4 So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the
point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you
are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can
produce a harvest of good deeds for God. 5 When we were
controlled by our old nature,[b] sinful desires were at work within us, and
the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds,
resulting in death.6 But now we have been released from the
law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can
serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new
way of living in the Spirit.
This theme of dying to self and sin and living to God is repeated, but with a new emphasis on the Spirit of the law and its division from the letter of the law. Our sinful nature cannot keep the Spirit of the law without the help of the Holy Spirit. Our carnal nature takes the law and makes it into legalistic boxes that we either fit in or not, putting the emphasis on our own works and justifications... and neither are ever enough. We have to die. It's the only solution that makes sense! And then, when that same breath of God that made man a living soul comes into our lives through the power of His Spirit, we do live again, but as the Bible says, as a new creature. Now we can read the law and the Spirit can move our hearts to know how to apply the concepts behind the laws to our lives, not just lay a rigid grid over them and see what doesn't line up. The law strikes out at our inevitable, unavoidable unrighteousness. But when we are dead and have fulfilled the punishment the law shows we deserve, then we have the freedom from God's grace to implement it and see how it draws us closer to Him. The law becomes a personal way to grow closer to God and understand His nature instead of a horizontal leveler of the faults of my fellow humans. Paul acknowledges that the law is holy and that the point of it was to show us our sins:
7 Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”[c] 8 But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me!
So, once we saw our sins, saw the impossibility of us ever atoning for ourselves and following the pattern of the law found the solution in the death of the sacrificial Lamb of God... which leads us to dying ourselves... NOW, finally, we are free to read and understand and apply where His Spirit leads us. Under grace we acknowledge that the Holy Spirit will guide each individual in the ways that they need most, internally, instead of imposing an outward show that so often leads to facades- so one's growth in one area may not be visible where others may show fruit in different areas more quickly... this leads to actual development of character, not development of charades to show how "holy" we are. Now we recognize it's not about us being holy, but being DEAD so that God can be Holy through us. As Paul says:
14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.
And he continues to our solution as well:
24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
Once the sinful nature is dead, we can actually follow the law, in what Paul previously called the spirit of the law instead of the letter of the law.
In Chapter 8 he goes into more detail on what "life in the spirit" really means.
This theme of dying to self and sin and living to God is repeated, but with a new emphasis on the Spirit of the law and its division from the letter of the law. Our sinful nature cannot keep the Spirit of the law without the help of the Holy Spirit. Our carnal nature takes the law and makes it into legalistic boxes that we either fit in or not, putting the emphasis on our own works and justifications... and neither are ever enough. We have to die. It's the only solution that makes sense! And then, when that same breath of God that made man a living soul comes into our lives through the power of His Spirit, we do live again, but as the Bible says, as a new creature. Now we can read the law and the Spirit can move our hearts to know how to apply the concepts behind the laws to our lives, not just lay a rigid grid over them and see what doesn't line up. The law strikes out at our inevitable, unavoidable unrighteousness. But when we are dead and have fulfilled the punishment the law shows we deserve, then we have the freedom from God's grace to implement it and see how it draws us closer to Him. The law becomes a personal way to grow closer to God and understand His nature instead of a horizontal leveler of the faults of my fellow humans. Paul acknowledges that the law is holy and that the point of it was to show us our sins:
7 Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”[c] 8 But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me!
So, once we saw our sins, saw the impossibility of us ever atoning for ourselves and following the pattern of the law found the solution in the death of the sacrificial Lamb of God... which leads us to dying ourselves... NOW, finally, we are free to read and understand and apply where His Spirit leads us. Under grace we acknowledge that the Holy Spirit will guide each individual in the ways that they need most, internally, instead of imposing an outward show that so often leads to facades- so one's growth in one area may not be visible where others may show fruit in different areas more quickly... this leads to actual development of character, not development of charades to show how "holy" we are. Now we recognize it's not about us being holy, but being DEAD so that God can be Holy through us. As Paul says:
14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.
And he continues to our solution as well:
24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
Once the sinful nature is dead, we can actually follow the law, in what Paul previously called the spirit of the law instead of the letter of the law.
In Chapter 8 he goes into more detail on what "life in the spirit" really means.
