Thematic Bible


Thematic Bible



If once through fellowship with Christ you died and were separated from the world's crude notions, why do you live as though you belonged to the world? Why submit to rules such as, Verse ConceptsMortificationAbolish, Evil ThingsChristian Liberty Is Freedom FromFormalityDying With ChristDead To SinElements Of The UniverseHuman Law

But if Christ lives in you, although your bodies must die because of sin, your spirits are now enjoying life because of right standing with God. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead has His home within you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give your mortal bodies life through His Spirit that has His home within you.

Not at all! Since we have ended our relation to sin, how can we live in it any longer? Or, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into union with Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? So through baptism we have been buried with Him in death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glorious power, so we too should live an entirely new life. read more.
For if we have grown into fellowship with Him by sharing a death like His, surely we shall share a resurrection life like His, for we know that our former self was crucified with Him, to make our body that is liable to sin inactive, so that we might not a moment longer continue to be slaves to sin. For when a man is dead, he is freed from the claims of sin. So if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, for we know that Christ, who once was raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no more power over Him. For by the death He died He once for all ended His relation to sin, and by the life He now is living He lives in unbroken relation to God. So you too must consider yourselves as having ended your relation to sin but living in unbroken relation to God.

Do you not know, brothers -- for I speak to those who are acquainted with the law -- that the law can press its claim over a man only so long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is freed from the marriage bond. So if she marries another man while her husband is living, she is called an adulteress, but if he dies, she is free from that marriage bond, so that she will not be an adulteress though later married to another man. read more.
So, my brothers, you too in the body of Christ have ended your relation to the law, so that you may be married to another husband, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were living in accordance with our lower nature, the sinful passions that were aroused by the law were operating in the parts of our bodies to make us bear fruit that leads to death. But now we have been freed from our relation to the law; we have ended our relation to that by which we once were held in bonds, so that we may serve in a new spiritual way and not in the old literalistic way. What are we then to conclude? Is the law sin? Of course not! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have learned what sin was, for I should not have known what an evil desire was, if the law had not said, "You must not have an evil desire." Sin found its rallying point in that command and stirred within me every sort of evil desire, for without law, sin is lifeless. I was once alive when I had no connection with the law, but when the command came, sin revived, and then I died; and so, in my case, the command which should have meant life turned out to mean death.

I was once alive when I had no connection with the law, but when the command came, sin revived, and then I died; and so, in my case, the command which should have meant life turned out to mean death. For sin found its rallying point in that command and through it deceived me and killed me. read more.
So the law itself is holy, and its specific commands are holy, right, and good. Did that which is good, then, result in death to me? Of course not! It was sin that did it, so that it might show itself as sin, for by means of that good thing it brought about my death, so that through the command sin might appear surpassingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made of flesh that is frail, sold into slavery to sin. Indeed, I do not understand what I do, for I do not practice what I want to do, but I am always doing what I hate. But if I am always doing what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is right. Now really it is not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me. For I know that nothing good has its home in me; that is, in my lower self; I have the will but not the power to do what is right. Indeed, I do not do the good things that I want to do, but I do practice the evil things that I do not want to do. But if I do the things that I do not want to do, it is really not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me. So I find this law: When I want to do right, the wrong is always in my way. For in accordance with my better inner nature I approve God's law, but I see another power operating in my lower nature in conflict with the power operated by my reason, which makes me a prisoner to the power of sin which is operating in my lower nature. Wretched man that I am! Who can save me from this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my higher nature I am a slave to the law of God, but in my lower nature, to the law of sin.






What are we then to conclude? Is the law sin? Of course not! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have learned what sin was, for I should not have known what an evil desire was, if the law had not said, "You must not have an evil desire." Sin found its rallying point in that command and stirred within me every sort of evil desire, for without law, sin is lifeless. I was once alive when I had no connection with the law, but when the command came, sin revived, and then I died; read more.
and so, in my case, the command which should have meant life turned out to mean death. For sin found its rallying point in that command and through it deceived me and killed me. So the law itself is holy, and its specific commands are holy, right, and good. Did that which is good, then, result in death to me? Of course not! It was sin that did it, so that it might show itself as sin, for by means of that good thing it brought about my death, so that through the command sin might appear surpassingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made of flesh that is frail, sold into slavery to sin. Indeed, I do not understand what I do, for I do not practice what I want to do, but I am always doing what I hate. But if I am always doing what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is right.

Then what about the law? It was added later on to increase transgressions, until the descendant to whom the promise was made should come, enacted through the agency of angels in the person of an intermediary. Though an intermediary implies more than one party, yet God is only one. Is the law then contrary to God's promises? Of course not. For if a law had been given that was able to impart life, surely, then, right standing would have come through law. read more.
But the Scripture pictures all mankind as prisoners of sin, so that the promised blessing through faith in Christ might be given to those who have faith. But before this faith came, we were kept locked up under the law, in preparation for the faith which was to be unveiled. So the law has been our attendant to lead us to Christ, so that we might through faith obtain right standing with God. But now that this faith has come, we are no longer in the charge of the attendant. For all of you are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who have been baptized into union with Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no room for Jew or Greek, no room for slave or freeman, no room for male or female, for you are all one through union with Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are real descendants of Abraham, and heirs in accordance with the promise made to him.


Besides, their minds were made dull; for to this day that same veil remains unlifted, whenever they read the Old Covenant; because it is only through union with Christ that it is removed. Indeed, to this very day, whenever Moses is read, a veil hangs over their hearts, but whenever anybody turns to the Lord, the veil is removed,


So then there is no condemnation at all for those who are in union with Christ Jesus. For the life-giving power of the Spirit through union with Christ Jesus has set us free from the power of sin and death. For though the law could not do it, because it was made helpless through our lower nature, yet God, by sending His own Son in a body similar to that of our lower nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, passed sentence upon sin through His body, read more.
so that the requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live by the standard set by our lower nature, but by the standard set by the Spirit.

Do you not know, brothers -- for I speak to those who are acquainted with the law -- that the law can press its claim over a man only so long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is freed from the marriage bond. So if she marries another man while her husband is living, she is called an adulteress, but if he dies, she is free from that marriage bond, so that she will not be an adulteress though later married to another man. read more.
So, my brothers, you too in the body of Christ have ended your relation to the law, so that you may be married to another husband, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were living in accordance with our lower nature, the sinful passions that were aroused by the law were operating in the parts of our bodies to make us bear fruit that leads to death. But now we have been freed from our relation to the law; we have ended our relation to that by which we once were held in bonds, so that we may serve in a new spiritual way and not in the old literalistic way. What are we then to conclude? Is the law sin? Of course not! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have learned what sin was, for I should not have known what an evil desire was, if the law had not said, "You must not have an evil desire." Sin found its rallying point in that command and stirred within me every sort of evil desire, for without law, sin is lifeless. I was once alive when I had no connection with the law, but when the command came, sin revived, and then I died; and so, in my case, the command which should have meant life turned out to mean death. For sin found its rallying point in that command and through it deceived me and killed me. So the law itself is holy, and its specific commands are holy, right, and good. Did that which is good, then, result in death to me? Of course not! It was sin that did it, so that it might show itself as sin, for by means of that good thing it brought about my death, so that through the command sin might appear surpassingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made of flesh that is frail, sold into slavery to sin. Indeed, I do not understand what I do, for I do not practice what I want to do, but I am always doing what I hate. But if I am always doing what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is right. Now really it is not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me. For I know that nothing good has its home in me; that is, in my lower self; I have the will but not the power to do what is right. Indeed, I do not do the good things that I want to do, but I do practice the evil things that I do not want to do. But if I do the things that I do not want to do, it is really not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me. So I find this law: When I want to do right, the wrong is always in my way. For in accordance with my better inner nature I approve God's law, but I see another power operating in my lower nature in conflict with the power operated by my reason, which makes me a prisoner to the power of sin which is operating in my lower nature. Wretched man that I am! Who can save me from this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my higher nature I am a slave to the law of God, but in my lower nature, to the law of sin.

because we know that a man does not come into right standing with God by doing what the law commands, but by simple trust in Christ, we too have trusted in Christ Jesus, in order to come into right standing with God by simple trust in Christ and not by doing what the law commands, because by doing what the law commands no man can come into right standing with God. Now if, in our efforts to come into right standing with God through union with Christ, we have proved ourselves to be sinners like the heathen themselves, does that make Christ a party to our sin? Of course not. For if I try to build again what I tore down, I really prove myself to be a wrongdoer. read more.
For through the law I myself have become dead to the law, so that I may live for God. I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live, but Christ is living in me; the life I now live as a mortal man I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I never can nullify the unmerited favor of God. For if right standing with God could come through law, then Christ died for nothing.

For those who depend on what the law commands are under a curse, for the Scripture says, "Cursed be everyone who does not continue in all the commands that are written in the book of the law, to do them." Now it is evident that through the law no man is brought into right standing with God, for "The man in right standing with God will live by faith," and the law has nothing to do with faith, but it says, "It is the man who does these things that will live by doing them." read more.
Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us -- for the Scripture says, "Cursed be everyone who is hanged on a tree" -- that the blessing promised to Abraham might through Jesus Christ come to the heathen, so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

So when we were spiritually under age, we were slaves to the world's crude notions, but when the proper time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born subject to law, to ransom those who were subject to law, so that we might be adopted as sons. read more.
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, "Abba," that is, "Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir by God's own act. But at that former time, as you did not know the true God, you were slaves to gods that do not really exist, but now, since you have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by Him, how can you turn back to your own crude notions, so weak and worthless, and wish to become slaves to them again? You are observing days, months, seasons, years. I am beginning to fear that I have bestowed my labors on you for nothing.

But now through your union with Christ Jesus you who were once far away have through the blood of Christ been brought near. For He Himself is our peace, He is the one who has made us both into one body and has broken down the barrier that kept us apart; through His human nature He has put a stop to the hostility between us, namely, the law with its commands and decrees, in order to create one new humanity out of the two parties and so make peace through union with Himself, and in one body


Do you not know that those who do the work about the temple get their living from the temple, and those who constantly attend on the altar share its offerings? Just so the Lord has issued orders that those who preach the good news shall get their living out of it.

For it is by His unmerited favor through faith that you have been saved; it is not by anything that you have done, it is the gift of God. It is not the result of what anyone can do, so that no one can boast of it. For He has made us what we are, because He has created us through our union with Christ Jesus for doing good deeds which He beforehand planned for us to do.

and so, in my case, the command which should have meant life turned out to mean death. Verse ConceptsSpiritually DeadEffect Of The LawLife Through Keeping The Law

Everybody must obey the civil authorities that are over him, for no authority exists except by God's permission; the existing authorities have been established by Him, so that anyone who resists the authorities sets himself against what God has established, and those who set themselves against Him will get the penalty due them.

Then what about the law? It was added later on to increase transgressions, until the descendant to whom the promise was made should come, enacted through the agency of angels in the person of an intermediary. Though an intermediary implies more than one party, yet God is only one.