Rm14:17For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. 19Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. - NIV
Rm1:16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the
power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then
for the Gentile. 17For in the gospel a righteousness from God
is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to
last, just as it is
written: "The righteous will live by faith." - NIV
Rm3:20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in
his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of
sin. 21But now a righteousness from
God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This
righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a
sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. - NIV
Rm1:1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set
apart for the gospel of God-- 2the gospel he
promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3regarding
his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4and
who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God
by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5Through him and for his name's sake, we
received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the
obedience that comes from faith. 6And
you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. - NIV
Rm6:15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under
grace? By no means! 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves
to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you
obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience,
which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you
used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to
which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have
become slaves to righteousness. 19I put this in human terms because you are weak in
your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery
to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to
righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you
were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you
reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in
death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become
slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal
life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord. - NIV
Rm 8:1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the
law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For
what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature,
God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin
offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in
order that the righteous requirements of the law might be
fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but
according to the Spirit. 5Those who live
according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires;
but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have
their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The
mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and
peace; 7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It
does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by
the sinful nature cannot please God. - NIV
Rm8:9You, however, are controlled not by the
sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if
anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But
if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your
spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And
if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who
raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through
his Spirit, who lives in you. 12Therefore,
brothers, we have an obligation--but it is not to the sinful nature, to live
according to it. 13For if you live according to
the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you
put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because
those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For
you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The
Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now
if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if
indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. - NIV
1Jhn3:1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should
be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does
not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are
children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know
that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3Everyone
who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5But
you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no
sin. 6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues
to sin has either seen him or known him. 7Dear
children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is
righteous, just as he is righteous. 8He who
does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the
beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9No
one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him;
he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10This
is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil
are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone
who does not love his brother. 11This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love
one another. - NIV
1Jhn3:12Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. 13Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. 16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. - NIV
Challenge: True Life