Not only those things; I reckon everything as complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have thrown everything away; I consider it all as mere garbage, so that I may gain Christ

If we obey God's commands, then we are sure that we know him.

But if we obey his word, we are the ones whose love for God has really been made perfect. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God:

Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, in the same way the Son gives life to those he wants to.

so that all will honor the Son in the same way as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

I am telling you the truth: the time is coming---the time has already come---when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will come to life.

And he has given the Son the right to judge, because he is the Son of Man.

and come out of their graves: those who have done good will rise and live, and those who have done evil will rise and be condemned.

No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back. This is what my Father has commanded me to do."

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live, even though they die;

and those who live and believe in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

David saw what God was going to do in the future, and so he spoke about the resurrection of the Messiah when he said, 'He was not abandoned in the world of the dead; his body did not rot in the grave.'

He has been raised to the right side of God, his Father, and has received from him the Holy Spirit, as he had promised. What you now see and hear is his gift that he has poured out on us.

until I put your enemies as a footstool under your feet.'

When the people heard this, they were deeply troubled and said to Peter and the other apostles, "What shall we do, brothers?"

By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life.

And we know that our old being has been put to death with Christ on his cross, in order that the power of the sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin.

Since we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

And so, because he died, sin has no power over him; and now he lives his life in fellowship with God.

But if Christ lives in you, the Spirit is life for you because you have been put right with God, even though your bodies are going to die because of sin.

If the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from death, lives in you, then he who raised Christ from death will also give life to your mortal bodies by the presence of his Spirit in you.

For just as death came by means of a man, in the same way the rising from death comes by means of a man.

But each one will be raised in proper order: Christ, first of all; then, at the time of his coming, those who belong to him.

From such terrible dangers of death he saved us, and will save us; and we have placed our hope in him that he will save us again,

At all times we carry in our mortal bodies the death of Jesus, so that his life also may be seen in our bodies.

This means that death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

For even though it was in weakness that he was put to death on the cross, it is by God's power that he lives. In union with him we also are weak; but in our relations with you we shall share God's power in his life.

and how very great is his power at work in us who believe. This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength

Christ rules there above all heavenly rulers, authorities, powers, and lords; he has a title superior to all titles of authority in this world and in the next.

You were at one time spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were Gentiles without the Law. But God has now brought you to life with Christ. God forgave us all our sins;

You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God.

We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will take back with Jesus those who have died believing in him.

W_ hat we are teaching you now is the Lord's teaching: we who are alive on the day the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have died.

Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope,

Since Christ suffered physically, you too must strengthen yourselves with the same way of thinking that he had; because whoever suffers physically is no longer involved with sin.

From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God's will and not by human desires.

I am the living one! I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I have authority over death and the world of the dead.

"You will indeed drink from my cup," Jesus told them, "but I do not have the right to choose who will sit at my right and my left. These places belong to those for whom my Father has prepared them."

For surely you know that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, we were baptized into union with his death.

For since we have become one with him in dying as he did, in the same way we shall be one with him by being raised to life as he was.

Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share his glory.

Those whom God had already chosen he also set apart to become like his Son, so that the Son would be the first among many believers.

Just as we have a share in Christ's many sufferings, so also through Christ we share in God's great help.

so that it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. This life that I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me.

And now I am happy about my sufferings for you, for by means of my physical sufferings I am helping to complete what still remains of Christ's sufferings on behalf of his body, the church.

This is a true saying: "If we have died with him, we shall also live with him.

If we continue to endure, we shall also rule with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us.

Rather be glad that you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may be full of joy when his glory is revealed.

Happy are you if you are insulted because you are Christ's followers; this means that the glorious Spirit, the Spirit of God, is resting on you.