Hebrew Roots

In Romans 6-8, Paul makes an appeal to a variety of different forms of “law”. However, because these terms are entirely absent in the New Testament with the exception of this one epistle to the Romans, proper handling of this writing in order to arrive at the correct interpretation has proven difficult given that a variety of interpretations have developed over time. In chapters 6-8 of Romans, Paul includes three terms which seem to be of his own devising: Law of the mind Law of sin or Law of sin and death Law of the Spirit In Romans 7, Paul begins by addressing his Jewish audience and directing attention to the Torah, specifically it’s rulings regarding marriage and adultery. When husband and wife enter into a marriage contract, the Torah is said to hang “over” the two, as a spiritual standard acting as a witness against them should one or the other decide to transgress the terms of the marriage. The marriage contract only lasts for as long as both are living: “Do you not kn...

Hebrews 8:7-13: For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no mor...