³⁸ But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.^[a]

⁸ God^[a] finds fault with them when he says:

¹³ In speaking of a new covenant, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.^(E)

¹⁷ So if anyone is in Christ, there^[a] is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!^[b](A)

²⁶ A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.^(A)

⁵ And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”^(A)

5 ¹ For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.^(A)

The Nature of Christian Freedom

² Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that, if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. ³ Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. ⁴ You who want to be reckoned as righteous^[a] by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.^{(B) 5} For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.^{(C) 6} For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working^[b] through love.^(D)

⁹ Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental principles?^[a] How can you want to be enslaved to them again?^{(A) 10} You are observing special days and months and seasons and years. ¹¹ I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted.

⁹ Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food,^[a] which have not benefited those who observe them.^{(A) 10} We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent^[b] have no right to eat.^(B)

⁸ for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.^(A)