Freed to Walk in Newness of the Spirit!

In the beginning, God said, Let there be, and by the word of His power, there is. Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our Likeness. He formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into Him. He placed the man in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it. He commanded the man saying, ” From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” {Genesis 2:16-17}

That day came! The crafty serpent, Satan, tempted Eve she took and ate. She also gave to her husband Adam, and he ate from the forbidden tree. God kept His covenant promise and put all of His creation under a curse, and death entered the world. God took the man and the women He had made and drove them out of the garden.

Serving in the Oldness of the Letter

The book of Romans opens with Paul proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. He takes us back to the beginning, teaching why the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.

• There is no fear of God before man’s eyes. Romans 3:18
• Man walks according to the course of this world: Ephesians 2:2
• Man lives in the lust of their own flesh: Ephesians 2:3
• Man indulges the desires of his flesh and his mind: Ephesians 2:3
• Even though they knew God, they did not honor God: Romans 1:21
• Man exchanged the glory of God for an image: Romans 1:23
• Man exchanged the truth for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator: Romans 1:25

God created man to love, worship, and serve Him. As we can see from His word, the man served themselves, not God. Romans 6 and 7 teaches man’s service to sin and the Law. Until we died with Christ, we were bound to sin and the Law with no way of escape.

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 7:5

These passages describe the man who is in the flesh. The unregenerate man. His obedience is to himself, the prince of the power of the air, “Satan,” sin and the Law. His service is producing fruit for death.

We have come full circle to the text I want to focus on today.

Serving in the Newness of the Spirit

You were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you may be joined to another, to Him was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. Romans 7:4

Romans 7:4 says we were made to die to the Law. For the believer, this is a past completed action! This action was brought about through the body of Christ. Paul is pointing us to the cross. Without tHe life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ Jesus, we would still be held captive by the Law of God. Galatians 3:14 teaches,

” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us_ for it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”

For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him, you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority. Colossians 2:9-10

Christ has released the believer from the curse of the Law so that we are joined to Him. We are complete in Him!

When we were dead in our trespasses and sins, we were producing fruit for death. But now that we are joined to Christ, we produce fruit for God. Our lives bring glory and honor to God were before they denied Him.

But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Romans 7:6

The Law was our taskmaster producing in us sinful passions and lusts. The Holy Spirit has renewed our hearts and minds. We have been made new. The old is gone, the new has come.

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5

We were made alive to serve! Now let’s serve God and others with our new life!