4 Likewise, my fellow believers, just like people are free from having to obey any law after they die [MET], you and I have been freed {God has freed you and me} from having to obey all the Jewish rituals and laws [MET]. That is because it is as though we died with Christ when he was crucified. Now you and I belong to someone else [MET], like a woman who marries again after her husband dies belongs to another man. Specifically, you and I belong to Christ, who has come back to life {whom God has caused to live again after he died}, in order that we may live righteously [IDM] to honor God. 5 When our self-directed nature controlled us, desires that led us to sin were acting in our bodies. Those desires were increased because of our knowing God’s laws [PRS]. As a result we did evil things [IDM] that caused us to be separated from God. 6 But now we are freed {free} from having to obey all the Jewish rituals— it is as though we have died. The result is that now we are not controlled by those rituals {those rituals do not control us now}. So we serve God, not by having to obey those rituals, which is the old way, but in the new way, as God’s Spirit helps us to serve him.