Romans 7:5,6 - But now we are released from the Law

7:5

“Living in the flesh” means living out of our human nature. For while we lived “under the Law”, the Law aroused sinful passions. This wasn’t because there was anything wrong with the Law, but because there was everything wrong with our human nature. Paul will say more about this shortly, our human nature is deeply corrupted, this gives birth to death. This is in stark contrast to the fruit of the Spirit.

7:6

We are free from the Law. As I said before, this means free from living entirely out of our own strength. The Law held us captive. For Gentiles (i.e. me and most probably you) the principle of trying to get things right by putting more effort in has held us captive. We are something which is good, a good standard, the right thing to do, the right way to live. Or even, stop living the bad way we are living. It held us under a cruel captivity, for it offered up something good, but when we tried to attain it we repeatedly failed. In Christ we have died to what held us captive. The latter part of this verse sums up what chapters 7 and 8 are all about: “so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.”