Book of Common Prayer

⁶ It’s like Abraham. “He believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” ⁷ So you know that it’s people of faith who are children of Abraham. ⁸ The Bible foresaw that God would justify the nations by faith, so it announced the gospel to Abraham in advance, when it declared that “the nations will be blessed in you.” ⁹ So you see: the people of faith are blessed along with faithful Abraham.

Redeemed from the law’s curse

¹⁰ Because, you see, those who belong to the “works-of-the-law” camp are under a curse! Yes, that’s what the Bible says: “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t stick fast by everything written in the book of the law, to perform it.” ¹¹ But, because nobody is justified before God in the law, it’s clear that “the righteous shall live by faith.” ¹² The law, however, is not by faith: rather, “the one who does them shall live in them.”

¹³ The Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse on our behalf, as the Bible says: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” ¹⁴ This was so that the blessing of Abraham could flow through to the nations in Messiah Jesus—and so that we might receive the promise of the spirit, through faith.

The evidence in support of Jesus

³⁰ “I can’t do anything on my own authority,” Jesus went on. “I judge on the basis of what I hear. And my judgment is just, because I’m not trying to carry out my own wishes, but the wishes of the one who sent me.

³¹ “If I give evidence about myself, my evidence isn’t true. ³² There is someone else who gives evidence about me, and I know that the evidence he brings about me is true. ³³ You sent messengers to John, and he gave evidence about the truth. ³⁴ Not that I need evidence from human beings; but I’m saying this so that you may be saved.

³⁵ “John was a burning, bright lamp, and you were happy to celebrate in his light for a while. ³⁶ But I have greater evidence on my side than that of John. The works which the father has given me to complete—these works, which I’m doing, will provide evidence about me, evidence that the father has sent me. ³⁷ And the father who sent me has given evidence about me. You’ve never heard his voice; you’ve never seen his form. ³⁸ What’s more, you haven’t got his word abiding in you, because you don’t believe in the one he sent.”

Jesus and Moses

³⁹ “You study the Bible,” Jesus continued, “because you suppose that you’ll discover the life of God’s coming age in it. In fact, it’s the Bible which gives evidence about me! ⁴⁰ But you won’t come to me so that you can have life.

⁴¹ “I’m not accepting glory from human beings; ⁴² but I know that you haven’t got the love of God within you. ⁴³ I have come in the name of my father, and you won’t receive me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will receive him! ⁴⁴ How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you’re not looking for the glory which comes from the one and only God?

⁴⁵ “Don’t think that I’m going to accuse you to the father. There is someone who accuses you, namely Moses, the one you look to in hope! ⁴⁶ You see, if you’d believed Moses, you would have believed me—because it was me he was writing about. ⁴⁷ But if you don’t believe his writings, how are you going to believe my words?”