Romans 7:6

But now we are freed {free} from having to obey all the Jewish rituals— it is as though we have died. The result is that now we are not controlled by those rituals {those rituals do not control us now}. So we serve God, not by having to obey those rituals, which is the old way, but in the new way, as God’s Spirit helps us to serve him.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

In Context

5When our self-directed nature controlled us, desires that led us to sin were acting in our bodies. Those desires were increased because of our knowing God’s laws [PRS]. As a result we did evil things [IDM] that caused us to be separated from God.

7Someone might object, saying, “◄The laws that God gave Moses must be evil if our sinful desires are increased because of our knowing those laws. [MTY]/Are not the laws that God gave Moses evil if they stir up our sinful desires?►” [MTY, RHQ] I would reply that they certainly are not evil, even though our sinful desires are increased. What I would reply is that I, for example, realized that what I was doing was sinful only because of what is written { Moses wrote} in those laws. For example, I realized that coveting is sinful only because he wrote in those laws [PRS], “You must not covet.”

Read all of Romans 7

Cross References

Ezekiel 36:26I will give you a completely new way of thinking [IDM]. I will enable you to stop being stubborn [IDM], and I will enable you to obey me from your inner beings [IDM].

Romans 2:27If any one of you disobeys God’s laws, even though you(sg) have the Scriptures and even though someone has circumcised you {you are circumcised} God will punish you. And those people who are not circumcised, but who obey God’s laws, will declare that God is right when he says that he will punish you.

Romans 6:4So, when we were baptized {someone baptized us}, it was as though we were buried with Christ. We were baptized in order to indicate that we would not let our sinful desires make us do what they want us to do, just like people cannot make a corpse do what they want it to do [MET]. We were baptized to signify that we would continually conduct our lives in a new way, just like Christ was caused to live again in a new way by the great power of God his Father.

Romans 6:14Do not let a desire to sin control you [PRS]. The laws that God gave Moses did not enable you to stop sinning. But now God controls you and kindly helps you not to sin.

Romans 6:22But you have been freed { God has freed you} from letting the desire to sin control you. You have become as though you are [MET] the slaves of God. So now the result is that God has caused you to completely belong to him and, as a result, you will live eternally.

Romans 7:4Likewise, my fellow believers, just like people are free from having to obey any law after they die [MET], you and I have been freed { God has freed you and me} from having to obey all the Jewish rituals and laws [MET]. That is because it is as though we died with Christ when he was crucified. Now you and I belong to someone else [MET], like a woman who marries again after her husband dies belongs to another man. Specifically, you and I belong to Christ, who has come back to life {whom God has caused to live again after he died}, in order that we may live righteously [IDM] to honor God.

Matthew Henry on Romans 7:2-7

Observations Respecting the Law. ( a. d. 58.) 1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2 For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Romans 7:6