82 Bible Verses about law

since they exhibit proof that a knowledge of the conduct which the Law requires is engraven on their hearts, while their consciences also bear witness to the Law, and their thoughts, as if in mutual discussion, accuse them or perhaps maintain their innocence--

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.

For all can see that you are a letter of Christ entrusted to our care, and written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the ever-living God--and not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts as tablets.

Now sin is the sting of death, and sin derives its power from the Law;

For on the ground of obedience to Law no man living will be declared righteous before Him. Law simply brings a sure knowledge of sin.

Nay, their minds were made dull; for to this very day during the reading of the book of the ancient Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted, because it is only in Christ that it is to be abolished. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their hearts. But whenever the heart of the nation shall have returned to the Lord, the veil will be withdrawn.

For as a means of righteousness Christ is the termination of Law to every believer.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus; for the Spirit's Law-- telling of Life in Christ Jesus--has set me free from the Law that deals only with sin and death. For what was impossible to the Law--powerless as it was because it acted through frail humanity--God effected. Sending His own Son in a body like that of sinful human nature and as a sacrifice for sin, He pronounced sentence upon sin in human nature; read more.
in order that in our case the requirements of the Law might be fully met. For our lives are regulated not by our earthly, but by our spiritual natures.

Brethren, do you not know--for I am writing to people acquainted with the Law--that it is during our lifetime that we are subject to the Law? A wife, for instance, whose husband is living is bound to him by the Law; but if her husband dies the law that bound her to him has now no hold over her. This accounts for the fact that if during her husband's life she lives with another man, she will be stigmatized as an adulteress; but that if her husband is dead she is no longer under the old prohibition, and even though she marries again, she is not an adulteress. read more.
So, my brethren, to you also the Law died through the incarnation of Christ, that you might be wedded to Another, namely to Him who rose from the dead in order that we might yield fruit to God. For whilst we were under the thraldom of our earthly natures, sinful passions-- made sinful by the Law--were always being aroused to action in our bodily faculties that they might yield fruit to death. But seeing that we have died to that which once held us in bondage, the Law has now no hold over us, so that we render a service which, instead of being old and formal, is new and spiritual. What follows? Is the Law itself a sinful thing? No, indeed; on the contrary, unless I had been taught by the Law, I should have known nothing of sin as sin. For instance, I should not have known what covetousness is, if the Law had not repeatedly said, "Thou shalt not covet." Sin took advantage of this, and by means of the Commandment stirred up within me every kind of coveting; for apart from Law sin would be dead. Once, apart from Law, I was alive, but when the Commandment came, sin sprang into life, and I died; and, as it turned out, the very Commandment which was to bring me life, brought me death. For sin seized the advantage, and by means of the Commandment it completely deceived me, and also put me to death. So that the Law itself is holy, and the Commandment is holy, just and good. Did then a thing which is good become death to me? No, indeed, but sin did; so that through its bringing about death by means of what was good, it might be seen in its true light as sin, in order that by means of the Commandment the unspeakable sinfulness of sin might be plainly shown. For we know that the Law is a spiritual thing; but I am unspiritual--the slave, bought and sold, of sin. For what I do, I do not recognize as my own action. What I desire to do is not what I do, but what I am averse to is what I do. But if I do that which I do not desire to do, I admit the excellence of the Law, and now it is no longer I that do these things, but the sin which has its home within me does them. For I know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing good has its home; for while the will to do right is present with me, the power to carry it out is not. For what I do is not the good thing that I desire to do; but the evil thing that I desire not to do, is what I constantly do. But if I do that which I desire not to do, it can no longer be said that it is I who do it, but the sin which has its home within me does it. I find therefore the law of my nature to be that when I desire to do what is right, evil is lying in ambush for me. For in my inmost self all my sympathy is with the Law of God; but I discover within me a different Law at war with the Law of my understanding, and leading me captive to the Law which is everywhere at work in my body--the Law of sin. (Unhappy man that I am! who will rescue me from this death-burdened body? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!)

know that it is not through obedience to Law that a man can be declared free from guilt, but only through faith in Jesus Christ. We have therefore believed in Christ Jesus, for the purpose of being declared free from guilt, through faith in Christ and not through obedience to Law. For through obedience to Law no human being shall be declared free from guilt. But if while we are seeking in Christ acquittal from guilt we ourselves are convicted of sin, Christ then encourages us to sin! No, indeed. Why, if I am now rebuilding that structure of sin which I had demolished, I am thereby constituting myself a transgressor; read more.
for it is by the Law that I have died to the Law, in order that I may live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me; and the life which I now live in the body I live through faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up to death on my behalf. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if acquittal from guilt is obtainable through the Law, then Christ has died in vain."

If, however, you are keeping the Law as supreme, in obedience to the Commandment which says "You are to love your fellow man just as you love yourself," you are acting rightly.

Everything, therefore, be it what it may, that you would have men do to you, do you also the same to them; for in this the Law and the Prophets are summed up.

Then an expounder of the Law stood up to test Him with a question. "Rabbi," he asked, "what shall I do to inherit the Life of the Ages?" "Go to the Law," said Jesus; "what is written there? how does it read?" "'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,'" he replied, "'with thy whole heart, thy whole soul, thy whole strength, and thy whole mind; and thy fellow man as much as thyself.'" read more.
"A right answer," said Jesus; "do that, and you shall live."

Owe nothing to any one except mutual love; for he who loves his fellow man has satisfied the demands of Law. For the precepts, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," "Thou shalt do no murder," "Thou shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not covet," and all other precepts, are summed up in this one command, "Thou shalt love thy fellow man as much as thou lovest thyself." Love avoids doing any wrong to one's fellow man, and is therefore complete obedience to Law.

For the entire Law has been obeyed when you have kept the single precept, which says, "You are to love your fellow man equally with yourself."

by setting aside the Law with its commandments, expressed, as they were, in definite decrees. His design was to unite the two sections of humanity in Himself so as to form one new man,

The bond, with its requirements, which was in force against us and was hostile to us, He cancelled, and cleared it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross.

On the one hand we have here the abrogation of an earlier code because it was weak and ineffective--

By using the words, "a new Covenant," He has made the first one obsolete; but whatever is decaying and showing signs of old age is not far from disappearing altogether.

For, since the Law exhibits only an outline of the blessings to come and not a perfect representation of the things themselves, the priests can never, by repeating the same sacrifices which they continually offer year after year, give complete freedom from sin to those who draw near.

Why then was the Law given? It was imposed later on for the sake of defining sin, until the seed should come to whom God had made the promise; and its details were laid down by a mediator with the help of angels.

and remembers that a law is not enacted to control a righteous man, but for the lawless and rebellious, the irreligious and sinful, the godless and profane--for those who strike their fathers or their mothers, for murderers,

So that the Law has acted the part of a tutor-slave to lead us to Christ, in order that through faith we may be declared to be free from guilt.

For on the ground of obedience to Law no man living will be declared righteous before Him. Law simply brings a sure knowledge of sin.

Now Law was brought in later on, so that transgression might increase. But where sin increased, grace has overflowed;

for the Law brought no perfect blessing--but on the other hand we have the bringing in of a new and better hope by means of which we draw near to God.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus; for the Spirit's Law-- telling of Life in Christ Jesus--has set me free from the Law that deals only with sin and death. For what was impossible to the Law--powerless as it was because it acted through frail humanity--God effected. Sending His own Son in a body like that of sinful human nature and as a sacrifice for sin, He pronounced sentence upon sin in human nature; read more.
in order that in our case the requirements of the Law might be fully met. For our lives are regulated not by our earthly, but by our spiritual natures.

know that it is not through obedience to Law that a man can be declared free from guilt, but only through faith in Jesus Christ. We have therefore believed in Christ Jesus, for the purpose of being declared free from guilt, through faith in Christ and not through obedience to Law. For through obedience to Law no human being shall be declared free from guilt.

For on the ground of obedience to Law no man living will be declared righteous before Him. Law simply brings a sure knowledge of sin.

that God has amply fulfilled it to our children in raising up Jesus; as it is also written in the second Psalm, 'Thou art My Son: to-day I have become Thy Father.' And as to His having raised Him from among the dead, never again to be in the position of one soon to return to decay, He speaks thus: 'I will give you the holy and trustworthy promises made to David.' Because in another Psalm also He says, 'Thou wilt not give up Thy Holy One to undergo decay.' read more.
For David, after having been useful to his own generation in accordance with God's purpose, did fall asleep, was gathered to his forefathers, and did undergo decay. But He whom God raised to life underwent no decay. "Understand therefore, brethren, that through this Jesus forgiveness of sins is announced to you; and in Him every believer is absolved from all offences, from which you could not be absolved under the Law of Moses.

for the Law brought no perfect blessing--but on the other hand we have the bringing in of a new and better hope by means of which we draw near to God.

For what was impossible to the Law--powerless as it was because it acted through frail humanity--God effected. Sending His own Son in a body like that of sinful human nature and as a sacrifice for sin, He pronounced sentence upon sin in human nature;

by setting aside the Law with its commandments, expressed, as they were, in definite decrees. His design was to unite the two sections of humanity in Himself so as to form one new man,

for it is by the Law that I have died to the Law, in order that I may live to God.

But it cannot be denied that all that the Law says is addressed to those who are living under the Law, in order that every mouth may be stopped, and that the whole world may await sentence from God.

At Iconium the Apostles went together to the Jewish synagogue and preached, with the result that a great number both of Jews and Greeks believed.

But they themselves, passing through from Perga, came to Antioch in Pisidia. Here, on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down. After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the Wardens of the synagogue sent word to them. "Brethren," they said, "if you have anything encouraging to say to the people, speak." So Paul rose, and motioning with his hand for silence, said, "Israelites, and you others who fear God, pay attention to me. read more.
The God of this people of Israel chose our forefathers, and made the people great during their stay in Egypt, until with wondrous power He brought them out from that land. For a period of about forty years, He fed them, like a nurse, in the Desert. Then, after overthrowing seven nations in the land of Canaan, He divided that country among them as their inheritance for about four hundred and fifty years; and afterwards He gave them judges down to the time of the Prophet Samuel. Next they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a Benjamite, who reigned forty years. After removing him, He raised up David to be their king, to whom He also bore witness when He said, "'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man I love, who will obey all My commands.' "It is from among David's descendants that God, in fulfilment of His promise, has raised up a Saviour for Israel, even Jesus. Before the coming of Jesus, John had proclaimed to all the people of Israel a baptism of repentance. But John, towards the end of his career, repeatedly asked the people, "'What do you suppose me to be? I am not the Christ. But there is One coming after me whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten.' "Brethren, descendants of the family of Abraham, and all among you who fear God, to us has this Message of salvation been sent. For the people of Jerusalem and their rulers, by the judgement they pronounced on Jesus, have actually fulfilled the predictions of the Prophets which are read Sabbath after Sabbath, through ignorance of those predictions and of Him. Without having found Him guilty of any capital offence they urged Pilate to have Him put to death; and when they had carried out everything which had been written about Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. "But God raised Him from the dead. And, after a few days, He appeared to the people who had gone up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem and are now witnesses concerning Him to the Jews. And we bring you the Good News about the promise made to our forefathers, that God has amply fulfilled it to our children in raising up Jesus; as it is also written in the second Psalm, 'Thou art My Son: to-day I have become Thy Father.' And as to His having raised Him from among the dead, never again to be in the position of one soon to return to decay, He speaks thus: 'I will give you the holy and trustworthy promises made to David.' Because in another Psalm also He says, 'Thou wilt not give up Thy Holy One to undergo decay.' For David, after having been useful to his own generation in accordance with God's purpose, did fall asleep, was gathered to his forefathers, and did undergo decay. But He whom God raised to life underwent no decay. "Understand therefore, brethren, that through this Jesus forgiveness of sins is announced to you; and in Him every believer is absolved from all offences, from which you could not be absolved under the Law of Moses. Beware, then, lest what is spoken in the Prophets should come true of you: Behold, you despisers, be astonished and perish, because I am carrying on a work in your time--a work which you will utterly refuse to believe, though it be fully declared to you.'" As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people earnestly begged to have all this repeated to them on the following Sabbath. And, when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and of the devout converts from heathenism continued with Paul and Barnabas, who talked to them and urged them to hold fast to the grace of God. On the next Sabbath almost the whole population of the city came together to hear the Lord's Message. Seeing the crowds, the Jews, filled with angry jealousy, opposed Paul's statements and abused him. Then, throwing off all reserve, Paul and Barnabas said, "We were bound to proclaim God's Message to you first. But since you spurn it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of the Life of the Ages--well, we turn to the Gentiles. For such is the Lord's command to us. "'I have placed Thee,' He says of Christ, 'as a light to the Gentiles, in order that Thou mayest be a Saviour as far as the remotest parts of the earth.'" The Gentiles listened with delight and extolled the Lord's Message; and all who were pre-destined to the Life of the Ages believed. So the Lord's Message spread through the whole district. But the Jews influenced the gentlewomen of rank who worshipped with them, and also the leading men in the city, and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of the district. But they shook off the dust from their feet as a protest against them and came to Iconium; and as for the disciples, they were more and more filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, and Priscilla and Aquila, after hearing him, took him home and explained God's way to him more accurately.

He came to Nazareth also, where He had been brought up; and, as was His custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.

And in the synagogues he began at once to proclaim Jesus as the Son of God;

For we know that the Law is a spiritual thing; but I am unspiritual--the slave, bought and sold, of sin.

So that the Law itself is holy, and the Commandment is holy, just and good.

Now we know that the Law is good, if a man uses it in the way it should be used,

Having, however, obtained the help which is from God, I have stood firm until now, and have solemnly exhorted rich and poor alike, saying nothing except what the Prophets and Moses predicted as soon to happen, since the Christ was to be a suffering Christ, and by coming back from the dead was then to be the first to proclaim a message of light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles."

But now a righteousness coming from God has been brought to light apart from any Law, both Law and Prophets bearing witness to it-- a righteousness coming from God, which depends on faith in Jesus Christ and extends to all who believe. No distinction is made;

For if you believe Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.

So they arranged a day with him and came to him in considerable numbers at the house of the friends who were entertaining him. And then, with solemn earnestness, he explained to them the subject of the Kingdom of God, endeavouring from morning till evening to convince them about Jesus, both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.

Then Philip found Nathanael, and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the Law wrote, as well as the Prophets--Jesus, the son of Joseph, a man of Nazareth."

you who received the Law given through angels, and yet have not obeyed it."

Why then was the Law given? It was imposed later on for the sake of defining sin, until the seed should come to whom God had made the promise; and its details were laid down by a mediator with the help of angels.

For if the message delivered through angels proved to be true, and every transgression and act of disobedience met with just retribution,

Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. The man who speaks evil of a brother-man or judges his brother-man speaks evil of the Law and judges the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are no longer one who obeys the Law, but one who judges it. The only real Lawgiver and Judge is He who is able to save or to destroy. Who are you to sit in judgement on your fellow man?

Owe nothing to any one except mutual love; for he who loves his fellow man has satisfied the demands of Law. For the precepts, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," "Thou shalt do no murder," "Thou shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not covet," and all other precepts, are summed up in this one command, "Thou shalt love thy fellow man as much as thou lovest thyself."

If, however, you are keeping the Law as supreme, in obedience to the Commandment which says "You are to love your fellow man just as you love yourself," you are acting rightly.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus; for the Spirit's Law-- telling of Life in Christ Jesus--has set me free from the Law that deals only with sin and death. For what was impossible to the Law--powerless as it was because it acted through frail humanity--God effected. Sending His own Son in a body like that of sinful human nature and as a sacrifice for sin, He pronounced sentence upon sin in human nature; read more.
in order that in our case the requirements of the Law might be fully met. For our lives are regulated not by our earthly, but by our spiritual natures.

"'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,'" he replied, "'with thy whole heart, thy whole soul, thy whole strength, and thy whole mind; and thy fellow man as much as thyself.'"

The whole of the Law and the Prophets is summed up in these two Commandments."

"The chief Commandment," replied Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, thy whole soul, thy whole mind, and thy whole strength.' "The second is this: 'Thou shalt love thy fellow man as thou lovest thyself.' "Other Commandment greater than these there is none." read more.
So the Scribe said to Him, "Rightly, in very truth, Rabbi, have you said that He stands alone, and there is none but He; and To love Him with all one's heart, with all one's understanding, and with all one's strength, and to love one's fellow man no less than oneself, is far better than all our whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices."

For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Everything is allowable, but not everything is profitable. Everything is allowable, but everything does not build others up.

Everything is allowable to me, but not everything is profitable. Everything is allowable to me, but to nothing will I become a slave.

What follows? This comparison. Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so death passed to all mankind in turn, in that all sinned. For prior to the Law sin was already in the world; only it is not entered in the account against us when no Law exists.

Brethren, do you not know--for I am writing to people acquainted with the Law--that it is during our lifetime that we are subject to the Law? A wife, for instance, whose husband is living is bound to him by the Law; but if her husband dies the law that bound her to him has now no hold over her. This accounts for the fact that if during her husband's life she lives with another man, she will be stigmatized as an adulteress; but that if her husband is dead she is no longer under the old prohibition, and even though she marries again, she is not an adulteress. read more.
So, my brethren, to you also the Law died through the incarnation of Christ, that you might be wedded to Another, namely to Him who rose from the dead in order that we might yield fruit to God. For whilst we were under the thraldom of our earthly natures, sinful passions-- made sinful by the Law--were always being aroused to action in our bodily faculties that they might yield fruit to death. But seeing that we have died to that which once held us in bondage, the Law has now no hold over us, so that we render a service which, instead of being old and formal, is new and spiritual. What follows? Is the Law itself a sinful thing? No, indeed; on the contrary, unless I had been taught by the Law, I should have known nothing of sin as sin. For instance, I should not have known what covetousness is, if the Law had not repeatedly said, "Thou shalt not covet." Sin took advantage of this, and by means of the Commandment stirred up within me every kind of coveting; for apart from Law sin would be dead.

This then is what I mean. Let your lives be guided by the Spirit, and then you will certainly not indulge the cravings of your lower natures. For the cravings of the lower nature are opposed to those of the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are opposed to those of the lower nature; because these are antagonistic to each other, so that you cannot do everything to which you are inclined. But if the Spirit is leading you, you are not subject to Law.

All who are depending upon their own obedience to the Law are under a curse, for it is written, "Cursed is every one who does not remain faithful to all the precepts of the Law, and practise them." It is evident, too, that no one can find acceptance with God simply by obeying the Law, because "the righteous shall live by faith," and the Law has nothing to do with faith. It teaches that "he who does these things shall live by doing them."

Now we know that the Law is good, if a man uses it in the way it should be used, and remembers that a law is not enacted to control a righteous man, but for the lawless and rebellious, the irreligious and sinful, the godless and profane--for those who strike their fathers or their mothers, for murderers, fornicators, sodomites, slave-dealers, liars and false witnesses; and for whatever else is opposed to wholesome teaching

"Do not for a moment suppose that I have come to abrogate the Law or the Prophets: I have not come to abrogate them but to give them their completion. Solemnly I tell you that until Heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or smallest detail will pass away from the Law until all has taken place.

Christ has become nothing to any of you who are seeking acceptance with God through the Law: you have fallen away from grace. *We* have not, for through the Spirit we wait with longing hope for an acceptance with God which is to come through faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any importance; but only faith working through love.

For when Gentiles who have no Law obey by natural instinct the commands of the Law, they, without having a Law, are a Law to themselves; since they exhibit proof that a knowledge of the conduct which the Law requires is engraven on their hearts, while their consciences also bear witness to the Law, and their thoughts, as if in mutual discussion, accuse them or perhaps maintain their innocence--

To what conclusion does this bring us? Why, that the Gentiles, who were not in pursuit of righteousness, have overtaken it--a righteousness, however, which arises from faith; while the descendants of Israel, who were in pursuit of a Law that could give righteousness, have not arrived at one. And why? Because they were pursuing a righteousness which should arise not from faith, but from what they regarded as merit. They stuck their foot against the stone which lay in their way; read more.
in agreement with the statement of Scripture, "See, I am placing on Mount Zion a stone for people to stumble at, and a rock for them to trip over, and yet he whose faith rests upon it shall never have reason to feel ashamed."

For we maintain that it is as the result of faith that a man is held to be righteous, apart from actions done in obedience to Law. Is God simply the God of the Jews, and not of the Gentiles also? He is certainly the God of the Gentiles also, unless you can deny that it is one and the same God who will pronounce the circumcised to be acquitted on the ground of faith, and the uncircumcised to be acquitted through the same faith. read more.
Do we then by means of this faith abolish the Law? No, indeed; we give the Law a firmer footing.

It follows then that just as the result of a single transgression is a condemnation which extends to the whole race, so also the result of a single decree of righteousness is a life-giving acquittal which extends to the whole race. For as through the disobedience of the one individual the mass of mankind were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of the One the mass of mankind will be constituted righteous. Now Law was brought in later on, so that transgression might increase. But where sin increased, grace has overflowed; read more.
in order that as sin has exercised kingly sway in inflicting death, so grace, too, may exercise kingly sway in bestowing a righteousness which results in the Life of the Ages through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Law and the Prophets continued until John came: from that time the Good News of the Kingdom of God has been spreading, and all classes have been forcing their way into it. But it is easier for earth and sky to pass away than for one smallest detail of the Law to fall to the ground.

Why then was the Law given? It was imposed later on for the sake of defining sin, until the seed should come to whom God had made the promise; and its details were laid down by a mediator with the help of angels.