Law

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.

For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.

Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and yet are innocent?

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

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

And when the time of purification according to the Law of Moses was complete, His parents brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord

(as it is written in the Law of the Lord: “Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to the Lord”),

and to offer the sacrifice specified in the Law of the Lord: “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

Led by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for Him what was customary under the Law,

When Jesus’ parents had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.

“What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”

The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the gospel of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for a single stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.

Jesus said to them, “These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”

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

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law, the One the prophets foretold—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill Me?”

If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, why are you angry with Me for making the whole man well on the Sabbath?

But this crowd that does not know the law—they are under a curse.”

“Does our law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?”

In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do You say?”

Even in your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid.

Jesus replied, “Is it not written in your Law: ‘I have said you are gods’?

The crowd replied, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever. So how can You say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”

But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’

“You take Him and judge Him by your own law,” Pilate told them. “We are not permitted to execute anyone,” the Jews replied.

“We have a law,” answered the Jews, “and according to that law He must die, because He declared Himself to be the Son of God.”

where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.

you who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it.”

After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue leaders sent word to them: “Brothers, if you have a word of encouragement for the people, please speak.”

Therefore let it be known to you, brothers, that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

But some believers from the party of the Pharisees stood up and declared, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.”

“This man is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law,” they said.

But since it is a dispute about words and names and your own law, settle it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of such things.”

When they heard this, they glorified God. Then they said to Paul, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law.

Take these men, purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that there is no truth to these rumors about you, but that you also live in obedience to the law.

crying out, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and against our law and against this place. Furthermore, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.”

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but raised in this city. I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel in strict conformity to the law of our fathers. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.

There a man named Ananias, a devout observer of the law who was highly regarded by all the Jews living there,

Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit here to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck.”

I found that the accusation involved questions about their own law, but there was no charge worthy of death or imprisonment.

I do confess to you, however, that I worship the God of our fathers according to the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets,

Then Paul made his defense: “I have committed no offense against the law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar.”

So they set a day to meet with Paul, and many people came to the place he was staying. He expounded to them from morning to evening, testifying about the kingdom of God and persuading them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets.

All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.

For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous.

Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.

So they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts either accusing or defending them

Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God;

if you know His will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;

an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—

You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?

Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

If a man who is not circumcised keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

The one who is physically uncircumcised yet keeps the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.

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 held accountable to God.

Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.

But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, as attested by the Law and the Prophets.

Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of works? No, but on that of faith.

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

Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world was not given through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

For if those who live by the law are heirs, faith is useless and the promise is worthless,

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

Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may rest on grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

For sin was in the world before the law was given; but sin is not taken into account when there is no law.

The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

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

Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?

For instance, 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 marriage.

So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.

But now, having died to what bound 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 then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”

But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.

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

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good.

So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.

But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.

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

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

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh,

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

because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.

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

For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.”

Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

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

Do I say this from a human perspective? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing?

For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned?

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

It is written in the Law: “By strange tongues and foreign lips I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to Me, says the Lord.”

Women are to be silent in the churches. They are not permitted to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.

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

know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

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

I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?

Does God lavish His Spirit on you and work miracles among you because you practice the law, or because you hear and believe?

All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

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

The law, however, is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

What I mean is this: The law that came 430 years later does not revoke the covenant previously established by God, so as to nullify the promise.

For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God freely granted it to Abraham through a promise.

Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the seed to whom the promise referred. It was administered through angels by a mediator.

Is the law, then, opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come from the law.

Before this faith came, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.

So the law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons.

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

Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.

You who are trying to be justified by the law have been severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

For the circumcised do not even keep the law themselves, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace

circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;

as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteousness in the law, faultless.

and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it legitimately.

We realize that law is not enacted for the righteous, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for killers of father or mother, for murderers,

Now the law commands the sons of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people—that is, from their brothers—though they too are descended from Abraham.

For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed as well.

one who has become a priest not by a law of succession, but by the power of an indestructible life.

(for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.

For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are already priests who offer gifts according to the law.

For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.

For when Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people,

According to the law, in fact, nearly everything must be purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

For the law is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the realities themselves. It can never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.

In the passage above He says, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor did You delight in them” (although they are offered according to the law).

“This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.”

Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does.

If you really fulfill the royal law stated in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom.

Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. And if you judge the law, you are not a practitioner of the law, but a judge of it.