The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirits that we are God's children;

Dearly beloved, we are now God's children, but what we are going to be has not been unveiled. We know that if it is unveiled, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.

See what wonderful love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called God's children, and that is what we are! This is why the world does not know what we are, because it has never come to know Him.

This is the way to distinguish God's children from the devil's children. No one who fails to do right is God's child, and no one who fails to love his brother.

That is, it is not Abraham's natural descendants who are God's children, but those who are made children by the promise are counted his true descendants.

that even nature itself might finally be set free from its bondage to decay, so as to share the glorious freedom of God's children.

Dearly beloved, do not follow bad examples but good ones. Whoever practices doing right is God's child; whoever practices doing wrong has never seen God.

and hope never disappoints us; for through the Holy Spirit that has been given us, God's love has flooded our hearts.

This is how we can be sure that we love the children of God, by continuing to love God and to obey His commands.

Instead we were little children among you; we were like a mother nursing her children.

So if we have already been brought into right standing with God by Christ's death, it is much more certain that by Him we shall be saved from God's wrath.

by whom we have an introduction through faith into this state of God's favor, in which we safely stand; and let us continue exulting in the hope of enjoying the glorious presence of God.

For if while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, it is much more certain that since we have been reconciled we shall finally be saved through His new life.

But, although we had just suffered and been insulted, as you remember, at Philippi, we again summoned courage by the help of God, in spite of the terrific strain, to tell you God's good news.

Since then we are God's offspring, we ought not to suppose that His nature is like gold or silver or stone or anything carved by man's art and thought.

What are we to conclude? Are we to keep on sinning, because we are not living as slaves to law but as subjects to God's favor? Never!

Not only that but this too, we ourselves who enjoy the Spirit as a foretaste of the future, even we ourselves, keep up our inner groanings while we wait to enter upon our adoption as God's sons at the redemption of our bodies.

Because we were yearning for you so tenderly, we were willing, not only to share with you God's good news, but to lay down our very lives too for you, all because you were so dearly loved by us.

in union with whom we were made God's portion, since we had been foreordained in accordance with the purpose of Him who in everything carries out the plan of His will,

once lived while gratifying the cravings of our lower nature, as we continued to carry out the impulses of our lower nature and its thoughts, and by nature we were exposed to God's wrath, as the rest of mankind.

By faith we understand that the worlds were created, beautifully coordinated, and now exist, at God's command; so the things that we see did not develop out of mere matter.

With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in God's likeness.

In this way we shall know by experience that we are on the side of the truth, and satisfy our consciences in God's sight,

This is the way God's love for us has been shown, namely, God has sent His only Son into the world that we through Him might have life.

Yes, we know that all things go on working together for the good of those who keep on loving God, who are called in accordance with God's purpose.

So you must keep on following God's example, as dearly loved children of His,

must have a reputation for doing good deeds, as bringing up children, being hospitable to strangers, washing the feet of God's people, helping people in distress, or devoting herself to any sort of doing good.

So let us continue coming with courage to the throne of God's unmerited favor to obtain His mercy and to find His spiritual strength to help us when we need it.

You are children of God, dear children, and you have conquered these men, because He who is in our hearts is greater than he who is in the world.

So we know by experience and trust the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever continues to love continues in union with God and God in union with him.

So at once I sent for you, and you have been kind enough to come. So now we are all here in God's presence to listen to anything that the Lord has commanded you to say."

Then Paul and Barnabas courageously spoke out, "God's message had to be spoken to you Jews first, but since you continue to thrust it from you and since you show yourselves unworthy to receive eternal life, now and here we turn to the heathen.

through whom we have received God's favor and a commission as an apostle in His name to urge upon all the heathen obedience inspired by faith,

Now we know that God's judgment justly falls on those who practice such sins as these.

But what does it say? "God's message is close to you, on your very lips and in your heart"; that is, the message about faith which we preach.

because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all God's people,

but we do see Jesus, who was made inferior to the angels for a little while, crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by God's favor He might experience death for every human being.

For we who have believed are being admitted to that rest, just as He has said: "As in my anger I took oath, they shall not be admitted to my rest," although God's works had been completed at the creation of the world.

No creature of His can escape God's sight, but everything is bare and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we have to give account.

Now the main point in what I am saying is this: We have such a High Priest as this, one who has taken His seat at the right hand of God's majestic throne in heaven

The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and in accordance with that law He deserves to die, for claiming to be God's Son."

Because the time has come for judgment to begin at the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will the end be of those who are rejecting God's good news?

As for us apostles, men ought to think of us as ministers of Christ and trustees to handle God's uncovered truths.

"What do you want of us, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, God's Holy One!"

"Ha! What do you want of us, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You are God's Holy One."

But God's free gift is not at all to be compared with the offense. For if by one man's offense the whole race of men have died, to a much greater degree God's favor and His gift imparted by His favor through the one man Jesus Christ, has overflowed for the whole race of men.

For even before the twin sons were born, and though they had done nothing either good or bad, that God's purpose in accordance with His choice might continue to stand, conditioned not on men's actions but on God's calling them,

but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks alike, the Christ who is God's power and God's wisdom.

It is so, because God's nonsense is wiser than men's wisdom, and God's weakness is mightier than men's might.

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is sacred to Him, and you are that temple.

He is the reflection of God's glory and the perfect representation of His being, and continues to uphold the universe by His mighty word. After He had procured man's purification from sins, He took His seat at the right hand of God's majesty,

They answered Him, "Our father is Abraham." Jesus said to them, "If you are Abraham's children, you must be practicing what Abraham did.

and they said to Aaron, 'Make us gods to march in front of us, for as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him!'

So it is conditioned on faith, that it might be in accordance with God's unmerited favor, so that the promise might be in force for all the descendants of Abraham, not only for those who belong to the law party but also for those who belong to the faith group of Abraham. He is the father of us all,

Because one's thinking the things suggested by the lower nature means enmity to God, for it does not subject itself to God's law, nor indeed can it.

For all who are guided by God's Spirit are God's sons.

who can condemn them? Christ Jesus who died, or rather, who was raised from the dead, is now at God's right hand, and is actually pleading for us.

For they were ignorant of God's way of right standing and were trying to set up one of their own, and so would not surrender to God's way of right standing.

As measured by the good news the Jews are God's enemies for your sakes, but as measured by God's choice they are His beloved because of their forefathers,

For the civil authorities are God's servants to do you good. But if you practice doing wrong, you should dread them, for they do not wield the sword for nothing. Indeed, they are God's servants to inflict punishment upon people who do wrong.

for God is not a God of disorder but of order, as it is in all the churches of God's people.

But by God's unmerited favor I have become what I am, and His unmerited favor shown to me was not bestowed for nothing, for I have toiled more extensively than any of them, and yet it was not I but God's unmerited favor working with me.

Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth, with all God's people all over Greece:

For God's Son, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us, Silvanus, Timothy, and me, did not become a "Yes" that might mean "No."

On the other hand, I have renounced all underhanded, disgraceful methods; I neither practice cunning nor do I tamper with God's message, but by clear and candid statements of truth I try to commend myself to every human conscience in God's sight.

As God's fellow-worker I beg you too not to accept God's favor and throw it away.

Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, to God's people who are faithful in Christ Jesus;

by trying to keep us from speaking to the heathen, so that they may be saved, so as always to fill to the brim the cup of their sins. But at last God's wrath has come upon them.

Then the doors of God's temple in heaven were thrown open, and inside the temple was seen the chest containing God's covenant, and there followed flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and heavy hail.

In this way is shown the patient endurance of God's people, who always cling to God's commands and their faith in Jesus.

So He has been exalted to God's right hand and has received from His Father, as promised, and poured out upon us the Holy Spirit, as you see and hear.

But since he was full of the Holy Spirit, he looked right into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at God's right hand.

to all those in Rome who are God's loved ones, called to be His people: spiritual blessing and peace be yours from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Afterward he received the mark of circumcision as God's seal of his right standing with Him on condition of faith which he had before he was circumcised, that he might be the forefather of all who have faith while still uncircumcised, that they might have their faith credited to them as right standing with God;

to the church of God at Corinth, to those who are consecrated by union with Christ Jesus, and called to be God's people, in fellowship with those who anywhere call upon the name of Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

Are you not conscious that you are God's temple, and that the Spirit of God has His permanent home in you?

because you are helping me by your prayers for me, so that thanks to God will be given by many on my behalf for God's gracious gift to me in answer to the prayers of many.

For my boast is this, to which my conscience testifies, that before the world, but especially before you, I have acted from pure motives and in sincerity before God, not depending on worldly wisdom but on God's unmerited favor.

Now who is qualified for such a task? I am, for I am not a peddler of God's message, like the most of them, but like a man of sincerity, like a man that is sent from God and living in His presence, in union with Christ I speak His message.

For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in my heart, to give me the light of the knowledge of God's glory, reflected on the face of Christ.

Because the service rendered by this sacred offering is not only fully supplying the needs of God's people, but it is also running over with many thanks to God for it.

You people, whoever you are among you, who try to get into right standing with God, through law have cut yourselves off from Christ, you have missed the way of God's favor.

At that time you were without any connection with Christ; you were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the sacred compacts made by God's promise, with no hope, and no God in the world.

Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to stimulate faith in God's chosen people and to lead them on to a full knowledge of religious truth,

For whoever is admitted into God's rest himself has rested from his works, just as God did.

How much severer punishment do you suppose that one deserves who tramples the Son of God underfoot, and counts as a common thing the blood of the covenant by which he was consecrated, and has insulted the Spirit that grants God's unmerited favor?

to the festal gathering and assembly of God's firstborn sons enrolled as citizens in heaven, to a Judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of upright men who have attained perfection,

and so the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him for uprightness, and he was called God's friend."

For God has put it into their hearts to carry out His purpose by giving up their authority to the wild beast until God's words are carried out.

and screamed aloud, "What do you want of me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God's name, I beg you, do not torture me."

If anyone is willing to keep on doing God's will, he will know whether my teaching comes from God, or merely expresses my own ideas.

and the people shouted, "It is a god's voice, not a man's!"

For in the good news God's Way of man's right standing with Him is uncovered, the Way of faith that leads to greater faith, just as the Scripture says, "The upright man must live by faith."

So one's destiny does not depend on his own willing or strenuous actions but on God's having mercy on him.

so that your faith might not be in men's wisdom, but in God's power.

to men who have no written law, like one without any law, though I am not without God's law but specially under Christ's law, to win the men who have no written law.

Am I now trying to win men's favor, or God's? Or, am I trying to be pleasing to men? If I were still trying to be pleasing to men, I would not be a slave of Christ at all.

You must put on God's full armor, so as to be able to stand up against the devil's stratagems.

All God's people wish to be remembered to you, but more especially the members of the Emperor's household.

For the Lord Himself, at the summons sounded by the archangel's call and by God's trumpet, will come down from heaven, and first of all the dead in union with Christ will rise,