Jeremiah 5:1-9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Utter Corruption of God’s People
5 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
look around and take note!
Search its squares and see
if you can find one person
who acts justly
and seeks truth—
so that I may pardon Jerusalem.[a](A)
2 Although they say, “As the Lord lives,”
yet they swear falsely.(B)
3 O Lord, do your eyes not look for truth?
You have struck them,
but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
but they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
they have refused to turn back.(C)
4 Then I said, “These are only the poor;
they have no sense,
for they do not know the way of the Lord,
the law of their God.(D)
5 Let me go to the rich[b]
and speak to them;
surely they know the way of the Lord,
the law of their God.”
But they all alike had broken the yoke;
they had burst the bonds.(E)
6 Therefore a lion from the forest shall kill them;
a wolf from the desert shall destroy them.
A leopard is watching against their cities;
everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many;
their faithlessness is great.(F)
7 How can I pardon you?
Your children have forsaken me
and have sworn by those who are no gods.
When I fed them to the full,
they committed adultery
and trooped to the houses of prostitutes.(G)
8 They were well-fed lusty stallions,
each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.(H)
9 Shall I not punish them for these things?
says the Lord,
and shall I not bring retribution
on a nation such as this?(I)
Romans 2:25-3:31
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
25 Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision.(A) 26 So, if the uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then the physically uncircumcised person who keeps the law will judge you who, though having the written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law. 28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical.(B) 29 Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the written code. Such a person receives praise not from humans but from God.(C)
3 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much, in every way. For in the first place, the Jews[a] were entrusted with the oracles of God.(D) 3 What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?(E) 4 By no means! Although every human is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written,
5 But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)(G) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through my falsehood God’s truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Their judgment is deserved!(H)
None Is Righteous
9 What then? Are we any better off?[c] No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin,(I) 10 as it is written:
“There is no one who is righteous, not even one;(J)
11 there is no one who has understanding;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
there is no one who shows kindness;
there is not even one.”
13 “Their throats are opened graves;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of vipers is under their lips.”(K)
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;(L)
16 ruin and misery are in their paths,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that, whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.(M) 20 For no human will be justified before him by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.(N)
Righteousness through Faith
21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed and is attested by the Law and the Prophets,(O) 22 the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ[d] for all who believe.[e] For there is no distinction,(P) 23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;(Q) 24 they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,(R) 25 whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement[f] by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed;(S) 26 it was to demonstrate at the present time his own righteousness, so that he is righteous and he justifies the one who has the faith of Jesus.[g]
27 Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. Through what kind of law? That of works? No, rather through the law of faith.(T) 28 For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.(U) 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of gentiles also? Yes, of gentiles also, 30 since God is one, and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.(V) 31 Do we then overthrow the law through this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
John 5:30-47
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Witnesses to Jesus
30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.(A)
31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.(B) 32 There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true.(C) 33 You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth.(D) 34 Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.(E) 36 But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.(F) 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form,(G) 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.(H)
39 “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that testify on my behalf.(I) 40 Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. 41 I do not accept glory from humans. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God in[a] you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God?[b](J) 45 Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope.(K) 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.(L) 47 But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”
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