M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

7 After this, Jesus travelled around in Galilee. He would not travel around in Judea because the leaders of the Jews wanted to kill him.

² Every year the Jews had a feast to remember the time when their fathers lived in tents in the desert. The time was near for that feast.

³ Jesus' brothers said to him, `Go away from here to Judea. Let your disciples also see the work you are doing.

⁴ When a person wants people to know about him, he does not hide what he is doing. If you are doing these big things, let the world see you.'

⁵ Even his brothers did not believe in Jesus.

⁶ Jesus said to them, `It is not yet the time for me to go. But you may go any time you want to.

⁷ The people of the world cannot hate you. But they hate me because I say what they do is wrong.

⁸ Go to the feast yourselves. I am not going to the feast until it is the right time for me to go.'

⁹ He said this to them and stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰ After his brothers went to the feast, Jesus went also. He did not go with the other people, but he went by himself.

¹¹ The leaders of the Jews at the feast tried to find him. They said, `Where is he?'

¹² People were talking among themselves about Jesus. Some said, `He is a good man.' Others said, `No. He is leading people to do wrong things.'

¹³ But they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, so no one talked about him out in the open.

¹⁴ When the feast was half finished, Jesus went to the temple and taught the people.

¹⁵ The Jews were very much surprised. `How can this man know books? He never went to school.'

¹⁶ Jesus answered the people, `I am not teaching you my teaching. It is the teaching of the one who sent me.

¹⁷ If any man wants to do what God wants him to do, he will know the teaching. He will know if it is God's teaching or if I am speaking from my own mind.

¹⁸ The person who speaks from his own mind only wants to be great himself. But the person whom God has sent wants to show that God is great. That person is true. He is not a bad man.

¹⁹ Did not Moses give you the law? Not one of you is keeping the law. Why are you trying to kill me?'

²⁰ The people answered Jesus, `A bad spirit is in you! Who is trying to kill you?'

²¹ Jesus answered them, `I have done one thing. You are all surprised about it.

²² Moses gave you the law of circumcision. You obey the law, not because it came from Moses, but because it came from the fathers long ago. You circumcise a baby boy on the Sabbath day.

²³ You do it on the Sabbath day so that you will not break the law of Moses. If you do that, then why are you angry with me because I healed a man on the Sabbath day?

²⁴ Do not judge by what you see, but judge in the right way.'

²⁵ Some people from Jerusalem said, `Is not this the person they are trying to kill?

²⁶ See, he does not fear to speak and yet they say nothing to him! Do the rulers really know that this man is the Christ?

²⁷ But we know where this man comes from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.'

²⁸ Jesus was teaching in the temple. He spoke loudly saying, `You know me and you know where I come from. I have not come in my own power. The one who sent me is true. He is the one you do not know.

²⁹ I know him because I came from him. He sent me.'

³⁰ Then the people wanted to catch him. But no one put a hand on him. It was not yet the time for that.

³¹ Many of the people believed in Jesus. They said, `When Christ comes, will he do greater works than this man has done?'

³² The Pharisees heard what the people said about him. The chief priests and the Pharisees sent soldiers to catch him.

³³ Jesus said, `I will stay with you a short time longer. Then I will go back to him who sent me.

³⁴ You will look for me, but you will not find me. You will not be able to go to the place where I will be.'

³⁵ The Jews said to one another, `Where will he go that we cannot find him? Will he go to our people who are living in other countries? Will he teach them?

³⁶ What does he mean by this: "You will look for me and will not find me. You will not be able to go to the place where I will be"?'

³⁷ The last day of the feast was a big day. On that day Jesus stood up and shouted, `If anyone is thirsty, he may come to me and drink.

³⁸ If anyone believes in me, the holy writings say, "Rivers of water that give life will flow out of his heart." '

³⁹ This is what Jesus meant: those who believe in him would receive the Spirit. At that time no one had received the Holy Spirit because Jesus had not yet been lifted up to heaven

⁴⁰ When some of the people heard this they said, `Truly, this is the Prophet.'

⁴¹ Other people said, `This is the Christ.' But some said, `The Christ will not come from Galilee. Shall Christ come out of Galilee?

⁴² Do not the holy writings say that Christ will be of David's family? Will he not come from Bethlehem where David lived?'

⁴³ The people did not all say the same thing about him.

⁴⁴ Some of them wanted to catch Jesus, but no one put hands on him.

⁴⁵ The soldiers came back to the chief priests and the Pharisees. They asked the soldiers, `Why did you not bring him?'

⁴⁶ The soldiers replied, `No person has ever talked like he does!'

⁴⁷ The Pharisees said, `Has he fooled you also?

⁴⁸ None of the rulers and none of the Pharisees have believed on him, have they?

⁴⁹ These poor people do not know the law. They will die!'

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, the man who came to Jesus by night, was one of them.

⁵¹ He said, `Is it right to judge any man by our law before we hear him and learn what he has done?'

⁵² They answered him, `Are you from Galilee also? Study what is written. You will see that no prophet is to come from Galilee.'

⁵³ Then every one of them went home.

3 O you Galatians, have you no sense at all? Who has fooled you? You knew, just as if you had seen him with your own eyes, that Jesus Christ was killed on a cross.

² Here is one thing I want to ask you. You received the Holy Spirit. Was that because you obeyed the law [given to the Jews by Moses]? No, it was because you heard God's word and believed it.

³ Have you no sense at all? You began living your new life by the power of the Spirit. And are you now trying to finish living it by your own power [to keep the law]?

⁴ So many things happened to you. Was it all for nothing? Surely it was not for nothing.

⁵ God gives you the Spirit. He does wonderful works among you. Does he do this because you obey the law? No, he does it because you heard the word of God and believed it.

⁶ So it was with Abraham. The holy writings say `He believed God, and that was why God called him a good man.'

⁷ You see then, the people who believe God are children of Abraham.

⁸ The holy writings say that he will put people right with himself if they believe him, even those who are not Jews. It was written down before God did it. The holy writings told the good news to Abraham ahead of time. It said, `God will make you a blessing to all nations and people.'

⁹ Abraham believed God and was blessed. And so those who believe God are blessed too, along with him.

¹⁰ A curse is on all people who are trying to become good by obeying the law. The holy writings say, `Everyone is cursed who does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the law and do it.'

¹¹ Now, you can see this. No man is called a good man by God because he obeys the law. The holy writings say, `Those who are right with God shall live by faith.'

¹² The law does not ask people to believe. It says, `He who obeys the laws will live because of them.'

¹³ Christ has saved us from the curse which the law put on us. He took the curse on himself. It should have been on us. The holy writings say, `A curse be on everyone who hangs on a tree!'

¹⁴ Christ Jesus did this so that those who are not Jews will have the blessing which Abraham had. He did this so that when we believe, we will receive the Spirit who was promised to us.

¹⁵ My brothers, it is the same as when a man makes a promise. He makes it good and strong. Then no one can break it or add anything to it.

¹⁶ God made his promises to Abraham and to his Son. The promise does not have the words, `and to his sons,' for that means many sons. But it says, `and to his Son,' and that Son is Christ.

¹⁷ Here is what I mean. The law was given [to Moses] four hundred and thirty years after God gave that promise to Abraham. But it cannot break the strong promise which God made. And the law cannot change God's promise.

¹⁸ Do we get what God has promised us by obeying the law? If we do, then we are not getting it by his promise. But God gave it to Abraham by his promise.

¹⁹ Why then was the law made? God gave it after he made the promise, because so many people were doing what was wrong. The law was to be in power only until the Son came, the one to whom the promise was made. The law was handed down by God's angels with the help of a middle man.

²⁰ To need the help of a middle man there must be more than one person making the agreement. But God is the only one who made the promise.

²¹ Is the law against the promises of God? No, it is not! If a law had been given that could give people life, then surely people would have become good people by the law.

²² But the holy writings say it is like this. The whole world is in prison, kept there by the wrong things they have done. This was done so that people who believe in Jesus Christ would have the blessing. This blessing was promised to those who believe.

²³ Before one came for us to believe in, the law held us in prison like slaves. We were kept there until the one to believe in should come.

²⁴ The law watched over us, as if we were children, until Christ came. Then God would put us right with himself through faith in Christ.

²⁵ But now that one has come for us to believe in, the law does not watch over us any longer.

²⁶ You are all God's children because you have believed in Christ Jesus.

²⁷ All of you who have been baptised into Christ have taken Christ as your own.

²⁸ There is no longer any difference between a Jew and one who is not a Jew; between a slave and a free man; between a man and a woman. When you are in the body of Christ Jesus, you are all alike.

²⁹ If you belong to Christ, you are Abraham's children. And if you are Abraham's children, you will receive the blessing that God has promised.