Rm5:6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. - 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
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
Rm7:7What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I
would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have
known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not
covet." 8But
sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every
kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9Once I was
alive apart from law; but when the commandment came,
sin sprang to life and I died. 10I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring
life actually brought death. 11For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,
deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. - NIV
Rm7:4So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of
Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead,
in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5For when we were
controlled by the sinful nature,
the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we
bore fruit for death. 6But now, by dying to what once bound us, we
have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit,
and not in the old way of the written code. - NIV
Rm7:14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. - NIV
Rm7:21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right
there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law;
23but
I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law
of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of
death? 25Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. - 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. - NIV
Rm8:5Those 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. 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.
Rm8:12Therefore,
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. - NIV
Rm11:25Lest you be wise in your own conceits
[conceited], I want you to understand
this mystery, brothers: a
partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness [full number] of the Gentiles has
come in. 26And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is
written,
"The Deliverer will come from Zion,
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob";
27"and this will be my covenant with them
when I take away their sins." (Isa59:20,21;27:9
Jer31:33-34)
28As regards [with regard to] the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. But
as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29For
the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30Just as you were
at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their
disobedience, 31so they too have now been disobedient in order that
by the mercy shown to you they also may now
receive mercy. 32For God has consigned all
[bound all men over] to disobedience, that he
may have mercy [them] on all. - ESV
2Pet2:4For if God did
not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into
gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5if
he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly
people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if
he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made
them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and
if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of
lawless men 8(for
that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his
righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)� 9if
this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold
the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 10This
is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature
and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander
celestial beings; 11yet
even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring
slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. 12But
these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute
beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like
beasts they too will perish.
- NIV
2Pet2:13They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse6 in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. 14With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed�an accursed brood! 15They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey�a beast without speech�who spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness. - NIV
2Pet2:17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity2�for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," (Pro26:11) and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud." - NIV
2 - deprave: to make bad, to corrupt morally, degrade with
unsound principles or moral values. ^
6 - carouse: a drunken revel, intense pleasure or satisfaction taken while
drunk. ^
Challenge: True Life