lord”, the essential difference in Jesus’ own disciples, saying in Matthew 9:16-17, ““But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. “Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.””

No, we had to be released from the Law, we had to died to that which constrained us, in order that we are not only now able but will serve “in newness of the Spirit.”

In other words, to focus ever and only upon morals and law and behavior, is fully and completely unable to bring about moral living, it is incapable of bringing people to do truly righteous actions, it cannot cause people to behave in a truly proper manner according to God.

The only thing which can truly accomplish these things is the gospel of justification by faith alone, by grace alone, in the finished work of Christ alone! It is for this reason that Paul never moves very far away from the cross and Christ crucified – and we ought to imitate him in this manner of thinking!

And on account of that new Spirit within us – the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit – our thinking and our desires are changed from within, rather than constrained from without. You cannot expect the world to conform to truly Christian morals, for they lack the Spirit necessary for them to do so. Don’t be surprised, don’t be shocked, don’t be offended – rather, pray that they might be brought to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us Pray!