Likewise, my brothers, 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

Paul uses the Biblical picture of marriage to describe how we are now free to live for Christ. In order to reconcile us to God, Christ came and released us from the death associated with the Law – like a woman who is released from her marriage once her husband has died.

Paul provides more detail in his letter to the Ephesians:

For he (Christ) himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Ephesians 2:14-16

So Romans 7: 4-5 Paul tells us we are not serving the “old written code”, but we have “new life of the Spirit.” Now we are reconciled to God. Now we belong to the One who is raised from the dead.

How should we respond? Instead of producing rotten fruit that’s dead and useless, we are called to bear fruit for God. Consider what Paul wrote to the Galatians:

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Galatians 5: 18-24

How do we develop fruit? Remember we are not under the law, but instead we are called to abide in Christ being led by the Holy Spirit.