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6.But now we have been loosed from the law, etc. He pursues the argument derived from the opposite effect of things, — “ the restraint of the law availed so little to bridle the flesh, that it became rather the exciter of sin; then, that we may cease from sin, we must necessarily be freed from the law.” Again, “ we are freed from the bondage of the law for this end, that we may serve God; then, perversely do they act who hence take the liberty to indulge in sin; and falsely do they speak who teach, that by this means loose reins are given to lusts.” Observe, then, that we are then freed from the law, when God emancipates us from its rigid exactions and curse, and endues us with his Spirit, through whom we walk in his ways. (207)
Having died to that, etc. This part contains a reason, or rather, indicates the manner in which we are made free; for the law is so far abrogated with regard to us, that we are not pressed down by its intolerable burden, and that its inexorable rigor does not overwhelm us with a curse. (208) — In newness of spirit; He sets the spirit in opposition to the letter; for before our will is formed according to the will of God by the Holy Spirit, we have in the law nothing but the outward letter, which indeed bridles our external actions, but does not in the least restrain the fury of our lusts. And he ascribes newness to the Spirit, because it succeeds the old man; as the letter is called old, because it perishes through the regeneration of the Spirit.
(207) That the moral, and not the ceremonial law, is meant here, is incontestably evident from what the Apostle adds in the following verses. He quotes the moral law in the next verse; he calls this law, in Rom_7:10, the commandment , την ἐντολὴν which was unto life, see Mat_19:16; and he says, that “ it” sin “” him, which could not have been said of the ceremonial law. — Ed.
(208) Our common version is evidently incorrect as to this clause. The pronoun αὐτῷ or ἐκεινῷ is to be supplied. There is an exactly similar ellipsis in Rom_6:21 [Beza ] and several others, as well as our version, have followed a reading , αποθανοντὀ which [Griesbach ] disregards as of no authority; and it is inconsistent with the usual phraseology of the Apostle. See Rom_7:4, and Gal_2:19. — Ed.