Because of what God has done, you belong to Christ Jesus. He has become God’s wisdom for us. He makes us right with God, he makes us holy, and he sets us free.
To the members of God’s church in Corinth. You have been made holy in Christ Jesus, and you’ve been called to be his holy people together with all those everywhere who pray to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is their Lord and ours.
Some of you used to do things like that. But you were washed and made holy and right with God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
If any of you needs wisdom, you should ask God for it, and he’ll give it to you. God gives freely to everyone and doesn’t tell them they shouldn’t have asked.
God said, “Let light shine out of darkness.” And he made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light we needed to know God’s glory, which is shown in the face of Christ.
They hadn’t committed sexual sins; they’d kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among human beings as a first offering to God and the Lamb.
From Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. To you who have received a faith as precious as ours and who have been made right with our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
He didn’t enter by shedding the blood of goats and calves. Instead, he entered the Most Holy Place by shedding his own blood, once and for all time. In that way, he paid the price to set us free from sin forever.
The Spirit is a guarantee that someday we’ll receive all that God has promised. That will happen after God sets all his people completely free. All these things will bring praise to his glory.
And that’s not all. We have the first signs of what the Spirit will give us fully, but we also are groaning inside as we wait for our adoption to be finalized.
If the Spirit of God truly does live in you, you’re not ruled by your desires—you’re ruled by the Spirit. Anyone who doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ doesn’t belong to Christ.
When sin ruled, it brought death. But when grace rules in the lives of those who are right with God, it brings eternal life. This is all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done.
King David says the same thing when he tells us how blessed people are when God makes them right with himself. They’re blessed because they don’t have to do anything to make that happen. David says,
Jesus spoke to the people again and said, “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in darkness. They will have the light of life.”
They sang a new song that said, “You are worthy to take the scroll and break open its seals, because you were put to death, and you bought people for God with your blood. They come from every tribe, language, race, and nation.
This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He didn’t come by water only, but by water and blood. The Spirit is a truthful witness about this, because the Spirit is the truth.
God the Father knew you ahead of time, and he chose to make you pure and holy through the Spirit’s work. Then you would obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood to make you holy. May more and more grace and peace be given to you.
Let the message about Christ live among you richly as you teach and correct one another with great wisdom. Sing psalms and hymns and songs from the Spirit to God with gratitude in your hearts.
Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews. They have been in prison with me, and they are leaders among the apostles. They became believers in Christ before I did.
The good news reveals how God makes people right with himself. This happens by faith from beginning to end, just as it is written, “The one who is right with God will live by faith.”
to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. I want them to have their sins forgiven and find a place among God’s people by believing in me.’
I’ve made your name known to them, and I will continue to show you to them. Then the love you have for me will be in them, and I myself will be in them.”
Other people might be your guardians in Christ, but even if there were 10,000 of them, you still wouldn’t have many fathers. I became your father in Christ Jesus by telling you the good news.
May God himself, the God of peace, make you holy and complete. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless from now until our Lord Jesus Christ comes.