'Law' in the Bible

Take these men, go through the purification ceremony with them, and pay their expenses to shave their heads. Then everyone will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you are carefully observing and keeping the Law.

yelling, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere to turn against our people, the Law, and this place. More than that, he has even brought Greeks into the Temple and desecrated this Holy Place."

"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia but raised in this city and educated at the feet of Gamaliel in the strict ways of our ancestral Law. I am as zealous for God as all of you are today.

"A certain Ananias, who was a devout man with respect to the Law and who was highly regarded by all the Jews living there,

At this Paul told him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! How can you sit there and judge me according to the Law, and yet in violation of the Law order me to be struck?"

I found that, although he was charged with questions about their Law, there was no charge against him deserving death or imprisonment.

However, I admit to you that in accordance with the Way, which they call a heresy, I worship the God of our ancestors and believe in everything written in the Law and the Prophets.

Paul said in his defense, "I have done nothing wrong against the Law of the Jews, or of the Temple, or of the emperor."

From morning until evening, he continued to explain the kingdom of God to them, trying to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets. Some of them were convinced by what he said, but others wouldn't believe.

For all who have sinned apart from the Law will also perish apart from the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law.

For it is not merely those who hear the Law who are righteous in God's sight. No, it is those who follow the Law, who will be justified.

For whenever gentiles, who do not possess the Law, do instinctively what the Law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the Law.

They show that what the Law requires is written in their hearts, a fact to which their own consciences testify, and their thoughts will either accuse or excuse them

Now if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the Law, and boast about God,

and know his will, and approve of what is best because you have been instructed in the Law;

an instructor of ignorant people, and a teacher of infants because you have the full content of knowledge and truth in the Law

As you boast about the Law, do you dishonor God by breaking the Law?

For circumcision is valuable if you observe the Law, but if you break the Law, your having been circumcised has no more value than if you were uncircumcised.

So if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the requirements of the Law, his uncircumcision will be regarded as circumcision, won't it?

The man who is uncircumcised physically but who keeps the Law will condemn you who break the Law, even though you have the written Law and circumcision.

No, a person is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, brought about by the Spirit, not by a written law. That person's praise will come from God, not from people.

Now we know that whatever the Law says applies to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

Therefore, God will not justify any human being by means of the actions prescribed by the Law, for through the Law comes the full knowledge of sin.

But now, apart from the Law, God's righteousness is revealed and is attested by the Law and the Prophets

For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the actions prescribed by the Law.

Do we, then, abolish the Law by this faith? Of course not! Instead, we uphold the Law.

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the Law, but through the righteousness produced by faith.

For if those who were given the Law are the heirs, then faith is useless and the promise is worthless,

for the Law produces wrath. Now where there is no Law, neither can there be any violation of it.

Therefore, the promise is based on faith, so that it may be a matter of grace and may be guaranteed for all of Abraham's descendants not only for those who were given the Law, but also for those who share the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

Certainly sin was in the world before the Law was given, but no record of sin is kept when there is no Law.

Now the Law crept in so that the offense would increase. But where sin increased, grace increased even more,

For sin will not have mastery over you, because you are not under Law but under grace.

What, then, does this mean? Should we go on sinning because we are not under Law but under grace? Of course not!

Don't you realize, brothers for I am speaking to people who know the Law that the Law can press its claims over a person only as long as he is alive?

For a married woman is bound by the Law to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the Law concerning her husband.

So while her husband is living, she will be called an adulterer if she lives with another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from this Law, so that she is not an adulterer if she marries another man.

In the same way, my brothers, through the Messiah's body you also died as far as the Law is concerned, so that you may belong to another person, the one who was raised from the dead, and may bear fruit for God.

For while we were living according to our human nature, sinful passions were at work in our bodies by means of the Law, to bear fruit resulting in death.

But now we have been released from the Law by dying to what enslaved us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit, not under the old writings.

What should we say, then? Is the Law sinful? Of course not! In fact, I wouldn't have become aware of sin if it had not been for the Law. I wouldn't have known what it means to covet if the Law had not said, "You must not covet."

But sin seized the opportunity provided by this commandment and produced in me all kinds of sinful desires, since apart from the Law, sin is dead.

At one time I was alive without any connection to the Law. But when the rule was revealed, sin sprang to life,

So then, the Law itself is holy, and the rule is holy, just, and good.

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am merely human, sold as a slave to sin.

Now if I practice what I don't want to do, I am admitting that the Law is good.

For I delight in the Law of God in my inner being,

but I see in my body a different principle waging war with the Law in my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin that exists in my body.

Thank God through Jesus the Messiah, our Lord, because with my mind I myself can serve the Law of God, even while with my human nature I serve the law of sin.

For the Spirit's law of life in the Messiah Jesus has set me free from the Law of sin and death.

For what the Law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did. By sending his own Son in the form of humanity, he condemned sin by being incarnate,

so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not live according to human nature but according to the Spirit.

That is why the mind that focuses on human nature is hostile toward God. It refuses to submit to the authority of God's Law because it is powerless to do so.

who are Israelis. To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship, and the promises.

But Israel, who pursued righteousness based on the Law, did not achieve the Law.

For the Messiah is the culmination of the Law as far as righteousness is concerned for everyone who believes.

For Moses writes about the righteousness that comes from the Law as follows: "The person who obeys these things will find life by them."

Do not owe anyone anything except to love one another. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the Law.

Love never does anything that is harmful to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the Law.

I am not saying this on human authority, am I? The Law says the same thing, doesn't it?

For in the Law of Moses it is written, "You must not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." God is not only concerned about oxen, is he?

To the Jews I became like a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the Law I became like a man under the Law, in order to win those under the Law (although I myself am not under the Law).

To those who do not have the Law, I became like a man who does not have the Law in order to win those who do not have the Law. However, I am not free from God's Law, but I'm subject to the Messiah's law.

In the Law it is written, "By means of foreign languages and through the mouths of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me," declares the Lord.

As in all the churches of the saints, the women must keep silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak out, but must place themselves in submission, as the oral law also says.

Now death's stinger is sin, and sin's power is the Law.

yet we know that a person is not justified by doing what the Law requires, but rather by the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah. We, too, have believed in the Messiah Jesus so that we might be justified by the faithfulness of the Messiah and not by doing what the Law requires, for no human being will be justified by doing what the Law requires.

For through the Law I died to the Law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with the Messiah.

I do not misapply God's grace, for if righteousness comes about by doing what the Law requires, then the Messiah died for nothing.

I want to learn only one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the actions of the Law or by believing what you heard?

Does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you because you do the actions of the Law or because you believe what you heard?

Certainly all who depend on the actions of the Law are under a curse. For it is written, "A curse on everyone who does not obey everything that is written in the Book of the Law!"

Now it is obvious that no one is justified in the sight of God by the Law, because "The righteous will live by faith."

But the Law has nothing to do with faith. Instead, "The person who keeps the commandments will have life in them."

The Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, "A curse on everyone who is hung on a tree!"

This is what I mean: The Law that came 430 years later did not cancel the covenant that God ratified previously. The promise was never nullified.

For if the inheritance comes about through the Law, it no longer comes about through the promise. But it was through a promise that God so graciously gave it to Abraham.

Why, then, was the Law added? Because of transgressions, until the descendant came about whom the promise pertained. It was put into effect through angels by means of a mediator.

So is the Law in conflict with the promises of God? Of course not! For if a law had been given that could give us life, then certainly righteousness would come through the Law.

Now before faith came about, we were held in custody and confined under the Law in preparation for the faith that was to be revealed.

And so the Law was our guardian until the Messiah came, so that we might be justified by faith.

But when the appropriate time had come, God sent his Son, born by a woman, born under the Law,

in order to redeem those who were under the Law, and thus to adopt them as his children.

Tell me, those of you who want to live under the Law: Are you really listening to what the Law says?

Again, I insist that everyone who allows himself to be circumcised is obligated to obey the entire Law.

Those of you who are trying to be justified by the Law have been cut off from the Messiah. You have fallen away from grace.

For the whole Law is summarized in a single statement: "You must love your neighbor as yourself."

But if you are being led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

Practice carrying each other's burdens. In this way you will fulfill the law of the Messiah.

Why, not even those who are circumcised obey the Law! They simply want you to be circumcised so that they can boast about your external appearance.

He rendered the Law inoperative, along with its commandments and regulations, thus creating in himself one new humanity from the two, thereby making peace,

Having been circumcised on the eighth day, I am of the nation of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. As far as the Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee.

As for my zeal, I was a persecutor of the church. As far as righteousness in the Law is concerned, I was blameless.

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but one that comes through the faithfulness of the Messiah, the righteousness that comes from God and that depends on faith.

They want to be teachers of the Law, yet they do not understand either what they are talking about or the things about which they speak so confidently.

Of course, we know that the Law is good if a person uses it legitimately,

that is, if he understands that the Law is not intended for righteous people but for lawbreakers and rebels, for ungodly people and sinners, for those who are unholy and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers, their mothers, or other people,

But avoid foolish controversies, arguments about genealogies, quarrels, and fights about the Law. These things are useless and worthless.

Do all you can to send Zenas the expert in the Law and Apollos on their way, and see that they have everything they need.