Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁸ Continue to think carefully about these commands in everything that you do. Tie them as signs onto your hands so that you remember them. Also tie them around your heads. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you sit together at home. Talk about them as you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰ Write them on the wood beside the doors of your houses and on your gates. ²¹ Do these things so that you and your descendants will live long lives in the land. It is the land that the Lord promised to give to your ancestors. You will continue to live there while there is still a sky above the earth.

²⁶ Today I am telling you to choose. Do you want God to bless you? Or do you want God to curse you? ²⁷ The Lord your God will bless you if you obey his commands that I am giving to you today. ²⁸ But he will curse you if you refuse to obey his commands. If you turn away from him and you serve other gods that are new to you, he will curse you!

This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.

Lord, please help me!

¹⁶ I am not ashamed to tell people the good news. God uses that good news to show his great power. He uses it to save all people who believe in Jesus Christ. First, God saves all Jews who are believers. And he also saves all Gentiles who are believers. ¹⁷ The good news explains how God accepts people as right with himself. He does this when they believe in Christ. It is only because of their faith. Nothing else. This is what was written in the Bible long ago:

²² God accepts people as right with himself because Jesus Christ did what God wanted. God accepts every person who believes in Christ. It is the same way for everyone, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.

²³ All people have done wrong things. Nobody can be good and great, as God wanted them to be. ²⁴ But because God is very kind, he accepts us as right with himself. That is God's gift to us. Jesus Christ has paid for our sins so that we have become free. ²⁵ God showed everyone that Jesus Christ died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. God forgives us if we trust in Jesus and the blood of his sacrifice. God did this to show clearly that he is always right and fair. In past times, God was patient. He did not punish people who did wrong things. ²⁶ He did this to show us today that he is completely right and fair. He accepts people as right with himself if they believe in Jesus.

²⁷ So then, nobody should be proud that they are good enough. Nobody becomes right with God because they have done good things. No! God accepts a person only if that person believes in Jesus Christ. ²⁸ So this is what we are saying. A person becomes right with God if they trust in Christ. It is not because they do the good things which God's Law teaches.

²⁹ God is not God only for Jewish people. He is also God for the Gentiles. Yes! He is the God for all people. ³⁰ There is only one God. He will accept Jews as right with himself if they believe in Christ. He will also accept other people as right with himself if they believe in Christ. ³¹ What does this show us about God's Law which he gave to Moses? When we say that all people need to believe in Jesus, does that mean that God's Law has no purpose? No! When we believe in Jesus, we are showing the true purpose of God's Law.

²¹ Some people say to me, “Master, Master!” But not all of them will come into the kingdom of heaven. Only the people who obey God, my Father in heaven, will come in. They do what he wants them to do. ²² On the day when God judges people, many of them will say, “Master, Master! We used your authority and we spoke a message from you. We used your authority and we sent bad spirits out of people. We used your authority to do many powerful things.” ²³ But I will say to these people, “I never knew you. You do not obey God. You are bad. So go away from me.” ’

Jesus tells a story about two men who each built a house

²⁴ Jesus then said, ‘Some people listen to my message and they obey it. Those people are like a wise man who built his house on rock. ²⁵ Then a storm came with a lot of rain and wind. The rivers rose up high. Strong winds blew hard against that house. But the house did not fall down because the man had built it on rock. ²⁶ Other people listen to my message but they do not obey it. Those people are like a fool who built his house on sand. ²⁷ Then a storm came with a lot of rain and wind. The rivers rose up high. Strong winds blew hard against the house. That house fell down. The storm destroyed it completely.’^[a]

²⁸ Jesus finished speaking. The crowds of people were very surprised at the things that he taught them. ²⁹ When Jesus taught them, he showed that he had authority. That was not like the way that the teachers of God's Law taught people.