John Calvin Commentary Romans 7:6

"But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter." — Romans 7:6 (ASV)

But now we have been set free from the law, etc. He pursues the argument derived from the opposite effect of things: “If the restraint of the law achieved so little to restrain the flesh that it became, instead, the inciter of sin, then, so that we may cease from sin, we must necessarily be set free from the law.” Again, “If we are set free from the bondage of the law for this purpose, that we may serve God, then they act perversely who from this take the liberty to indulge in sin; and they speak falsely who teach that by this means free rein is given to lusts.” Observe, then, that we are freed from the law when God emancipates us from its rigid demands and curse, and endows us with His Spirit, through whom we walk in His ways.

Having died to that, etc. This part contains a reason, or rather, indicates the manner in which we are set free; for the law is abrogated for us to such an extent that we are not weighed down by its intolerable burden, and its unyielding rigor does not overwhelm us with a curse. In newness of spirit; He sets the spirit in opposition to the letter. For before our will is formed according to the will of God by the Holy Spirit, we have in the law nothing but the outward letter, which indeed restrains our external actions but does not in the slightest restrain the fury of our lusts. And he ascribes newness to the Spirit because it replaces the old man, just as the letter is called old because it perishes through the regeneration of the Spirit.