Goodness of God Biblical Review

⁶The LORD executes righteous acts, and justice for all who are oppressed. ⁷He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the children of Israel. ⁸The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness. ⁹He will not always accuse; neither will he stay angry forever. ¹⁰He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us for our iniquities. ¹¹For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him. ¹²As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. ¹³Like a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. ¹⁴For he knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust. ¹⁵As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

²⁵Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you don’t believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, these testify about me. ²⁶But you don’t believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I told you. ²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. ³⁰I and the Father are one.” ³¹Therefore the Jews took up stones again to stone him. ³²Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?”

¹But now the LORD who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel, says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. ²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you. ³For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. ⁴Since you have been precious and honored in my sight, and I have loved you, therefore I will give people in your place, and nations instead of your life. ⁵Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west.

¹¹I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full. ¹²“This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. ¹⁵No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. ¹⁶You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. ¹⁷“I command these things to you, that you may love one another.

¹Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. ²Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God. ³For I say through the grace that was given me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think; but to think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith. ⁴For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members don’t have the same function,

²¹But he warned them and commanded them to tell this to no one, ²²saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.” ²³He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. ²⁴For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for my sake will save it. ²⁵For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits his own self? ²⁶For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels.

¹⁷In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath, ¹⁸that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us. ¹⁹This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil, ²⁰where as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

⁵circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; ⁶concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. ⁷However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ. ⁸Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, ¹⁰that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death,