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.
But now (see the notes on the same expression in Romans 6:22 ) we are delivered from the law, х kateergeetheemen (G2673) apo (G575) tou (G3588) nomou (G3551)] - 'loosed,' 'set free' (see the notes on this word in Romans 6:6),
That being dead wherein we were held, х apothanontos (G599)]. But this reading has absolutely no authority, and is inconsistent with the whole strain of the argument. (It is not even the reading of the Received Text, as printed by R. Stephens in 1550; and it found its way into the Elzevir text, probably through a mistake of Beza's, whose text it there followed-as Mill, Bengel, etc., state.) It is now universally agreed that the true reading (that of Stephens' Received Text) is, 'we being dead [to that] wherein we were held х apothanontes (G599)]. For the death spoken of is not the law's, but our's who believe, through union to the crucified Saviour.
That we should serve, х hooste (G5620) douleuein (G1398)] - 'so that we serve;' 'for it is the actual result, not the intention, which the apostle intends to express (as the present tense shows).
In ('the') newness of ('the') spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter - not in our old way of literal, mechanical obedience to the divine law, as a set of external rules of conduct, and without any reference to the state of our hearts; but in that new way of spiritual obedience which, through union to the risen Saviour, we have learned to render (cf. Romans 2:29; 2 Corinthians 3:6).
The Believer's Helplessness while under the Law is No Fault of the Law Itself (Romans 7:7-13)