'Law' in the Bible

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.

“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John.

Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord

(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”),

and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law,

When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth.

One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.

And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?”

“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

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

Philip *found Nathanael and *said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

“Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?”

If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath?

But this crowd which does not know the Law is accursed.”

“Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?”

Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?”

Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true.

Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?

The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”

But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

So Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law.” The Jews said to him, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death,”

The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.”

But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law, respected by all the people, stood up in the Council and gave orders to put the men outside for a short time.

They put forward false witnesses who said, “This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the Law;

you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”

After the reading of the Law and the Prophets the synagogue officials sent to them, saying, “Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.”

and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.

But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”

saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.”

but if there are questions about words and names and your own law, look after it yourselves; I am unwilling to be a judge of these matters.”

And when they heard it they began glorifying God; and they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law;

take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Law.

crying out, “Men of Israel, come to our aid! This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place; and besides he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today.

“A certain Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law, and well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,

Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to try me according to the Law, and in violation of the Law order me to be struck?”

and I found him to be accused over questions about their Law, but under no accusation deserving death or imprisonment.

And he even tried to desecrate the temple; and then we arrested him. [We wanted to judge him according to our own Law.

But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets;

while Paul said in his own defense, “I have committed no offense either against the Law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar.”

When they had set a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in large numbers; and he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus, from both the Law of Moses and from the Prophets, from morning until evening.

For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law;

for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves,

in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,

But if you bear the name “Jew” and rely upon the Law and boast in God,

and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law,

a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth,

You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?

For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law?

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God;

because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.

For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.

For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified;

for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation.

For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?

For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.

So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.

But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.

I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;

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

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.

But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.

For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,

but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

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

For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

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

because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,

who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,

but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness.

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.