1-22. Freedom To “Be”
“Having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter” (Rom. 7:6, ASV).
The law was applied to the natural man, that he might produce; grace is given to the spiritual man, that He might produce.
“Almost every believer makes the same mistake as the Galatian Christians. Very few learn at conversion at once that it is only by faith that we stand, and walk, and live. They have no conception of the meaning of the Word about being dead to the law, freed from the law—about the freedom with which Christ makes us free (Rom. 7:6). Regarding the law as a divine ordinance for our direction, they consider themselves prepared and fitted by conversion to take up the fulfillment of the law as a natural duty. They cannot understand that it is not to the law, but to a living Person, that we are now bound, and that our obedience and growth are only possible by the unceasing faith in His power and life ever working in us (Phil. 2:13).” -A.M.
“Good and holy and perfect as the law of God is, it is entirely powerless either to justify or sanctify. It cannot in any way make the old nature better; neither is it the rule of the new nature. The old man is not subject to it, and the new man does not need it. The new creation has another object before it, and another power that acts upon it, in order to produce what is lovely and acceptable to God—Christ the object, realized by the power of the Holy Spirit.” -W.K.
“Not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life” (Heb. 7:16).