But Jesus answered him, "Come now, this is how we should fulfil all our duty to God." Then John gave in to him.

Do not imagine I have come to destroy the Law or the prophets; I have not come to destroy but to fulfil.

Do not imagine I have come to destroy the Law or the prophets; I have not come to destroy but to fulfil. (I tell you truly, till heaven and earth pass away not an iota, not a comma, will pass from the Law until it is all in force.

(I tell you truly, till heaven and earth pass away not an iota, not a comma, will pass from the Law until it is all in force.

(I tell you truly, till heaven and earth pass away not an iota, not a comma, will pass from the Law until it is all in force. Therefore whoever relaxes a single one of these commands, were it even one of the least, and teaches men so, he will be ranked least in the Realm of heaven; but whoever obeys them and teaches them, he will be ranked great in the Realm of heaven.) read more. For I tell you, unless your goodness excels that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the Realm of heaven. You have heard how the men of old were told, 'Murder not: whoever murders must come up for sentence, whoever maligns his brother must come before the San hedrin, whoever curses his brother must go to the fire of Gehenna.' But I tell you, whoever is angry with his brother [without cause] will be sentenced by God. So if you remember, even when offering your gift at the altar, that your brother has any grievance against you, leave your gift at the very altar and go away; first be reconciled to your brother, then come back and offer your gift. Be quick and make terms with your opponent, so long as you and he are on the way to court, in case he hands you over to the judge, and the judge to the jailer, and you are thrown into prison; truly I tell you, you will never get out till you pay the last halfpenny of your debt. You have heard how it used to be said, Do not commit adultery. But I tell you, any one who even looks with lust at a woman has committed adultery with her already in his heart. If your right eye is a hindrance to you, pluck it out and throw it away: better for you to lose one of your members than to have all your body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand is a hindrance to you, cut it off and throw it away: better for you to lose one of your members than to have all your body thrown into Gehenna. It used to be said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a divorce-certificate. But I tell you, anyone who divorces his wife for any reason except unchastity makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Once again, you have heard how the men of old were told, 'You must not forswear yourself but discharge your vows to the Lord'. But I tell you, you must not swear any oath, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God, nor by earth, for it is the footstool of his feet, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King; nor shall you swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let what you say be simply 'yes' or 'no'; whatever exceeds that springs from evil. You have heard the saying, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, you are not to resist an injury: whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well; whoever wants to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well; whoever forces you to go one mile, go two miles with him; give to the man who begs from you, and turn not away from him who wants to borrow. You have heard the saying, 'You must love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven: he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love only those who love you, what reward do you get for that? do not the very taxgatherers do as much? and if you only salute your friends, what is special about that? do not the very pagans do as much? You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

When Jesus finished his speech, the crowds were astounded at his teaching;

Then Jesus told him, "See, you are not to say a word to anybody; away and show yourself to the priest and offer the gift prescribed by Moses, to notify men."

Have you not read in the Law that the priests in the temple are not guilty when they desecrate the sabbath? I tell you, One is here who is greater than the temple.

He said to them, "Is there a man of you with one sheep, who will not catch hold of it and lift it out of a pit on the sabbath, if it falls in?

But if I cast out daemons by the Spirit of God, then the Reign of God has reached you already. Why, how can anyone enter the strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first of all binds the strong man? Then he can plunder his house. read more. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.

The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and here is One greater than Solomon.

He replied, "It was only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that I was sent."

However, not to give any offence to them, go to the sea, throw a hook in, and take the first fish you bring up. Open its mouth and you will find a five-shilling piece; take that and give it to them for me and for yourself."

Then the Pharisees came up to tempt him. They asked, "Is it right to divorce one's wife for any reason?" He replied, "Have you never read that He who created them male and female from the beginning read more. said, Hence a man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and the pair shall be one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What God has joined, then, man must not separate." They said to him, "Then why did Moses lay it down that we were to divorce by giving a separation-notice?" He said to them, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives, on account of the hardness of your hearts, but it was not so from the beginning. I tell you, whoever divorces his wife except for unchastity and marries another woman, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery."

just as the Son of man has not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

When the Pharisees heard he had silenced the Sadducees, they mustered their forces, and one of them, a jurist, put a question in order to tempt him. read more. "Teacher," he said, "what is the greatest command in the Law?" He replied, "You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with your whole mind. This is the greatest and chief command. There is a second like it: you must love your neighbour as yourself. The whole Law and the prophets hang upon these two commands."

this means my blood, the new covenant-blood, shed for many, to win the remission of their sins.

Now it happened that he was passing through the cornfields on the sabbath, and as the disciples made their way through they began to pull the ears of corn. The Pharisees said to him, "Look at what they are doing on the sabbath! That is not allowed." read more. He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and his men? He went into the house of God (Abiathar was high priest then) and ate the loaves of the Presence which no one except the priests is allowed to eat, and also shared them with his followers." And he said to them, "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath:

And he said to them, "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath: so that the Son of man is Lord even over the sabbath."

and they watched to see if he would heal him on the sabbath, so as to get a charge against him.

vain is their worship of me, for the doctrines they teach are but human precepts. You drop what God commands and hold to human tradition. read more. Yes, forsooth," he added, "you set aside what God commands, so as to maintain your own tradition. Thus, Moses said, Honour your father and mother, and, He who curses his father or mother is to suffer death. But you say that if a man tells his father or mother, 'This money might have been at your service, but it is Korban' (that is, dedicated to God), he is exempt, so you hold, from doing anything for his father or mother. That is repealing the word of God in the interests of the tradition which you keep up. And you do many things like that." Then he called the crowd to him again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand this: nothing outside a man can defile him by entering him; it is what comes from him that defiles him. If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this." Now when he went indoors away from the crowd, his disciples asked him the meaning of this parabolic saying. He said to them, "So you do not understand, either? Do you not see how nothing outside a man can defile him by entering him? It does not enter his heart but his belly and passes from that into the drain" (thus he pronounced all food clean).

It does not enter his heart but his belly and passes from that into the drain" (thus he pronounced all food clean). "No," he said, "it is what comes from a man, that is what defiles him. read more. From within, from the heart of man, the designs of evil come: sexual vice, stealing, murder, adultery, lust, malice, deceit, sensuality, envying, slander, arrogance, recklessness, all these evils issue from within and they defile a man."

He said nothing and made no answer. Again the high priest put a question to him. "Are you the Christ?" he said, "the Son of the Blessed?"

When the eight days had passed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus ??the name given by the angel before he had been conceived in the womb.

and was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah; on opening the book he came upon the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me: for he has consecrated me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release for captives and recovery of sight for the blind, to set free the oppressed, read more. to proclaim the Lord's year of favour. Then, folding up the book, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he proceeded to tell them that "To-day, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

Now a jurist got up to tempt him. "Teacher," he said, "what am I to do to inherit life eternal?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" read more. He replied, "You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, with your whole strength, and with your whole mind. Also your neighbour as yourself." "A right answer!" said Jesus; "do that and you will live." Anxious to make an excuse for himself, however, he said to Jesus, "But who is my neighbour?" Jesus rejoined, "A man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among robbers who stripped and belaboured him and then went off leaving him half-dead. Now it so chanced that a priest was going down the same road, but on seeing him he went past on the opposite side. So did a Levite who came to the spot; he looked at him but passed on the opposite side. However a Samaritan traveller came to where he was and felt pity when he saw him; he went to him, bound his wounds up, pouring oil and wine into them, mounted him on his own steed, took him to an inn, and attended to him. Next morning he took out a couple of shillings and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Attend to him, and if you are put to any extra expense I will refund you on my way back.' Which of these three men, in your opinion, proved a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The man who took pity on him." Jesus said to him, "Then go and do the same."

When he finished speaking, a Pharisee asked him to take a meal in his house; so he went in and lay down at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he had not washed before the meal, read more. but the Lord said to him, "You Pharisees do clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but your inner life is filled with rapacity and malice. Foolish men! did not He who made the outside make the inside of things too? Better cleanse what is within; then nothing will be unclean for you.

And this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for all these eighteen years, was she not to be freed from her bondage on the sabbath?" As he said this, all his opponents were put to shame, but all the crowd rejoiced over all his splendid doings.

The Law and the prophets lasted till John; since then the good news of the Realm of God is preached, and anyone presses in.

For I tell you, this word of scripture must be fulfilled in me: he was classed among criminals. Yes, there is an end to all that refers to me."

Then he began with Moses and all the prophets and interpreted to them the passages referring to himself throughout the scriptures.

while the Law was given through Moses, grace and reality are ours through Jesus Christ.

while the Law was given through Moses, grace and reality are ours through Jesus Christ.

Indeed the Son of man must be lifted on high, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,

And instantly the man got well, lifted his mat, and started to walk. Now it was the sabbath on that day. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "This is the sabbath, you have no right to be carrying your mat." read more. He replied, "But the man who healed me, he told me, 'Lift your mat and walk'." They questioned him, "Who was it that told you, 'Lift it and walk'?" Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for (owing to the crowd on the spot) Jesus had slipped away. Later on Jesus met him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you are well and strong; commit no more sins, in case something worse befalls you." Off went the man and told the Jews it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did things like this on the sabbath. The reply of Jesus was, "As my Father has continued working to this hour, so I work too." But this only made the Jews more eager to kill him, because he not merely broke the sabbath but actually spoke of God as his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. So Jesus made this answer to them: "Truly, truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, nothing but what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, the Son also does the same. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he is doing himself. He will show him still greater deeds than these, to make you wonder;

In the prophets it is written, and they will be all instructed by God; everyone who has listened to the Father and learned from him, comes to me.

I am the living bread which has come down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and more, the bread I will give is my flesh, given for the life of the world."

Are you greater than our father Abraham? He is dead, and the prophets are dead. Who do you claim to be?"

Then said some of the Pharisees, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the sabbath"; others said, "How can a sinner perform such Signs?" They were divided on this.

So the man born blind was summoned a second time, and told, "Now give God the praise; this man, we know quite well, is only a sinner."

Jesus answered, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'?

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said, "You know nothing about it ??50 you do not understand it is in your own interests that one man should die for the People, instead of the whole nation being destroyed."

Truly, truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains a single grain; but if it dies, it bears rich fruit.

So the people answered, "We have learned from the Law that the Christ is to remain for ever; what do you mean by saying that the Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?"

It is that the word written in their Law may be fulfilled: they hated me for no cause.

The Jews retorted, "But we have a Law, and by [our] Law he is bound to die, because he has made himself out to be God's Son."

So you must understand, my brothers, that remission of sins is proclaimed to you through him,

But if so, what can we say about Abraham, our forefather by natural descent? This, that if 'Abraham was justified on the score of what he did,' he has something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God. read more. For what does scripture say? Abraham believed God and this was counted to him as righteousness. Now a worker has his wage counted to him as a due, not as a favour; but a man who instead of 'working' believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, has his faith counted as righteousness.

Law slipped in to aggravate the trespass; sin increased, but grace surpassed it far,

What follows, then? That 'the Law is equivalent to sin'? Never! Why, had it not been for the Law, I would never have known what sin meant! Thus I would never have known what it is to covet, unless the Law had said, You must not covet. The command gave an impulse to sin, and sin resulted for me in all manner of covetous desire ??for sin, apart from law, is lifeless. read more. I lived at one time without law myself, but when the command came home to me, sin sprang to life and I died; the command that meant life proved death for me. The command gave an impulse to sin, sin beguiled me and used the command to kill me. So the Law at any rate is holy, the command is holy, just, and for our good.

So the Law at any rate is holy, the command is holy, just, and for our good. Then did what was meant for my good prove fatal to me? Never! It was sin; sin resulted in death for me by making use of this good thing. This was how sin was to be revealed in its true nature; it was to use the command to become sinful in the extreme.

Then did what was meant for my good prove fatal to me? Never! It was sin; sin resulted in death for me by making use of this good thing. This was how sin was to be revealed in its true nature; it was to use the command to become sinful in the extreme. The Law is spiritual; we know that. But then I am a creature of the flesh, in the thraldom of sin. read more. I cannot understand my own actions; I do not act as I want to act; on the contrary, I do what I detest. Now, when I act against my wishes, that means I agree that the Law is right. That being so, it is not I who do the deed but sin that dwells within me. For in me (that is, in my flesh) no good dwells, I know; the wish is there, but not the power of doing what is right. I cannot be good as I want to be, and I do wrong against my wishes. Well, if I act against my wishes, it is not I who do the deed but sin that dwells within me. So this is my experience of the Law: I want to do what is right, but wrong is all I can manage; I cordially agree with God's law, so far as my inner self is concerned, but then I find quite another law in my members which conflicts with the law of my mind and makes me a prisoner to sin's law that resides in my members. Miserable wretch that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

the law of the Spirit brings the life which is in Christ Jesus, and that law has set me free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the Law, weakened here by the flesh, could not do; by sending his own Son in the guise of sinful flesh, to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

whereas Israel who did aim at the law of righteousness have failed to reach that law.

They would not surrender to the righteousness of God, because they were ignorant of his righteousness and therefore essayed to set up a righteousness of their own.

For married people these are my instructions (and they are the Lord's, not mine). A wife is not to separate from her husband ??11 if she has separated, she must either remain single or be reconciled to him ??and a husband must not put away his wife.

I disown those practices which very shame conceals from view; I do not go about it craftily; I do not falsify the word of God; I state the truth openly and so commend myself to every man's conscience before God.

For through the Law I died to the Law that I might live for God;

Then the Law is contrary to God's Promises? Never! Had there been any law which had the power of producing life, righteousness would really have been due to law,

the Law thus held us as wards in discipline, till such time as Christ came, that we might be justified by faith.

What I mean is this. As long as an heir is under age, there is no difference between him and a servant, though he is lord of all the property; he is under guardians and trustees till the time fixed by his father. read more. So with us. When we were under age, we lived under the thraldom of the Elemental spirits of the world; but when the time had fully expired, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

but when the time had fully expired, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to ransom those who were under the Law, that we might get our sonship.

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

and be found at death in him, possessing no legal righteousness of my own but the righteousness of faith in Christ, the divine righteousness that rests on faith.

and be found at death in him, possessing no legal righteousness of my own but the righteousness of faith in Christ, the divine righteousness that rests on faith.

Let no one lay down rules for you as he pleases, with regard to fasting and the cult of angels, presuming on his visions and inflated by his sensuous notions,

Besides, while Moses was faithful in every department of God's house as an attendant ??by way of witness to the coming revelation ??6 Christ is faithful as a Son over God's house. Now we are this house of God, if we will only keep confident and proud of our hope.

(which foreshadowed the present age) was still standing, with its offerings of gifts and sacrifices which cannot possibly make the conscience of the worshipper perfect,