Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath^(A)(B)

12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain^(C) and eat them. ² When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”^(D)

³ He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?^{(E) 4} He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.^{(F) 5} Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath^(G) and yet are innocent? ⁶ I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.^(H)

¹⁰ and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus,^(A) they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”^(B)

¹¹ He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?^{(C) 12} How much more valuable is a person than a sheep!^(D) Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

¹³ Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.

²⁷ Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures^(A) to eternal life,^(B) which the Son of Man^(C) will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal^(D) of approval.”

⁶³ The Spirit gives life;^(A) the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit^[a] and life.

²⁰ Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law;^(A) rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.^(B)

⁶ But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law^(A) so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.^(B)

The Law and Sin

⁷ What shall we say, then?^(C) Is the law sinful? Certainly not!^(D) Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.^(E) For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”^{[a](F) 8} But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,^(G) produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.^{(H) 9} Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.

Life Through the Spirit

8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation^(A) for those who are in Christ Jesus,^{(B) 2} because through Christ Jesus^(C) the law of the Spirit who gives life^(D) has set you^[a] free^(E) from the law of sin^(F) and death.

⁶ He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant^(A)—not of the letter^(B) but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.^(C)

The Greater Glory of the New Covenant

⁷ Now if the ministry that brought death,^(D) which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory,^(E) transitory though it was, ⁸ will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? ⁹ If the ministry that brought condemnation^(F) was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!^(G)