No Longer Slaves Biblical Review

⁵I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah. ⁶For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him. ⁷You are my hiding place. You will preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah. ⁸I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you. ⁹Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.

¹For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. I waited patiently for the LORD. He turned to me, and heard my cry. ²He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand. ³He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. ⁴Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn away to lies. ⁵Many, LORD, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to you. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be counted.

⁵having been reminded of the sincere faith that is in you, which lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, in you also. ⁶For this cause, I remind you that you should stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. ⁷For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. ⁸Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God, ⁹who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal,

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus: ²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love, ⁵having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, ⁶to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved. ⁷In him we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace

¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him. ¹¹He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him. ¹²But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: ¹³who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁴The Word became flesh and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the only born Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵John testified about him. He cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.’”

¹⁶because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” ¹⁷If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear, ¹⁸knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things like silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, ¹⁹but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ, ²⁰who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake, ²¹who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.

¹Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously. He has thrown the horse and his rider into the sea. ²The LORD is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. ³The LORD is a man of war. The LORD is his name. ⁴He has cast Pharaoh’s chariots and his army into the sea. His chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea.

²but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed by the father. ³So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world. ⁴But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, ⁵that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as children. ⁶And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” ⁷So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. ⁸However at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods. ⁹But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again?

¹⁵What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever? ¹⁶What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they will be my people.” ¹⁷Therefore “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. ¹⁸I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

¹⁹The angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them, and stood behind them. ²⁰It came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel. There was the cloud and the darkness, yet it gave light by night. One didn’t come near the other all night. ²¹Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. ²²The children of Israel went into the middle of the sea on the dry ground; and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. ²³The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the middle of the sea: all of Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. ²⁴In the morning watch, the LORD looked out on the Egyptian army through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and confused the Egyptian army.

¹⁵Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. ¹⁶We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. ¹⁷In this, love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so we are in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love. ¹⁹We love him, because he first loved us. ²⁰If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

¹²So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. ¹³For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. ¹⁵For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God; ¹⁷and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him. ¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.