Book of Common Prayer

⁴ Christ has made an end to the law as a way of getting right with God. Everyone who believes in him is put right with God.

⁵ Moses wrote this: `A man who obeys the law will live by it.'

⁶ But the holy writings also speak about those who are put right by believing: `Do not say in your heart, "Who will go up into heaven?" ' (That means, `Who will go up to heaven to bring Christ down?')

⁷ `Do not say, "Who will go down into the hole that has no bottom?" ' (That means, `Who will go down to bring Christ up from the dead people?')

⁸ But what do the holy writings say? They say, `The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.' That means, the word to believe which we tell people.

⁹ If you say with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe in your heart that God has raised Christ from death, you will be saved.

¹⁰ A person believes with his heart, and he is made right with God. He speaks with his mouth and so is saved from his wrong ways.

¹¹ The holy writings say, `Anyone who believes in him will not be let down.'

¹² The Jews and other people are alike. The same Lord is Lord of all people. He richly blesses all who call out to him.

¹³ The holy writings say, `Everyone who calls out to the Lord will be saved.'

¹⁴ But how can people call someone if they have not believed in him? And how can they believe in him if they have not heard about him? And how can they hear about him if no one tells them about him?

¹⁵ And how can people tell about him if no one sends them? The holy writings say, `How good are the feet of those who bring the good news of peace and happiness.'

¹⁶ But they have not all obeyed the good news. It is as Isaiah said it would be, `Lord, who has believed what we have told them?'

¹⁷ So people believe because they hear. They hear because people tell them about Christ.

²⁹ `You scribes and Pharisees will have trouble. You who are not true to yourselves! You build places to bury the prophets and fix up graves of good men.

³⁰ You say, "If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have helped to kill the prophets of God."

³¹ So you prove that you are the sons of the men who killed the prophets.

³² Finish doing what your fathers started to do.

³³ You snakes - a whole family of snakes! You cannot get away! You will be judged and sent to hell.

³⁴ That is why I send you prophets, wise men, and teachers. You will kill some of them and nail them to a cross. And you will beat some of them in your meeting houses and trouble them from one town to another.

³⁵ So you will be punished for all the blood of every good man that is on the ground. I mean all the blood from the time of Abel, who was a good man, to Zechariah, the son of Barachiah. You killed him between the temple and God's altar.

³⁶ I tell you the truth. The people who are still living now will be punished for all these things.

³⁷ `Jerusalem! Jerusalem! You kill the prophets. You throw stones to kill the men who are sent to you! How often I have wanted to gather your people together, as a mother hen gathers her little ones under her wings. But you would not come!

³⁸ Now you are left alone in your house.

³⁹ I tell you this. You will not see me again until the time when you say, "God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord." '