M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Jesus comes to Jerusalem at the feast, teaches the Jews, and reproves them. There are different opinions of him among the people. The Pharisees rebuke the temple officers because they have not seized him, and chide Nicodemus for taking his part.

7 After that, Jesus went about in Galilee, and would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. ² The Jews’ tabernacle feast was at hand. ³ His brethren therefore said to him, Go on, and go into Judea, so that your disciples can see the works that you do. ⁴ For there is no man who does anything secretly when he himself seeks to be known openly. If you do such things, show yourself to the world. ⁵ (For as yet his brethren did not believe in him.)

⁶ Then Jesus said to them, My time is not yet come, but your time is always at hand. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but me it hates, because I testify of it that its works are evil. ⁸ You go up to this feast. I will not go up yet to this feast, for my time is not yet full come.

⁹ These words he said to them, and remained still in Galilee. ¹⁰ But as soon as his brethren had gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were, privately.

¹¹ Then the Jews were looking for him at the feast, and said, Where is he? ¹² And there was much murmuring concerning him among the people. Some said, He is good, and others said, No, but he deceives the people. ¹³ However no one spoke openly about him, for fear of the Jews.

¹⁴ Midway through the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. ¹⁵ And the Jews marvelled, saying, How does he know the scriptures, seeing that he was never taught?

¹⁶ Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me. ¹⁷ If any person desires to do his will, he will know concerning the doctrine, whether it is of God or whether I speak of myself. ¹⁸ He who speaks of himself seeks his own glory. But he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him, such a person is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. ¹⁹ Did not Moses give you a law? And yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you going about to kill me?

  ²⁰ The people answered and said, You have a devil. Who is going about to kill you?

²¹ Jesus answered and said to them, I have done one work, and you are all troubled. ²² Moses gave you circumcision, not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers. And yet you on the Sabbath day circumcise a man. ²³ If a man on the Sabbath day may receive circumcision without breaking the law of Moses, do you take offence at me because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day? ²⁴ Do not judge according to the outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.

²⁵ Then some of the people of Jerusalem said, Is this not the man they are going about to kill? ²⁶ Look, he speaks boldly, but they say nothing to him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? ²⁷ But we know this man, where he is from, and when Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.

²⁸ Then Jesus cried out in the temple as he taught, saying, You know me; and where I am from, you know. And yet I am not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you do not know. ²⁹ I know him, for I am of him, and he has sent me.

³⁰ Then they would have apprehended him, but no man laid hands on him, because his time was not yet come. ³¹ Many of the people believed on him and said, When Christ comes, will he do more miracles than this man has done?

³² The Pharisees heard that the people rumoured such things about him. So then the Pharisees and high priests sent officers forth to seize him. ³³ Then Jesus said to them, Yet a little while I am with you, and then I go to him who sent me. ³⁴ You will seek me, and will not find me; and where I am, there you cannot come.

³⁵ Then the Jews said between themselves, Where will he go, that we will not find him? Will he go among the Gentiles, who are scattered all abroad, and teach the Gentiles? ³⁶ What manner of saying is this that he said: You will seek me, and will not find me, and where I am, there you cannot come?

³⁷ In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes on me, as says the scripture, out of his belly shall flow rivers of the water of life.

³⁹ He spoke this of the Spirit, which those who believed on him would receive.  For the Holy Spirit was not yet there, because Jesus was not yet glorified. ⁴⁰ Many of the people, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth, this is a prophet. ⁴¹ Others said, This is the Christ. Some said, Will the Christ come out of Galilee? ⁴² Does the scripture not say that Christ will come of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?

⁴³ So was there dissension among the people about him. ⁴⁴ And some of them wanted to seize him, but no man laid hands on him.

⁴⁵ Then the officers went to the high priests and Pharisees, who said to them, Why have you not brought him? ⁴⁶ The officers answered, Never did any man speak as this man does. ⁴⁷ Then the Pharisees answered them, Are you also deceived? ⁴⁸ Do any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believe on him? ⁴⁹ But the common people, who do not know the law, are cursed.

⁵⁰ Nicodemus (he who had come to Jesus by night, and was one of them) said to them, ⁵¹ Does our law judge any man before it hears him and knows what he has done? ⁵² They answered and said to him, Are you also of Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet arises out of Galilee.

⁵³ And every man went to his own house.

He rebukes the unsteadfastness of the Galatians. He shows the imperfection of the law, but declares nevertheless that it was not given for nothing.

3 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, such that you should not believe the truth – you to whom Jesus Christ was described before the eyes, and among you crucified?

² This only would I learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by the deeds of the law, or by the preaching of the faith? ³ Are you so unwise that after you have begun in the Spirit, you would now end in the flesh? ⁴ So many things then you have suffered in vain, if that be vain! ⁵ He who ministered to you the Spirit and works miracles among you, does he do it through the deeds of the law, or by preaching of the faith? ⁶ It is even as Abraham believed God, and it was ascribed to him for righteousness. ⁷ Understand therefore that it is those who are of faith who are the children of Abraham.

⁸ For the scripture foresaw that God would justify the heathen through faith, and therefore showed beforehand glad tidings to Abraham: In you shall all nations be blessed. ⁹ So then, those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. ¹⁰ For as many as are under the deeds of the law are under malediction. For it is written: Cursed is every one who does not continue in all the things that are written in the book of the law, to fulfil them.

¹¹ That no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for: The just shall live by faith. ¹² The law is not of faith. (But: The man who fulfils the things contained in the law, will live in them.) ¹³ But Christ has delivered us from the curse of the law, and was made accursed for us – for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree – ¹⁴ so that the blessing of Abraham may come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, and so that we may receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

¹⁵ Brethren, I will speak with reference to the custom of men. Though it be but a man’s last will and testament, yet no one sets it aside or adds anything to it once it is confirmed. ¹⁶ To Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say, In the seeds, as in many, but, In your seed, as in one, which is Christ. ¹⁷ This I say: the law, which began afterwards (over 430 years), does not nullify the testament that was confirmed before by God in Christ, so as to make the promise of no effect. ¹⁸ For if the inheritance comes by the law, it does not come by promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise.

¹⁹ For what then does the law serve? The law was added because of transgressions (till the seed came to whom the promise was made), and it was instituted by angels in the hand of a mediator. ²⁰ A mediator is not a mediator of one. But God is one. ²¹ Is the law then against the promise of God? God forbid. However, if there had been a law given that could have given life, then no doubt righteousness would have come by the law. ²² But the scripture included all things under sin so that the promise, by the faith of Jesus Christ, should be given to those who believe.

²³ Before faith came, we were kept and shut up under the law, with a view to the faith that would afterward be declared. ²⁴ Therefore the law was our schoolmaster to the time of Christ, so that we may be made righteous by faith. ²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

²⁶ For you are all the sons of God by the faith which is in Christ Jesus. ²⁷ For all you who are baptized have put on Christ. ²⁸ Now there is neither Jew nor Gentile, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither man nor woman, but you are all one thing in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs by promise.