Once, apart from Law, I was alive, but when the Commandment came, sin sprang into life, and I died;

For the Creation fell into subjection to failure and unreality (not of its own choice, but by the will of Him who so subjected it)

"nor 'Who shall go down into the abyss?'" --that is, to bring Christ up again from the grave.

and if you were cut from that which by nature is a wild olive and contrary to nature were grafted into the good olive tree, how much more certainly will these natural branches be grafted on their own olive tree?

Oh, how inexhaustible are God's resources and God's wisdom and God's knowledge! How impossible it is to search into His decrees or trace His footsteps!

I hope, as soon as ever I extend my travels into Spain, to see you on my way and be helped forward by you on my journey, when I have first enjoyed being with you for a time.

But I beseech you, brethren, to keep a watch on those who are causing the divisions among you, and are leading others into sin, in defiance of the instruction which you have received; and habitually to shun them.

God is ever true to His promises, and it was by Him that you were, one and all, called into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

I think then that, taking into consideration the distress which is now upon us, it is well for a man to remain as he is.

It is true that a particular kind of food will not bring us into God's presence; we are neither inferior to others if we abstain from it, nor superior to them if we eat it.

but I hit hard and straight at my own body and lead it off into slavery, lest possibly, after I have been a herald to others, I should myself be rejected.

For just as woman originates from man, so also man comes into existence through woman, but everything springs originally from God.

and to pass by way of Corinth into Macedonia. Then my plan was to return from Macedonia to you, and be helped forward by you to Judaea.

and He has also set His seal upon us, and has put His Spirit into our hearts as a pledge and foretaste of future blessing.

Now when I came into the Troad to spread there the Good News about the Christ, even though in the Lord's providence a door stood open before me,

yet, obtaining no relief for my spirit because I did not find our brother Titus, I bade them farewell and went on into Macedonia.

And all of us, with unveiled faces, reflecting like bright mirrors the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same likeness, from one degree of radiant holiness to another, even as derived from the Lord the Spirit.

So that if any one is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old state of things has passed away; a new state of things has come into existence.

We endeavour to give people no cause for stumbling in anything, lest the work we are doing should fall into discredit.

Do not come into close association with unbelievers, like oxen yoked with asses. For what is there in common between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what partnership has light with darkness?

For we overthrow arrogant 'reckonings,' and every stronghold that towers high in defiance of the knowledge of God, and we carry off every thought as if into slavery--into subjection to Christ;

Let such people take this into their reckoning, that whatever we are in word by our letters when absent, the same are we also in act when present.

Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led astray into sin, and I am not aflame with indignation?

God knows--was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable things which no human being is permitted to repeat.

nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were my seniors in the Apostleship, but I went away into Arabia, and afterwards came back to Damascus.

Yet there was danger of this through the false brethren secretly introduced into the Church, who had stolen in to spy out the freedom which is ours in Christ Jesus, in order to rob us of it.

for all of you who have been baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ.

For it is written, "Rejoice, thou barren woman that bearest not, break forth into a joyful cry, thou that dost not travail with child. For the desolate woman has many children--more indeed than she who has the husband."

You however, brethren, were called to freedom. Only do not turn your freedom into an excuse for giving way to your lower natures; but become bondservants to one another in a spirit of love.

Brethren, if anybody be detected in any misconduct, you who are spiritual should restore such a one in a spirit of meekness. And let each of you keep watch over himself, lest he also fall into temptation.

By means of that explanation, as you read it, you can judge of my insight into the truth of Christ

(Now this "re-ascended" --what does it mean but that He had first descended into the lower regions of the earth?

But we shall lovingly hold to the truth, and shall in all respects grow up into union with Him who is our Head, even Christ.

I know both how to live in humble circumstances and how to live amid abundance. I am fully initiated into all the mysteries both of fulness and of hunger, of abundance and of want.

so that your lives may be worthy of the Lord and perfectly pleasing to Him, while you exhibit the results of right action of every sort and grow into a fuller knowledge of God.

It is God who has delivered us out of the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us into the Kingdom of His dearly-loved Son,

He has now, in His human body, reconciled to God by His death, to bring you, holy and faultless and irreproachable, into His presence;

Him we preach, admonishing every one and instructing every one, with all possible wisdom, so that we may bring every one into God's presence, made perfect through Christ.

and have clothed yourselves with the new self which is being remoulded into full knowledge so as to become like Him who created it.

Therefore a defiant spirit in such a case provokes not man but God, who puts His Holy Spirit into your hearts.

and by every kind of wicked deception for those who are on the way to perdition because they did not welcome into their hearts the love of the truth, so that they might be saved.

And may the Lord guide your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

From these some have drifted away, and have wandered into empty words.

I am thankful to Him who made me strong--even Christ Jesus our Lord--because He has judged me to be faithful and has put me into His service,

Faithful is the saying, and deserving of universal acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; among whom I stand foremost.

(If a man does not know how to rule his own household, how shall he have the Church of God given into his care?)

It is needful also that he bear a good character with people outside the Church, lest he fall into reproach or a snare of the Devil.

And, beyond controversy, great is the mystery of our religion-- that Christ appeared in human form, and His claims justified by the Spirit, was seen by angels and proclaimed among Gentile nations, was believed on in the world, and received up again into glory.

for we brought nothing into the world, nor can we carry anything out of it;

But people who are determined to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many unwise and pernicious ways which sink mankind in destruction and ruin.

Among them are included the men who make their way into private houses and carry off weak women as their prisoners--women who, weighed down by the burden of their sins, are led by ever-changing caprice,

But speaking of the time when He once more brings His Firstborn into the world, He says, "And let all God's angels worship Him."

Moreover of the angels He says, "He changes His angels into winds, and His ministering servants into a flame of fire."

Inasmuch, then, as we have in Jesus, the Son of God, a great High Priest who has passed into Heaven itself, let us hold firmly to our profession of faith.

But this is the Covenant that I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days,' says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds and will write them upon their hearts. And I will indeed be their God and they shall be My People.

But into the second, the High Priest goes only on one day of the year, and goes alone, taking with him blood, which he offers on his own behalf and on account of the sins which the people have ignorantly committed.

And the lesson which the Holy Spirit teaches is this--that the way into the true Holy place is not yet open so long as the outer tent still remains in existence.

For not into a Holy place built by men's hands--a mere copy of the reality--did Christ enter, but He entered Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

That is why, when He comes into the world, He says, "Sacrifice and offering Thou has not desired, but a body Thou hast prepared for Me.

It is an awful thing to fall into the hands of the ever-living God.

Through faith we understand that the worlds came into being, and still exist, at the command of God, so that what is seen does not owe its existence to that which is visible.

Through faith Abraham, upon being called to leave home and go into a land which he was soon to receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he was going to.

For the bodies of those animals of which the blood is carried by the High Priest into the Holy place as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp.

But let him ask in faith and have no doubts; for he who has doubts is like the surge of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed into spray.

But he who looks closely into the perfect Law--the Law of freedom--and continues looking, he, being not a hearer who forgets, but an obedient doer, will as the result of his obedience be blessed.

For suppose a man comes into one of your meetings wearing gold rings and fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man wearing shabby clothes,

But *you* have put dishonour upon the poor man. Yet is it not the rich who grind you down? Are not they the very people who drag you into the Law courts? --

Remember that we put the horses' bit into their mouths to make them obey us, and so we turn their whole bodies round.

Afflict yourselves and mourn and weep aloud; let your laughter be turned into grief, and your gladness into shame.

I tell you that the pay of the labourers who have gathered in your crops--pay which you are keeping back--is calling out against you; and the outcries of those who have been your reapers have entered into the ears of the Lord of the armies of Heaven.

There were Prophets who earnestly inquired about that salvation, and closely searched into it--even those who spoke beforehand of the grace which was to come to you.

To them it was revealed that they were serving not themselves but you, when they foretold the very things which have now been openly declared to you by those who, having been taught by the Holy Spirit which had been sent from Heaven, brought you the Good News. Angels long to stoop and look into these things.

And be yourselves also like living stones that are being built up into a spiritual house, to become a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

But you are a chosen race, a priesthood of kingly lineage, a holy nation, a people belonging specially to God, that you may make known the perfections of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.

who is at God's right hand, having gone into Heaven, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.

At this they are astonished--that you do not run into the same excess of profligacy as they do; and they speak abusively of you.

And so a triumphant admission into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be freely granted to you.

And in their immoral ways they will have many eager disciples, through whom religion will be brought into disrepute.

As for us, we know that we have already passed out of death into Life--because we love our brother men. He who is destitute of love continues dead.

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but put the spirits to the test to see whether they are from God; for many false teachers have gone out into the world.

God's love for us has been manifested in that He has sent His only Son into the world so that we may have Life through Him.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world--men who do not acknowledge Jesus as Christ who has come in human nature. Such a one is 'the deceiver' and 'the anti-Christ.'

For certain persons have crept in unnoticed--men spoken of in ancient writings as pre-destined to this condemnation--ungodly men, who pervert the grace of our God into an excuse for immorality, and disown Jesus Christ, our only Sovereign and Lord.

and has formed us into a Kingdom, to be priests to God, His Father--to Him be ascribed the glory and the power until the Ages of the Ages. Amen.

Dismiss your fears concerning all that you are about to suffer. I tell you that the Devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be put to the test, and for ten days you will have to endure persecution. Be faithful to the End, even if you have to die, and then I will give you the victor's Wreath of Life.

Her children too shall surely die; and all the Churches shall come to know that I am He who searches into men's inmost thoughts; and to each of you I will give a requital which shall be in accordance with what your conduct has been.

saying, "It is fitting, O our Lord and God, That we should ascribe unto Thee the glory and the honor and the power; For Thou didst create all things, And because it was Thy will they came into existence, and were created."

But no one in Heaven, or on earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book or look into it.

And while I was weeping bitterly, because no one was found worthy to open the book or look into it,

Then, midway between the throne and the four living creatures, I saw a Lamb standing among the Elders. He looked as if He had been offered in sacrifice, and He had seven horns and seven eyes. The last-named are the seven Spirits of God, and have been sent far and wide into all the earth.

And hast formed them into a Kingdom to be priests to our God, And they reign over the earth."

And the smoke of the incense rose into the presence of God from the angel's hand, and mingled with the prayers of His people.

The second angel blew his trumpet; and what seemed to be a great mountain, all ablaze with fire, was hurled into the sea; and a third part of the sea was turned into blood.

The name of the star is 'Wormwood;' and a third part of the waters were turned into wormwood, and vast numbers of the people died from drinking the water, because it had become bitter.

They had breast-plates which seemed to be made of steel; and the noise caused by their wings was like that of a vast number of horses and chariots hurrying into battle.

They have power given to them to seal up the sky, so that no rain may fall so long as they continue to prophesy; and power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with various plagues whenever they choose to do so.

But at the end of the three days and a half the breath of life from God entered into them, and they rose to their feet; and all who saw them were terrified.

and the woman fled into the Desert, there to be cared for, for 1,260 days, in a place which God had prepared for her.

Then, the two wings of a great eagle were given to the woman to enable her to fly away into the Desert to the place assigned her, there to be cared for, for a period of time, two periods of time, and half a period of time, beyond the reach of the serpent.

If any one is eager to lead others into captivity, he must himself go into captivity. If any one is bent on killing with the sword, he must himself be killed by the sword. Here is an opportunity for endurance, and for the exercise of faith, on the part of God's people.