Romans 7:6 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

But now we are delivered, &c.— But now,—that is, under the Gospel. Now is frequently used in this sense;—which should be well observed, as it may prove a key to many texts. However, here, as the Apostle had given in the foregoing verse a summary account of the state of the sinner under the law, he gives us in this verse a summary description of the nature and design of the Gospel: and this he resumes and comments upon, chap. Romans 8:1-12. The Jews, who had not a living faith in the true Messiah, were held in obedience to the whole letter of the law, without regarding the spiritual meaning which pointed at Christ. This the Apostle calls here serving in the oldness of the letter; and this he tells them they should leave, as being freed from it by the death of Christ, who was the end of the law for the attaining of righteousness (chap. Romans 10:4.); that is, in the spiritual sense of it, which in 2 Corinthians 3:6 he calls spirit. That chapter and the present verse give light to one another. Serving in the newness of spirit, opposed as it is to the oldness of the letter, must signify, following the law so far as it is revised, and asit is explained in the Gospel for theattainingofevangelicalrighteousness.Butforthefartherelucidationofthismatter, it may be worth while to inquire, how far the law is abolished, and how far not? I. The law is abolished only in three respects. 1st, As it was a polity. God was the king of the Jewish nation, as much as any men are the kings and governors of other nations: and as the king of the Jewish nation, God delivered the law to them. By this means religion was incorporated into their civil government, and their polity was religious, and their religion political. But in this respect, the law to us Christians is quite abolished; religion under the Gospel, is set upon its original bottom; stands entirely independent of all civil government, and is quite exempt from the authority and jurisdiction of the civil magistrate. 2nd, The law is also abolished, as it was a dispensation of types and figures, wherein, under earthly emblems, external rites or ceremonies, the good things which were to come under the Gospel were shadowed and represented; the divine wisdom judging this in those times a proper means of instruction. But now this veil is done away, and we all with open face, as in a glass, beheld the glory of the Lord. 3rdly, The law, as it was the ministration of death, and subjected the transgressors of it to the curse, and to condemnation, without affording any hope or remedy, is also happily abolished. II. But on the other hand, the law of Moses is not abolished; first, as it contains the moral law; as such it must stand under every dispensation—the Gospel, as well as any other,—in its full force and extent; that is, requiring and obliging us, so far as our capacities reach, to perfect obedience: for God can never require imperfect obedience, or by his holy law allow us to be guilty of any one sin, how small soever: and ifthe law, as a rule of duty, were in any respect abolished, then we might in some respects transgress the law, and yet not be guilty of sin. The moral law is truth, everlasting and unchangeable, and therefore, as such, can never be abrogated. On the contrary, our Lord Jesus Christ has promulgated this law anew under the Gospel, and having added to its precepts the sanction of his own divine authority, and the powerful and attractive motives of the law of God, and of his own love to mankind, with the brightest hopes and prospects of eternal life, he has hereby enforced and secured the observance of it, infinitely beyond any thing that the wisest philosophers ever could find in the law of nature, and far beyond any thing plainly and expressly offered in the Mosaical constitution. See Ephesians 2:15. Secondly, Nor is the law, as it is the ministration of death, so abolished as never more to be in force. It is indeed so far abolished, through the mercy of the Lawgiver, that although a man does transgress, yet he is not at present irrecoverably subjected for his transgressions to final wrath and condemnation, though he may at present be so far involved in guilt, as to be nigh unto cursing (Hebrews 6:8.); but is allowed the favour of repentance and pardon; and if he continues sincerely obedient, is sure of eternal life, and shall never come into condemnation, or under the power of the law, for any of his past transgressions. This demonstrates that no man in this world is under law, the covenant of works, or the broken law of works, for if we were now at any time under the broken law of works, then should we be in a state of final and eternal damnation, without hope or remedy, because there now remains no more sacrifice for sins, Hebrews 10:26-29. See 2 Corinthians 6:2.Hebrews 2:3; Hebrews 12:25. 1 Corinthians 16:22.