Released from the law (Romans 6:6a). Catches my attention. Commence chewing.

Freed from what once held us captive. Delivered from that which once held dominion. Its force forfeited. Its power put away. Its condemnation conquered. We have been released from the law. Good news? I’m thinking.

But how does that release come into play? By death. And not just Christ’s, but ours through Christ. Does dying sound like good news?

And what does that release mean? Not that we’re freed to be “the master of my fate” or the “captain of my soul”, but free to belong to Another and do as He pleases. Still good news?

This morning I’m noodling on the truth that we’ve been released from the bondage of sin — made known through the law — in order to serve.

Likewise, my brothers [and my sisters], you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to Another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

(Romans 7:4-6 ESV)

We get that the gospel tells us Christ died so that we could live. But we may not want to get as much that in order to live we need to die?

It’s good news that Christ’s redemption brings freedom. But sometimes we act as if we’re not sure it’s such great news that we’ve been freed from bondage in order to belong to Another.

We thank God for grace that saves. But often ignore that we were saved to serve in that grace. And maybe that’s because we think about serving in the old way.

You know, the old way where we thought that how much we were loved of God depended on how much we did for God. The old way that led us to believe that our holiness was a result of our best efforts rather than His finished work. The old way that said your hope lies in how good you are rather than in what good news the gospel is. But, says Paul, we died to the old way through the body of Christ.

Yet, while we may have died to the old way, we were born again to a new way, a way in which we end up bearing fruit for God. And that happens as see ourselves not as our own but as belonging to Him who has been raised from the dead.

The new way that says we no longer have to serve in order to try and be holy but that because we are set apart as holy, in Christ, we can’t help but want to serve. The new way which depends not on our individual effort, but which flows from our union with Christ.

We are released from the law. Which means we are freed to serve in the new way of Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Released in order to serve. That’s the new way.

Lord, continue to teach me this way.

By Your grace. For Your glory.