Because of the one man who sinned, death ruled over all people. But because of another man, people will rule in life. That man is Jesus Christ, and he gives freely and abundantly to make people right with God.
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.
Whoever has this kind of knowledge will be given more, until they have a great deal of it. But if anyone lacks this kind of knowledge, even what little they have will be taken away from them.
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.
“I’m baptizing you with water so you can show that you’ve turned away from your sins. But someone is coming after me who’s more powerful than I am. I’m not even worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
The Spirit of Christ in them was telling about the sufferings of the Messiah and the glory that would follow. They wanted to find out when and how this salvation would come.
When the law was introduced, sin got worse, because now people were doing things that they knew were wrong. But when sin got worse, God poured out an even greater abundance of grace.