'Law' in the Bible

On the next day, their rulers, elders, and experts in the law came together in Jerusalem.

But a Pharisee whose name was Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was respected by all the people, stood up in the council and ordered the men to be put outside for a short time.

They incited the people, the elders, and the experts in the law; then they approached Stephen, seized him, and brought him before the council.

They brought forward false witnesses who said, "This man does not stop saying things against this holy place and the law.

You received the law by decrees given by angels, but you did not obey it."

After the reading from the law and the prophets, the leaders of the synagogue sent them a message, saying, "Brothers, if you have any message of exhortation for the people, speak it."

and by this one everyone who believes is justified from everything from which the law of Moses could not justify you.

But some from the religious party of the Pharisees who had believed stood up and said, "It is necessary to circumcise the Gentiles and to order them to observe the law of Moses."

saying, "This man is persuading people to worship God in a way contrary to the law!"

but since it concerns points of disagreement about words and names and your own law, settle it yourselves. I will not be a judge of these things!"

When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all ardent observers of the law.

take them and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself live in conformity with the law.

shouting, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people, our law, and this sanctuary! Furthermore he has brought Greeks into the inner courts of the temple and made this holy place ritually unclean!"

"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated with strictness under Gamaliel according to the law of our ancestors, and was zealous for God just as all of you are today.

A man named Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who live there,

Then Paul said to him, "God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit there judging me according to the law, and in violation of the law you order me to be struck?"

There was a great commotion, and some experts in the law from the party of the Pharisees stood up and protested strongly, "We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?"

I found he was accused with reference to controversial questions about their law, but no charge against him deserved death or imprisonment.

But I confess this to you, that I worship the God of our ancestors according to the Way (which they call a sect), believing everything that is according to the law and that is written in the prophets.

Paul said in his defense, "I have committed no offense against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar."

They set a day to meet with him, and they came to him where he was staying in even greater numbers. From morning until evening he explained things to them, testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets.

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 those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be declared righteous.

For whenever the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things required by the law, these who do not have the law are a law to themselves.

They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or else defend them,

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relationship to God

and know his will and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law,

an educator of the senseless, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the essential features of knowledge and of the truth --

You who boast in the law dishonor God by transgressing the law!

For circumcision has its value if you practice the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

And will not the physically uncircumcised man who keeps the law judge you who, despite the written code and circumcision, transgress the law?

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God (which is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed --

For we consider that a person is declared righteous by faith apart from the works of the law.

Do we then nullify the law through faith? Absolutely not! Instead we uphold the law.

For if Abraham was declared righteous by the works of the law, he has something to boast about -- but not before God.

For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not fulfilled through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified.

For the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression either.

For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace, with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants -- not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all

for before the law was given, sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin when there is no law.

Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more,

For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!

Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person 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 the marriage.

So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress.

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God.

For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.

But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, "Do not covet."

But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive

So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

For we know that the law is spiritual -- but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.

But if I do what I don't want, I agree that the law is good.

So, I find the 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 a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so.

who are Israelites. To them belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.

but Israel even though pursuing a law of righteousness did not attain it.

For Christ is the end of the law, with the result that there is righteousness for everyone who believes.

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is by the law: "The one who does these things will live by them."

Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world foolish?

Am I saying these things only on the basis of common sense, or does the law not say this as well?

For it is written in the law of Moses, "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." God is not concerned here about oxen, is he?

To the Jews I became like a Jew to gain the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) to gain those under the law.

To those free from the law I became like one free from the law (though I am not free from God's law but under the law of Christ) to gain those free from the law.

It is written in the law: "By people with strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, yet not even in this way will they listen to me," says the Lord.

the women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak. Rather, let them be in submission, as in fact the law says.

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

But if I build up again those things I once destroyed, I demonstrate that I am one who breaks God's law.

For through the law I died to the law so that I may live to God.

I do not set aside God's grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!

The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard?

Does God then give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law or by your believing what you heard?

For all who rely on doing the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the book of the law."

Now it is clear no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous one will live by faith.

But the law is not based on faith, but the one who does the works of the law will live by them.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (because it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree")

What I am saying is this: The law that came four hundred thirty years later does not cancel a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to invalidate the promise.

For if the inheritance is based on the law, it is no longer based on the promise, but God graciously gave it to Abraham through the promise.

Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the descendant to whom the promise had been made. It was administered through angels by an intermediary.

Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.

Now before faith came we were held in custody under the law, being kept as prisoners until the coming faith would be revealed.

Thus the law had become our guardian until Christ, so that we could be declared righteous by faith.

But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights.

Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand the law?

And I testify again to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.