BobRyan and SabbathBlessings:
What is Paul saying in these words?:
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 [h]Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
Keep reading - Paul says even in his day - all mankind still condemned by the moral law of God pointing out that "all have sinned" Rom 3:23 - all need the gospel or else they are subject to that same death penalty that condemned all mankind from the very start. The second death. the Lake of fire in Rev 20.
Rom 3:19 - all mankind condemned under the Law - the whole world -- every mouth - held as guilty before God and under the death sentence as defined by God's law. So all need the gospel.
Rom 7:
Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the Law), that the Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he is alive; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is alive she gives herself to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she gives herself to another man.
4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in regard to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were brought to light by the Law, were at work in the parts of our body to bear fruit for death.
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.
7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Far from it! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
Freedom from slavery to sinning is the context for Romans 7 - as we see in Rom 6.
Rom 6:
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for the one who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body’s parts as instruments of righteousness for God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace.
Paul condemns sin -- not the Law of God
Rom 7:
13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? Far from it! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by bringing about my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.
14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 However, if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, that the Law is good. 17 But now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully agree with the law of God in the inner person, 23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my body’s parts.
Paul affirms God's Law in Rom 7 as good, and states he is in full agreement with God's Law. It is sin , the sinful nature - that Paul condemns in Rom 7. But he starts the chapter showing that the moral law of God condemns all humanity - even to this very day - as sinners doomed to slavery to sin and doomed to the lake of fire. So Paul makes the case for the Gospel where the NEW COVENANT of Jer 31:31-34 has the LAW of God written on the heart.
Specifically, why should we interpret the concept of being released from the Law
IT means - released from the condemnation under the Law - because in Rom 7 he says WE DIE (we suffer the death penalty as per the LAW) in Christ's death. Just as Rom 6 already stated. The LAW of God does not die in Rom 7 - we do.
So then - it is still a sin to take God's name in vain.
And in
Rom 8 it is only the lost person that "does not submit to the Law of God - neither indeed CAN they" Rom 8:4-11. Read it and tell us what you find there.
