New Way of the Spirit

Rom 7:4-6

4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
NIV

Our nature, apart from God, is shown for what it is by the law. It did not create sinful passions but brought those passions to light so we could see them for what they are. The sinful nature controlled us. We are helpless on our own.

We have been brought into new life through Christ. His natural body bore the penalty of our rejection of God so that we might be brought into the new body of Christ, joined together as one with Him. We have been freed and His grace abounds in the new way of the Spirit.