The LORD destroyed all living beings on the earth---human beings, animals, and birds. The only ones left were Noah and those who were with him in the boat.

(SEE 19:2)

If you accidentally kill someone who is not your enemy, you may escape to any of these cities and be safe.

There are these two things, then, that cannot change and about which God cannot lie. So we who have found safety with him are greatly encouraged to hold firmly to the hope placed before us.

and in his spiritual existence he went and preached to the imprisoned spirits.

These were the spirits of those who had not obeyed God when he waited patiently during the days that Noah was building his boat. The few people in the boat---eight in all---were saved by the water,

There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus.

Greetings also to Andronicus and Junia, fellow Jews who were in prison with me; they are well known among the apostles, and they became Christians before I did.

But God has brought you into union with Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ to be our wisdom. By him we are put right with God; we become God's holy people and are set free.

Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.

and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault.

"When your people sin against you---and there is no one who does not sin---and in your anger you let their enemies defeat them and take them as prisoners to some other land, even if that land is far away,

But Hezekiah was too proud to show gratitude for what the LORD had done for him, and Judah and Jerusalem suffered for it.

and even when the Babylonian ambassadors came to inquire about the unusual event that had happened in the land, God let Hezekiah go his own way only in order to test his character.

(SEE 9:27)

No soap can wash away my sins.

You were watching to see if I would sin, so that you could refuse to forgive me.

As soon as I sin, I'm in trouble with you, but when I do right, I get no credit. I am miserable and covered with shame.

Can any human being be really pure? Can anyone be right with God?

And we drink evil as if it were water; yes, we are corrupt; we are worthless.

In the past I knew only what others had told me, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.

So I am ashamed of all I have said and repent in dust and ashes.

But they have all gone wrong; they are all equally bad. Not one of them does what is right, not a single one.

None of us can see our own errors; deliver me, LORD, from hidden faults!

If you kept a record of our sins, who could escape being condemned?

But you forgive us, so that we should stand in awe of you.

Don't put me, your servant, on trial; no one is innocent in your sight.

There is no one on earth who does what is right all the time and never makes a mistake.

I said, "There is no hope for me! I am doomed because every word that passes my lips is sinful, and I live among a people whose every word is sinful. And yet, with my own eyes I have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way. But the LORD made the punishment fall on him, the punishment all of us deserved.

You welcome those who find joy in doing what is right, those who remember how you want them to live. You were angry with us, but we went on sinning; in spite of your great anger we have continued to do wrong since ancient times.

All of us have been sinful; even our best actions are filthy through and through. Because of our sins we are like leaves that wither and are blown away by the wind.

Go and find out what is meant by the scripture that says: 'It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices.' I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts."

while God's people, who were seeking a law that would put them right with God, did not find it.

And why not? Because they did not depend on faith but on what they did. And so they stumbled over the "stumbling stone"

My friends, how I wish with all my heart that my own people might be saved! How I pray to God for them!

They have not known the way in which God puts people right with himself, and instead, they have tried to set up their own way; and so they did not submit themselves to God's way of putting people right.

He saved us and called us to be his own people, not because of what we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace. He gave us this grace by means of Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,

he saved us. It was not because of any good deeds that we ourselves had done, but because of his own mercy that he saved us, through the Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth and new life by washing us.

All of us often make mistakes. But if a person never makes a mistake in what he says, he is perfect and is also able to control his whole being.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make a liar out of God, and his word is not in us.

" 'God's curse on anyone who does not obey all of God's laws and teachings.' "And all the people will answer, 'Amen!'

A teacher of the Law came up and tried to trap Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to receive eternal life?"

The man answered, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind'; and 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' "

But the teacher of the Law wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?"

Now we know that everything in the Law applies to those who live under the Law, in order to stop all human excuses and bring the whole world under God's judgment.

For no one is put right in God's sight by doing what the Law requires; what the Law does is to make us know that we have sinned.

When God promised Abraham and his descendants that the world would belong to him, he did so, not because Abraham obeyed the Law, but because he believed and was accepted as righteous by God.

The Law brings down God's anger; but where there is no law, there is no disobeying of the law.

For when we lived according to our human nature, the sinful desires stirred up by the Law were at work in our bodies, and all we did ended in death.

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.

What the Law could not do, because human nature was weak, God did. He condemned sin in human nature by sending his own Son, who came with a nature like our sinful nature, to do away with sin.

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

Moses wrote this about being put right with God by obeying the Law: "Whoever obeys the commands of the Law will live."

Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, "Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God's curse!"

But the Law has nothing to do with faith. Instead, as the scripture says, "Whoever does everything the Law requires will live."

But if you treat people according to their outward appearance, you are guilty of sin, and the Law condemns you as a lawbreaker.

For the same one who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not commit murder." Even if you do not commit adultery, you have become a lawbreaker if you commit murder.

Whoever sins is guilty of breaking God's law, because sin is a breaking of the law.

I will tell of your goodness; all day long I will speak of your salvation, though it is more than I can understand.

I will go in the strength of the LORD God; I will proclaim your goodness, yours alone.

"They will say that only through me are victory and strength to be found; but all who hate me will suffer disgrace.

I, the LORD, will rescue all the descendants of Jacob, and they will give me praise.

I am bringing the day of victory near--- it is not far away at all. My triumph will not be delayed. I will save Jerusalem and bring honor to Israel there."

After a life of suffering, he will again have joy; he will know that he did not suffer in vain. My devoted servant, with whom I am pleased, will bear the punishment of many and for his sake I will forgive them.

When he is king, the people of Judah will be safe, and the people of Israel will live in peace. He will be called 'The LORD Our Salvation.'

The people of Judah and of Jerusalem will be rescued and will live in safety. The city will be called 'The LORD Our Salvation.'

"Seven times seventy years is the length of time God has set for freeing your people and your holy city from sin and evil. Sin will be forgiven and eternal justice established, so that the vision and the prophecy will come true, and the holy Temple will be rededicated.

And when he comes, he will prove to the people of the world that they are wrong about sin and about what is right and about God's judgment.

they are wrong about what is right, because I am going to the Father and you will not see me any more;

For the gospel reveals how God puts people right with himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. As the scripture says, "The person who is put right with God through faith shall live."

But now God's way of putting people right with himself has been revealed. It has nothing to do with law, even though the Law of Moses and the prophets gave their witness to it.

God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all:

But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself.

This is what David meant when he spoke of the happiness of the person whom God accepts as righteous, apart from anything that person does:

When God promised Abraham and his descendants that the world would belong to him, he did so, not because Abraham obeyed the Law, but because he believed and was accepted as righteous by God.

So then, just as sin ruled by means of death, so also God's grace rules by means of righteousness, leading us to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So we say that the Gentiles, who were not trying to put themselves right with God, were put right with him through faith;

They have not known the way in which God puts people right with himself, and instead, they have tried to set up their own way; and so they did not submit themselves to God's way of putting people right.

But what the scripture says about being put right with God through faith is this: "You are not to ask yourself, Who will go up into heaven?" (that is, to bring Christ down).

For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved.

But God has brought you into union with Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ to be our wisdom. By him we are put right with God; we become God's holy people and are set free.

Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God.

Yet we know that a person is put right with God only through faith in Jesus Christ, never by doing what the Law requires. We, too, have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be put right with God through our faith in Christ, and not by doing what the Law requires. For no one is put right with God by doing what the Law requires.

Now, it is clear that no one is put right with God by means of the Law, because the scripture says, "Only the person who is put right with God through faith shall live."

From Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ--- To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have been given a faith as precious as ours: