above, was prominent in the apostle's mind when he used the words "in the flesh."
The motions of sins, i. e. emotions or exercises of sin, for sinful feelings. Which were by the law. The obvious ellipsis in this clause may be vari- ously supplied. * Which are made known by the law,' according to ch. 3 : 20 ; or * which are caused to abound by the law,' according to ch. 5 : 20; or, ' which are produced by the law,' according to v. 8, of this chap- ter. The last mode of explanation is decidedly to be preferred, because more consistent with the context, and with Paul's object, v/hich required him to show that the law, instead of producing holiness, was incidentally the cause of sin.
JDid work in our members to bring forth sin unto death. In our members is little more than a paraphrase for in us ; see ch. 6 : 13, 13. To bring forth. The infinitive here expresses the result ; ' Sin so wrought that we brought forth fruit,' &c. Fruit unto death. Death is here again per- sonified ; to death, the advantage of death; as opposed to the words to God, at the close of v. 4. The fruit which sin produced belonged, as it were, to death. Such was our condition when under the law. Our pre- sent state is described in the next verse.
(6) But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead ; wherein we were held, &c. Our former state was one in the flesh ,- our present is one of freedom from the law. If the common reading be adopted, the mean- ing of this passage is, ' We are delivered from the law, it being dead,' &c. But the true reading requires the second clause to be rendered thus, we being dead. The meaning then is, ' We are now delivered from the law, being dead in respect to that by which we were formerly held,' &c. There is apparently a transposition of the members of the sentence ; their natural order seems to be this, ' But now, being dead as it respects the law, by which we were formerly held, we are free, so that,' &c.
That we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. The result of deliverance from the law is here described. The phrases newness of spirit, and oldness of the letter, according to a common Hebrew idiom, mean a new spirit and old letter. The word rendered letter means something written ; then the law as written, or the written law; ch. 2 : 27. 2 Cor. 3: 6, "ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit (i. e. not of the law, but of gospel) ; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life ;" i. e. the law condemns, but the gospel secures life. The sense of this passage, therefore, is, ' We serve God in the exer- cise of a new spirit, or in a new spiritual state ; and not in bondage to the old written law, or in our old legal state.' It is evident that the clause in the oldness of the letter is substituted by the apostle for the expressions under the law and in the flesh ; all which he uses to describe the legal and corrupt condition of men, prior to the believing reception of the gospel). Believers, then, are free from the law by the death of Christ; they are no longer under the old covenant which said, " Do this, and live ;" bu