Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary
The Renewed Covenant by Daniel Gregg
"Romans 7:4-6 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead by means of the law by the body of Messiah; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sin through habit operated in our faculties to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the norm, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the renewed way of the Spirit and not in the oldness of a record of debt" (DLT: torahtimes.org).
by means of: τω νομῳ. The instrumental dative case is used here (Wallace, pg. 162). By the death of Messiah, the sinner is legally pardoned from his transgressions by a substitutionary death. Messiah dies in the place of the sinner, which is a procedure of the Torah that satisfies the judgment of the Torah for the repentant sinner. So the whole procedure of the atonement is according to the Torah.
habit : του νομου. This is well within the range of meaning of νομος. LSJ, "that which is in habitual practice, use or possession ". Especially helpful is Martin Ostwald's "Nomos and the Beginnings of the Athenian Democracy" referenced in BDAG 3rd. edition. For an important and revealing extracts on the well known difficulty of discerning the writers intended sense.
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We may also render "normal practices".
norm : νομος. Paul has composited two senses of νομος in this case. 1) We are released from the norm of having to sin because we are always guilty, and 2) we are released from the Torah's norm of judgment against the sinner. See BDAG, def. 1.
record : γραμμα. The Greek word was used for a rather broadly for many types of documents. Paul is more specific in Colossians 2:14, χειρογραφον, "a hand written document, specif. a certificate of indebtedness, account, record of debts " (pg. 1083, BDAG, 3rd.). This was not the Torah itself, but a compilation of violations of Torah, God's accounting for the sinner. It is the book's mentioned in Revelation 20:12, "And scrolls were opened" which contain the indictments and record of the person's sins.
comment: The death of Messiah frees us from the judgment so that we can be united with Messiah. Otherwise the judgment would prevent us from legally being united with Messiah. Paul's teaching is totally evangelical except that he does not find it necessary to abolish the Torah to teach Yeshua's pardon and forgiveness, nor does he find it necessary to teach an acquittal based on forensic righteousness. (DLC: torahtimes.org)
Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary: (http://www.torahtimes.org/translation/rom0704.html)
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