The Parable of the Lost Sheep^(A)

15 Now the tax collectors^(B) and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. ² But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”^(C)

³ Then Jesus told them this parable:^{(D) 4} “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?^{(E) 5} And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’^{(F) 7} I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.^(G)

¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.^{(A) 16} And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.^{(B) 17} As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.^{(C) 18} For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[a](D) For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.^{(E) 20} Now 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.^(F)

²¹ So I find this law at work:^(G) Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being^(H) I delight in God’s law;^{(I) 23} but I see another law at work in me, waging war^(J) against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin^(K) at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?^{(L) 25} Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!^(M)

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law,^(N) but in my sinful nature^[b] a slave to the law of sin.^(O)

Life Through the Spirit

8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation^(P) for those who are in Christ Jesus,^{(Q) 2} because through Christ Jesus^(R) the law of the Spirit who gives life^(S) has set you^[c] free^(T) from the law of sin^(U) and death. ³ For what the law was powerless^(V) to do because it was weakened by the flesh,^[d](W) God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh^(X) to be a sin offering.^[e](Y) And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement^(Z) of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.^(AA)

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[a] neither the present nor the future,^(A) nor any powers,^{(B) 39} neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God^(C) that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.^(D)

Confirming One’s Calling and Election

³ His divine power^(A) has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him^(B) who called us^(C) by his own glory and goodness. ⁴ Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises,^(D) so that through them you may participate in the divine nature,^(E) having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.^(F)