Romans 7.6b-The Jewish Christian Is Forever A Servant Of God By The Extraordinary Work Of The Spirit And Never By Observing The Letter Of The Law
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday August 27, 2008
Romans: Romans 7:6b-The Jewish Christian Is Forever A Servant Of God By The Extraordinary Work Of The Spirit And Never By Observing The Letter Of The Law
Lesson # 216
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 7:1.
This evening we will complete our study of Romans 7:6, which completes the first paragraph contained in Romans chapter seven.
Last evening we noted Romans 7:6a, in which Paul teaches the Jewish Christians in Rome that they have been discharged from their legal and moral obligations to the Mosaic Law as a result of being identified with Christ in His physical death.
This evening, we will note Romans 7:6b, which teaches that as a result of being discharged from the Law through their identification with Christ in His physical death, the Jewish Christians in Rome are forever servants of God the Father.
In this passage, he also teaches that this was accomplished by means of the extraordinary work of the Spirit the moment they trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior and never by means of the useless observance of the letter of the Law.
Romans 7:1, “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?”
Romans 7:2, “For the married woman is 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, “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.”
Romans 7:4, “Therefore, my brethren, 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, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.”
Romans 7:6, “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.”
“So that” is the conjunction hoste (w%ste) (hoce-teh), which presents the actual result of the Jewish Christians in Rome having died with respect to the Mosaic Law through their identification with Christ in His physical death.
“We” is the personal pronoun hemeis (h(mei$), which refers to Paul and his fellow Jewish Christian readers since in context in Romans 7:1, Paul makes clear that he is addressing them.
“Serve” is the verb douleuo (douleuvw) (dool-yoo-o), which refers to the status or the condition of a servant of God, thus it denotes the Jewish Christian’s “position” of being a servant of God.
The verb douleuo in Romans 7:6 is an infinitive of “actual” result meaning that Paul is speaking with reference to his Jewish Christians readers’ present regenerate status or current position in Christ in contrast to their unregenerate condition.
Thus, he is speaking as to what has already taken place among the Jewish Christians in Rome through the baptism of the Spirit the moment they were declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Therefore, the infinitive of “actual” result is in view indicating what has already taken place among the Jewish Christians in Rome through the baptism of the Spirit.
Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”
“In newness” is composed of the preposition en (e)n), “in” and the dative feminine singular form of the noun kainotes (kainovth$) (kahee-not-ace), “newness.”
The noun kainotes appeared in Romans 6:4 and means, “extraordinary.”
Romans 6:4, “Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism with respect to His physical death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead ones through the glory of the Father, in the same way, we, ourselves will also walk in the realm of an extraordinary life.”
The noun kainotes belongs to a word group that principally denotes “that which is new in nature and essence, that which is superior to the old.”
There is a distinction between this word and neos, which emphasizes newness in time.
In Romans 7:6, the noun kainotes means, “extraordinary” and is functioning as an adjective describing pneuma since the latter functions as an “attributed genitive” meaning that the head noun kainotes is functioning in sense as an attributive adjective.
The noun pneuma contains the figure of “metonymy” where the Spirit is put for the work of the Spirit on behalf of Paul and his fellow Jewish Christians the moment they were declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Therefore, in Romans 7:6, the noun kainotes describes the work of the Holy Spirit on behalf of the Jewish Christians the moment they were declared justified through faith in Christ as “extraordinary in its character and nature.”
The preposition en functions as a “marker of means” indicating that the extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit was “the means by which” Paul and his fellow Jewish Christians in Rome forever became slaves of God.
“Of the Spirit” is the noun pneuma (pneuma), which contains the figure of “metonymy” where the Spirit is put for the work of the Spirit on behalf of Paul and his fellow Jewish Christians the moment they were declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
The word functions as a “attributed genitive” meaning that the noun kainotes can be converted to an attributive adjective describing the genitive noun pneuma, which refers to the work of the Spirit on behalf of Paul and his fellow Jewish Christians in Rome the moment they were saved.
Therefore, kainotes describes the work of the Holy Spirit on behalf of Paul and his fellow Jewish Christians in Rome the moment they were declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior as “extraordinary in character an nature.”
This extraordinary work of the Spirit involves the following: (1) Efficacious Grace: Makes faith in Jesus Christ effective for salvation (2 Cor. 6:1-2; Eph. 2:8-9). (2) Regeneration: Creates a human spirit for the purpose of the imputation of eternal life (John 3:1-16; Titus 3:5). (3) Baptism of the Spirit: Places every believer in union with Jesus Christ (John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:5; 1 Pet. 3:21). (4) Indwelling: Creates a temple for the indwelling of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19-20; 2 Cor. 6:16). (5) Filling: Influences the soul of the believer in executing the plan of God for the church age (Eph. 5:18). (6) Sealing: Puts His stamp on the believer to guarantee their salvation (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13; 4:30). (7) Distribution of Spiritual Gifts: Gives every believer a spiritual gift (1 Cor. 12:4-11).
Romans 7:6, “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.”
“Not” is the emphatic negative adverb ou (ou)) (oo), which emphatically negates the idea that the Jewish Christians in Rome are forever servants of God by means of observing the letter of the Law.
“In oldness” is the noun palaiotes (palaiovth$) (pal-ah-yot-ace), which describes the observance of the letter of the Law as “useless.”
The noun palaiotes functions as an object of the preposition en and as an “instrumental of means,” which signifies that Paul and his fellow Jewish believers in Rome did not become servants of God forever “by means of the useless” observance of the letter of the Law.
“The letter” is the noun gramma (gravmma) (gram-mah), which refers to the written document known as the Mosaic Law and contains the figure of “metonymy” where the Law in its written form is put for the observance of it.
The word views the Law but from the perspective of the unregenerate, legalistic Jew who has no illumination from the Holy Spirit and therefore no understanding of the true purpose of the Law.
To the legalistic, unregenerate Jew, the Mosaic Law is simply a body of external rules of conduct without the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “legalism,” “strict adherence, or the principle of strict adherence, to law or prescription, especially to the letter rather than the spirit.”
The Judaizers like the Pharisees taught strict adherence to the letter of the Law, especially to the letter rather than the spirit of the Law (Mk. 2-3)!
The legalism of the Pharisees from whom the Judaizers originated is illustrated by their critical attitude of our Lord Jesus when he healed on the Sabbath.
Under the Mosaic Law, the Sabbath was designed to benefit Israel by prohibiting Israel from working on this day and yet the Pharisees criticized the Lord for healing on the Sabbath, thus they strictly adhered to letter of the Law rather than the spirit of the Law.
This same attitude is reflected in their teaching concerning circumcision, which Paul addresses in Romans 2:25-29.
In 2 Corinthians 3:1-6 and Galatians 3, the apostle Paul contrasts the Law and the Spirit.