The Offer of Life or Death

¹¹ Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.^{(A) 12} It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven^(B) to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”^{(C) 13} Nor is it beyond the sea,^(D) so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”^{(E) 14} No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.^(F)

¹⁵ See, I set before you today life^(G) and prosperity,^(H) death^(I) and destruction.^{(J) 16} For I command you today to love^(K) the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live^(L) and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

¹⁷ But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, ¹⁸ I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed.^(M) You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

¹⁹ This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you^(N) that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.^(O) Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰ and that you may love^(P) the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life,^(Q) and he will give^(R) you many years in the land^(S) he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

²⁰ In the future, when your son asks you,^(A) “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” ²¹ tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.^{(B) 22} Before our eyes the Lord sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. ²³ But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors. ²⁴ The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God,^(C) so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.^{(D) 25} And if we are careful to obey all this law^(E) before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.^(F)”

The Fulfillment of the Law

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.^{(A) 18} For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.^{(B) 19} Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands^(C) and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

²³ for all have sinned^(A) and fall short of the glory of God,

²⁷ Where, then, is boasting?^(A) It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. ²⁸ For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.^{(B) 29} Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,^{(C) 30} since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.^{(D) 31} Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

²³ For the wages of sin is death,^(A) but the gift of God is eternal life^(B) in^[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.

⁸ For it is by grace^(A) you have been saved,^(B) through faith^(C)—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works,^(D) so that no one can boast.^(E)