For if what God promises is to be given to those who obey the Law, then faith means nothing and God's promise is worthless.

LORD, it is time for you to act, because people are disobeying your law.

How can you say that you are wise and that you know my laws? Look, the laws have been changed by dishonest scribes.

Your wise men are put to shame; they are confused and trapped. They have rejected my words; what wisdom do they have now?

"Do not think that I have come to do away with the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets. I have not come to do away with them, but to make their teachings come true.

they do not need to honor their father. In this way you disregard God's command, in order to follow your own teaching.

I refuse to reject the grace of God. But if a person is put right with God through the Law, it means that Christ died for nothing!

What I mean is that God made a covenant with Abraham and promised to keep it. The Law, which was given four hundred and thirty years later, cannot break that covenant and cancel God's promise.

What, then, was the purpose of the Law? It was added in order to show what wrongdoing is, and it was meant to last until the coming of Abraham's descendant, to whom the promise was made. The Law was handed down by angels, with a man acting as a go-between.

Shall we say, then, that the Law itself is sinful? Of course not! But it was the Law that made me know what sin is. If the Law had not said, "Do not desire what belongs to someone else," I would not have known such a desire.

I myself was once alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life,

Sin found its chance, and by means of the commandment it deceived me and killed me.

But does this mean that what is good caused my death? By no means! It was sin that did it; by using what is good, sin brought death to me, in order that its true nature as sin might be revealed. And so, by means of the commandment sin is shown to be even more terribly sinful.

God did this so that the righteous demands of the Law might be fully satisfied in us who live according to the Spirit, and not according to human nature.

For Christ has brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God.

Be under obligation to no one---the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law.

If you love others, you will never do them wrong; to love, then, is to obey the whole Law.

How I love to do your will, my God! I keep your teaching in my heart."

The LORD is a God who is eager to save, so he exalted his laws and teachings, and he wanted his people to honor them.

The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

None of them will have to teach a neighbor to know the LORD, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the LORD, have spoken."

But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so for now. For in this way we shall do all that God requires." So John agreed.

I tell you, then, that you will be able to enter the Kingdom of heaven only if you are more faithful than the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees in doing what God requires.

In the same way, when working with Gentiles, I live like a Gentile, outside the Jewish Law, in order to win Gentiles. This does not mean that I don't obey God's law; I am really under Christ's law.

So far as the Law is concerned, however, I am dead---killed by the Law itself---in order that I might live for God. I have been put to death with Christ on his cross,

If the Spirit leads you, then you are not subject to the Law.

in worship of idols and witchcraft. People become enemies and they fight; they become jealous, angry, and ambitious. They separate into parties and groups;

But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

And the Holy Spirit also gives us his witness. First he says,

"This is the covenant that I will make with them in the days to come, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds."

You will be doing the right thing if you obey the law of the Kingdom, which is found in the scripture, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."

Whoever breaks one commandment is guilty of breaking them all.

Speak and act as people who will be judged by the law that sets us free.