Ese Biblical Review

²in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. ³We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. ⁴But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; ⁸for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹not of works, that no one would boast. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them. ¹¹Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision” (in the flesh, made by hands), ¹²that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also. ⁹For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God. ¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. ¹¹Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. ¹²Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

⁷Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. ⁹By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only born Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.

⁸Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn’t desire, neither had pleasure in them” (those which are offered according to the law), ⁹then he has said, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He takes away the first, that he may establish the second, ¹⁰by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, ¹²but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, ¹³from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet. ¹⁴For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. ¹⁵The Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, ¹⁶“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,” says the Lord, “I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write them on their mind;” then he says,

⁴and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; ⁵and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. ⁶For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a good person someone would even dare to die. ⁸But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. ¹⁰For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life. ¹¹Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. ¹²Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death passed to all men because all sinned. ¹³For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law.

¹⁸For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker. ¹⁹For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. ²⁰I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. ²¹I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”

²²Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things. ²³For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, I announce to you. ²⁴The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. ²⁵He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath and all things. ²⁶He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons and the boundaries of their dwellings, ²⁷that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ²⁸‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ ²⁹Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man. ³⁰The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,

²Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. ⁵I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you. ⁸“In this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.

¹A Song of Ascents. By David. If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, let Israel now say, ²if it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us, ³then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us, ⁴then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul. ⁵Then the proud waters would have gone over our soul. ⁶Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as a prey to their teeth. ⁷Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare. The snare is broken, and we have escaped. ⁸Our help is in the LORD’s name, who made heaven and earth.

¹⁵He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again. ¹⁶Therefore we know no one according to the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. ¹⁷Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

¹⁰I believed, therefore I said, “I was greatly afflicted.” ¹¹I said in my haste, “All people are liars.” ¹²What will I give to the LORD for all his benefits toward me? ¹³I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the LORD’s name. ¹⁴I will pay my vows to the LORD, yes, in the presence of all his people. ¹⁵Precious in the LORD’s sight is the death of his saints. ¹⁶LORD, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your servant girl. You have freed me from my chains. ¹⁷I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call on the LORD’s name. ¹⁸I will pay my vows to the LORD, yes, in the presence of all his people, ¹⁹in the courts of the LORD’s house, in the middle of you, Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!