God raised him from the dead, never to experience decay, as he said, "I'll give you the holy promises made to David.'

and that everyone who believes in him is justified and freed from everything that kept you from being justified by the Law of Moses.

"Men, why are you doing this? We are merely human beings with natures like yours. We are telling you the good news so you'll turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them.

Then some men came down from Judea and started to teach the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised according to the Law of Moses, you can't be saved."

But some believers from the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The gentiles must be circumcised and ordered to keep the Law of Moses."

For I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you or harm you, because I have many people in this city."

They said, "This man is persuading people to worship God in ways that are contrary to the Law."

But since it is a question about words, names, and your own Law, you will have to take care of that yourselves. I refuse to be a judge in these matters."

When they heard about it, they praised God and told him, "You see, brother, how many tens of thousands of believers there are among the Jews, and all of them are zealous for the Law.

But they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews living among the gentiles to forsake the Law of Moses, and that you tell them not to circumcise their children or observe the customs.

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,

"Then he told me, "Go, because I'll send you far away to the gentiles.'"

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?"

Now then, you and the Council must notify the tribune to bring him down to you on the pretext that you want to look into his case more carefully, but before he arrives we'll be ready to kill him."

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.

Felix was rather well informed about the Way, and so he adjourned the trial with the comment, "When Tribune Lysias arrives, I'll decide your case."

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

"The Lord answered, "I'm Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet, because I've appeared to you for the very purpose of appointing you to be my servant and witness of what you've seen and of what I'll show you.

I'll continue to rescue you from your people and from the gentiles to whom I'm sending you.

Meanwhile, the sailors had begun trying to escape from the ship. They lowered the lifeboat into the sea and pretended that they were going to lay out the anchors from the bow.

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.

They exchanged God's truth for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

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.

After all, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is already laid, and that is Jesus the Messiah.

But I will come to you soon if it's the Lord's will. Then I'll discover not only what these arrogant people are saying but also what power they have,

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.

or you'll provoke the Lord to jealousy, won't you? Are we stronger than he is?

In the same way, unless you speak an intelligible message with your language, how will anyone know what is being said? You'll be talking into the air!

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.

However, I'll stay on in Ephesus until Pentecost,

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.