Words of Christ | Bible Study, Testimonies & Christian Teaching

Text size: A− Reset A+ Previous  ·  Home  ·  Next No condemnation 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subje...

Text size: A− Reset A+ Previous  ·  Home  ·  Next Released from the law 1 Do you not know, brothers (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4 Therefore, my brothers, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to him who was raised from the dead—that we should bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the ...

Text size: A− Reset A+ Previous  ·  Home  ·  Next Dead to sin, alive to God 1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 May it never be. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer serve sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been rais...

Text size: A− Reset A+ Previous  ·  Home  ·  Next Peace with God 1 Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only so, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces patience; 4 and patience, proven character; and proven character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shal...

Reading Key — Romans as a legal case Romans does not read like a topic list. It reads like a case built chapter by chapter. That is why the sudden questions, the hard stops, and a witness called to the stand do not feel random. The shape of the argument 1:18–3:20 — The prosecution. Paul opens against the world first (1:18–32): the evidence is creation; the verdict is without excuse (1:20). Then, without naming the Jew until 2:17, he turns the same argument on the reader who has the law (2:1–). Having the law convicts rather than excuses. The two lines meet in 3:9–20: Jews and Gentiles are all under sin; every mouth is stopped; all the world is guilty before God (3:19). 3:21–26 — The remedy named. But now (νυνὶ δέ) is the hinge. A righteousness apart from the law is revealed. Not invented outside Scripture: it is witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. It does not arrive through keeping the law. It arrives by the faith of Jesus Christ (3:22). Chapter 4 — A witness called. A...

Text size: A− Reset A+ Previous  ·  Home  ·  Next Abraham counted righteous by faith 1 What shall we say then that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” 4 Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as debt. 5 But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 6 Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not count sin.” Before circumcision 9 Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? For we ...

Word Study — μὴ γένοιτο ( mē genoito ) The Greek behind the old English “God forbid” has no word God . It is μὴ γένοιτο : may it not come to be . μή ( mē ) — the negative used with wishes, commands, and hypotheticals (not οὐ, the negative of plain fact). It shuts a possibility, not only a statement. γένοιτο ( genoito ) — aorist optative of γίνομαι, to become, to happen. The optative is the wish mood. Alone, γένοιτο is “may it come to pass.” With μή it turns: let this not be . Together it is a recoil: may that never happen. Not a court ban. Paul will not let the ugly inference stand even as a hypothesis. The older English added God for force. The Greek does not call on God’s name to block the idea. It is Paul refusing the conclusion. In Paul, fourteen times; ten in Romans (3:4, 3:6, 3:31, 6:2, 6:15, 7:7, 7:13, 9:14, 11:1, 11:11). Almost always after a question he raises only to cut off. Not a legal ruling. A gasp of refusal.