and said, "If you are God's Son, throw yourself down; for it is written, "'To His angels He will give orders concerning thee, and on their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any moment thou shouldst strike thy foot against a stone.'"

But I tell you not to swear at all; neither by Heaven, for it is God's throne;

And if God so clothes the wild herbage which to-day flourishes and to-morrow is thrown into the oven, is it not much more certain that He will clothe you, you men of little faith?

and the men on board fell down before him and said, "You are indeed God's Son."

"Why do you, too," He retorted, "transgress God's commands for the sake of your tradition?

he shall be absolved from honouring his father'; and so you have abrogated God's Word for the sake of your tradition.

But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Adversary; you are a hindrance to me, because your thoughts are not God's thoughts, but men's."

So they sent to Him their disciples together with the Herodians; who said, "Teacher, we know that you are truthful and that you faithfully teach God's truth; and that no fear of man misleads you, for you are not biased by men's wealth or rank.

"Caesar's," they replied. "Pay therefore," He rejoined, "what is Caesar's to Caesar; and what is God's to God."

The same is true of you: outwardly you seem to the human eye to be good and honest men, but, within, you are full of insincerity and disregard of God's Law.

and because of the prevalent disregard of God's law the love of the great majority will grow cold;

And if those days had not been cut short, no one would escape; but for the sake of God's own People those days will be cut short.

For there will rise up false Christs and false prophets, displaying wonderful signs and prodigies, so as to deceive, were it possible, even God's own People.

and said, "You who would pull down the Sanctuary and build a new one within three days, save yourself. If you are God's Son, come down from the cross."

His trust is in God: let God deliver him now, if He will have him; for he said, 'I am God's Son.'"

the tombs opened; and many of God's people who were asleep in death awoke.

As for the Captain and the soldiers who were with Him keeping guard over Jesus, when they witnessed the earthquake and the other occurrences they were filled with terror, and exclaimed, "Assuredly he was God's Son."

Then, after John had been thrown into prison, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming God's Good News.

"What have you to do with us, Jesus the Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--God's Holy One."

crying out in a loud voice, "What hast Thou to do with me, Jesus, Son of God Most High? In God's name I implore Thee not to torment me."

"You neglect God's Commandment: you hold fast to men's traditions."

"Praiseworthy indeed!" He added, "to set at nought God's Commandment in order to observe your own traditions!

thus nullifying God's precept by your tradition which you have handed down. And many things of that kind you do."

But turning round and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Adversary," He said, "for your thoughts are not God's thoughts, but men's."

So they came to Him. "Rabbi," they said, "we know that you are a truthful man and you do not fear any one; for you do not recognize human distinctions, but teach God's way truly. Is it allowable to pay poll-tax to Caesar, or not?

"What is Caesar's," replied Jesus, "pay to Caesar--and what is God's, pay to God." And they wondered exceedingly at Him.

For those will be times of suffering the like of which has never been from the first creation of God's world until now, and assuredly never will be again;

For there will rise up false Christs and false prophets, displaying signs and prodigies with a view to lead astray--if indeed that were possible--even God's own People.

And when the Centurion who stood in front of the cross saw that He was dead, he exclaimed, "This man was indeed God's Son."

and then shall all mankind see God's salvation.'"

Then the Devil said to Him, "If you are God's Son, tell this stone to become bread."

Then he brought Him to Jerusalem and caused Him to stand on the roof of the Temple, and said to Him, "If you are God's Son, throw yourself down from here; for it is written,

"Ha! Jesus the Nazarene, what have you to do with us? I know who you are--God's Holy One!"

On one occasion the crowd was pressing on Him and listening to God's Message, while He was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.

But the Pharisees and expounders of the Law have frustrated God's purpose as to their own lives, by refusing to be baptized.

The meaning of the parable is as follows. The seed is God's Message.

"My mother and my brothers," He replied, "are these who hear God's Message and obey it."

"But you," He asked, "who do you say that I am?" "God's Anointed One," replied Peter.

"Nay rather," He replied, "they are blessed who hear God's Message and carefully keep it."

Are not five sparrows sold for a penny? and yet not one of them is a thing forgotten in God's sight.

But if God so clothes the vegetation in the fields, that blooms to-day and to-morrow will be thrown into the oven, how much more certainly will He clothe you, you men of feeble faith!

After listening to this teaching, one of His fellow guests said to Him, "Blessed is he who shall feast in God's Kingdom."

"You are they," He said to them, "who boast of their own goodness before men, but God sees your hearts; for that which holds a proud position among men is detestable in God's sight.

"I solemnly tell you," replied Jesus, "that there is no one who has left house or wife, or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of God's Kingdom,

So they put a question to Him. "Rabbi," they said, "we know that you say and teach what is right and that you make no distinctions between one man and another, but teach God's way truly.

"Pay therefore," He replied, "what is Caesar's to Caesar--and what is God's to God."

But from this time forward the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of God's omnipotence."

and the people stood looking on. The Rulers, too, repeatedly uttered their bitter taunts. "This fellow," they said, "saved others: let him save himself, if he is God's Anointed, the Chosen One."

"I tell you all in most solemn truth," He added, "that you shall see Heaven opened wide, and God's angels going up, and coming down to the Son of Man."

He who trusts in Him does not come up for judgement. He who does not trust has already received sentence, because he has not his trust resting on the name of God's only Son.

For He whom God has sent speaks God's words; for God does not give the Spirit with limitations."

He who believes in the Son has the Life of the Ages; he who disobeys the Son will not enter into Life, but God's anger remains upon him.

"If you had known God's free gift," replied Jesus, "and who it is that said to you, 'Give me some water,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

For God's bread is that which comes down out of Heaven and gives Life to the world."

He who is a child of God listens to God's words. You do not listen to them: and why? It is because you are not God's children."

"Neither he nor his parents sinned," answered Jesus, "but he was born blind in order that God's mercy might be openly shown in him.

If those to whom God's word was addressed are called gods (and the Scripture cannot be annulled)

how is it that you say to one whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am God's Son'?

delivered up through God's settled purpose and foreknowledge--you by the hands of Gentiles have nailed to a cross and have put to death.

But Peter and John replied, "Judge whether it is right in God's sight to listen to you instead of listening to God.

When they had prayed, the place in which they were assembled shook, and they were, one and all, filled with the Holy Spirit, and proceeded to tell God's Message with boldness.

So the Twelve called together the general body of the disciples and said, "It does not seem fitting that we Apostles should neglect the delivery of God's Message and minister at tables.

Meanwhile God's Message continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem very greatly increased, and very many priests obeyed the faith.

But, full of the Holy Spirit and looking up to Heaven, Stephen saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God's right hand.

"I can see Heaven wide open," he said, "and the Son of Man standing at God's right hand."

Those, however, who were scattered abroad went from place to place spreading the Good News of God's Message;

When the Apostles in Jerusalem heard that the Samaritans had accepted God's Message, they sent Peter and John to visit them.

"Perish your money and yourself," replied Peter, "because you have imagined that you can obtain God's free gift with money!

No part or lot have you in this matter, for your heart is not right in God's sight.

Now Peter, as he went to town after town, came down also to God's people at Lud.

Then, giving her his hand, he raised her to her feet and, calling to him God's people and the widows, he gave her back to them alive.

"Immediately, therefore, I sent to you, and I thank you heartily for having come. That is why all of us are now assembled here in God's presence, to listen to what the Lord has commanded you to say."

Now the Apostles, and the brethren in various parts of Judaea, heard that the Gentiles also had received God's Message;

But God's Message prospered, and converts were multiplied.

Having reached Salamis, they began to announce God's Message in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John as their assistant.

who was a friend of the Proconsul Sergius Paulus. The Proconsul was a man of keen intelligence. He sent for Barnabas and Saul, and asked to be told God's Message.

For David, after having been useful to his own generation in accordance with God's purpose, did fall asleep, was gathered to his forefathers, and did undergo decay.

Then, throwing off all reserve, Paul and Barnabas said, "We were bound to proclaim God's Message to you first. But since you spurn it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of the Life of the Ages--well, we turn to the Gentiles.

As soon, however, as the Jews of Thessalonica learnt that God's Message had been proclaimed by Paul at Beroea, they came there also, and incited the mob to a riot.

Since then we are God's offspring, we ought not to imagine that His nature resembles gold or silver or marble, or anything sculptured by the art and inventive faculty of man.

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, and Priscilla and Aquila, after hearing him, took him home and explained God's way to him more accurately.

But even the sacrifice of my life I count as nothing, if only I may perfect my earthly course, and be faithful to the duty which the Lord Jesus has entrusted to me of proclaiming, as of supreme importance, the Good News of God's grace.

For I have not shrunk from declaring to you God's whole truth.

"Do you rail at God's High Priest?" cried the men who stood by him.

And that was how I acted in Jerusalem. Armed with authority received from the High Priests I shut up many of God's people in various prisons, and when they were about to be put to death I gave my vote against them.

"Be fully assured, therefore, that this salvation--God's salvation--has now been sent to the Gentiles, and that they, at any rate, will give heed."

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, set apart to proclaim God's Good News,

To all God's loved ones who are in Rome, called to be saints. May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

For I am not ashamed of the Good News. It is God's power which is at work for the salvation of every one who believes--the Jew first, and then the Gentile.

For God's anger is being revealed from Heaven against all impiety and against the iniquity of men who through iniquity suppress the truth. God is angry:

And just as they had refused to continue to have a full knowledge of God, so it was to utterly worthless minds that God gave them up, for them to do things which should not be done.

and we know that God's judgement against those who commit such sins is in accordance with the truth.

The fact is that in the stubbornness of your impenitent heart you are treasuring up against yourself anger on the day of Anger--the day when the righteousness of God's judgements will stand revealed.

The privilege is great from every point of view. First of all, because the Jews were entrusted with God's truth.

For what if some Jews have proved unfaithful? Shall their faithlessness render God's faithfulness worthless?

But if our unrighteousness sets God's righteousness in a clearer light, what shall we say? (Is God unrighteous--I speak in our everyday language-- when He inflicts punishment?

If, for instance, a falsehood of mine has made God's truthfulness more conspicuous, redounding to His glory, why am I judged all the same as a sinner?

He it is whom God put forward as a Mercy-seat, rendered efficacious through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness-- because of the passing over, in God's forbearance, of the sins previously committed--

Nor did he in unbelief stagger at God's promise, but became mighty in faith, giving glory to God,

through whom also, as the result of faith, we have obtained an introduction into that state of favour with God in which we stand, and we exult in hope of some day sharing in God's glory.