Thematic Bible


Thematic Bible



















But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, reporting the conversion of the Gentiles, and they gave great joy to all the brethren. read more.
When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up, and said, "It is necessary to circumcise them, and to charge them to keep the Law of Moses." The apostles and the elders came together to consider this matter. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us; and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you test God by putting upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are." All the assembly kept silent; and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, "Brethren, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for his name. With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, 'After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,' says the Lord, who makes these things known from long ago. Therefore it is my judgment that we should not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we should write to them to abstain from the pollutions of idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath." Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren, and they sent the following letter with them: "The apostles and the brethren who are elders, to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the Gentiles, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons from us have disturbed you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves free from these, you will do well. Farewell."



But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of them all, "If you, being a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? "We ourselves, who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law will no flesh be justified. read more.
But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died for nothing."

But their minds were hardened; for to this day, when they read the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted, because only in Christ is it removed. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.


There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weakened through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin: he condemned sin in the flesh, read more.
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Do you not know, brethrenfor I am speaking to those who know the lawthat the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of her husband. So then, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and though she marries another man, she is not an adulteress. read more.
Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit to God. While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once held us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, finding opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetous desire. For apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. The very commandment which was to bring life I found to be death to me. For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But it was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond measure. We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. I do not understand what I do. For I do not do what I want to do, but I do what I hate. Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. So then, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will to do what is good, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want to do; but the evil I do not want to do is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law, at war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to Godthrough Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law will no flesh be justified. But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor. read more.
For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died for nothing."

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to do them." Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, "The righteous man shall live by faith." But the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, "He who does them shall live by them." read more.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for usfor it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the elemental things of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. read more.
Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things? Do you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the hostility, which is the Law of commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace,


Is the law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given which could impart life, then righteousness would indeed have come by the law. Verse ConceptsLaw, Purpose OfSalvation Not By WorksGod OpposingFar Be It!God's Promise To AbrahamJustified By WorksLife Through Keeping The Law