Our old man has been crucified to the law through the body of Christ that we might marry another husband, Christ, who has been raised from among the dead. In Romans 7:4b, Paul says, “That you might be joined to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit to God.” This joining indicates that in our new status as a wife, we have an organic union in person, name, life, and existence with Christ in His resurrection. Now we are married to Christ, our new Husband. In 2 Corinthians 11:2 Paul also tells us that he has betrothed the believers to one husband, Christ.
Since Christ is our Husband, we must depend on Him and take Him as our Head (Eph. 5:23). To take God as our Husband means to terminate all that we are, have, and do and to trust in God for everything. Taking Christ as our Husband also means that we believe in Christ. God’s intention is to bring us back to Himself and to cause us to place our full trust in Him. No longer should we live by ourselves but by Christ. We must let Christ live for us. We should live no longer by ourselves, act by ourselves, or be anything in ourselves. We must be completely terminated, and our head must be completely covered. We are no longer the husband. We, as the old man, have been crucified. Christ is now our Husband.
Christ is not only our Head—He is also our person. We must even take Christ as our life (Col. 3:4). Christ is our Husband, our Head, our person, and our life. We have been terminated and have become nobody. Christ lives in us and for us. Therefore, we are fully under grace, no longer under law in any way. The law has nothing to do with us, and we have nothing to do with the law. “For I through law have died to law” (Gal. 2:19). Now in grace we are alive to God.
When a person believes and is baptized into the Triune God, he becomes involved with another person, that is, he marries another person, Christ. Before he believes and is baptized, he is involved with only one person, for he has only himself as his person, that is, his old man. However, once he believes and is baptized into the Triune God, he becomes involved with another person—the divine person who is our Redeemer, Reconciler, and Life-Savior. This wonderful person, God, became involved with us through the death and resurrection of Christ. In His death, we as the old man died, and in His resurrection, we as the regenerated new man were raised with Him. Since our old man has been crucified with Christ, we are freed from the law, which was given to the old man, and we are living to God. This is a great change.
According to their experience, many regenerated and baptized believers can testify to this change. Before a person believes into the Lord, he lives by the old man under the law. After he believes and is baptized, something within him begins to regulate him not to live in the old way. This inward regulation is, on the one hand, death to his old way of living and, on the other hand, the living of his regenerated new man, that is, his living to God. Since his old man has been crucified with Christ, he is freed from the law. Therefore, he now becomes a person who lives no longer to the law but to God. This marvelous change indicates that he has died to the law and now lives to the living God.
Romans 7:4 tells us that as a wife we bear fruit to God. When we are in resurrection and always live to God, we bear fruit to God. When we were in the flesh, that is, when we were the old husband, everything related to us was death. All we could produce was death. Everything we brought forth was a fruit of death and to death. Now as a regenerated person, that is, as the wife, we bear fruit to God. This simply means that everything we do now is related to God, whereas formerly, whatever we were and whatever we did was death. Therefore, here we see a vivid contrast between death and God, between bearing fruit to death and bearing fruit to God. This shows that when we were the old man and the old husband, held under the law, everything we were and did was death. The result was fruit to death. As a new man and the wife married to a new husband, whatever we are and do is related to God. We bear fruit to God. The phrase bear fruit to God means that God comes forth, that God is brought forth as fruit. Thus, all we are and do must be the living God. We must bring forth God as an overflow of God. In this way we have the living God as our fruit and we bear fruit to God.
Romans 7:6 says, “But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter.” Since the old man has been crucified, the regenerated new man is now free from the law of the old man (vv. 2-3; Gal. 2:19). Since the law was given to the old husband, the old man, not to the wife, and since the old husband, the old man, died on the cross, the new man, the wife, has been discharged from his law. Hence, we as the wife and the new man are no longer under the law.
Romans 7:6 shows that as the wife we must also serve the Lord in newness of spirit, not in oldness of letter. We have to realize that in 6:4 we have the newness of life for our living; in 7:6 we have the newness of spirit for our service. Newness of life issues from our being identified with Christ’s resurrection and is for our walk in our daily life. Newness of spirit issues from our being discharged from the law and being joined to the resurrected Christ and is for our service to God. Thus, both newness of spirit and newness of life are results of the crucifixion of the old man.
Furthermore, both newness of life and newness of spirit are related to the Spirit. The newness of life is related to Christ Himself in His resurrection, who is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). The spirit in the phrase newness of spirit refers to our regenerated human spirit, in which the Lord as the Spirit dwells (2 Tim. 4:22). We may serve in newness of spirit because God has renewed our spirit. Everything that is related to our regenerated spirit is new, and everything that comes out of our spirit is new. Our regenerated spirit is a source of newness because the Lord, the life of God, and the Holy Spirit are there. We need to learn how to exercise our spirit continually.
Everything in our regenerated spirit is new. In our regenerated spirit there is nothing but newness. Oldness is not with our regenerated spirit; it is with the old law, the old regulations, and the old letters. Therefore, we should not serve in oldness of letter. By letter here Paul means the code of the written law in the Bible. There are many ordinances, requirements, and regulations in the Bible. If we do not have the Spirit and instead desire to keep these ordinances, requirements, and regulations, we will serve God in the oldness of the dead letter. We need to realize that we, as the old man, have been crucified with Christ, and that we, as the new man, are freed from the old man’s law and have been married to our new Husband, the resurrected Christ, that we might bear fruit to God and serve the Lord in newness of spirit.