What does Romans 7:6 mean?
What's the difference between life as a non-Christian and life in Christ? What's the difference between living "in the flesh" under the law and living in the new way of the Spirit as a believer in Jesus? In the previous verse, Paul described the outcome—the "fruit"—that comes from a life of slavery to sinful passions, stirred up by the restrictions of the law. That end result is always, under all circumstances the same: death.Now he contrasts that life with one lived in Christ. Christians have been released from the law by the fact of our death. What death? Paul has described our faith in Christ's death for our sin as causing us to be so closely identified with him that we died, in a spiritual sense, as well. It is that death that has freed us from sin (Romans 6:2, 18) and from our responsibility to the law.
The result of this change is not aimless freedom, but freedom to serve a new purpose, bearing fruit for God (Romans 7:5). We serve in the new way of the Spirit, meaning we serve through the power of God's Holy Spirit with us, a power we did not have access to before. It's not the written code of the law that we serve, trying to follow all of its rules and regulations. Instead, we serve the living God.