What God Requires

² For I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not based on knowledge.^{(A) 3} Not knowing the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.^(B)

The First Converts

³⁷ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers,^[a] what should we do?”^(A)

⁷ and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.”^(A)

The Rich Young Man

¹⁶ Then someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”^(A)

²⁶ Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire.

⁴ For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.^{(A) 5} Consequently, when Christ^[a] came into the world, he said,

⁸ When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), ⁹ then he added, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. ¹⁰ And it is by God’s will^[c] that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.^(D)