The Teachings of Jesus

The Law of God

Lesson #10 for September 6, 2014

Scriptures: [Matthew 5:17-19; 5:21-24; 19:16-22; Mark 7:9-13][i].

1.    What comes to your mind when someone says, “The law of God”? The question about law versus grace has been a prominent one throughout Christian history. What did Jesus teach regarding the law and its impact on our lives?

2.    What was the attitude of the Pharisees toward the law? They had memorized the law. Why were they always arguing with Jesus about the way He kept the law? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made it very clear what He believed should be the correct attitude toward keeping the law. More than one and one-half years into His ministry, (See John 1-4ii.) Jesus left Judea because John the Baptist had been arrested and they were trying to arrest Jesus as well. He moved to Galilee and established His home, once again, at Capernaum. Soon thereafter, He officially called His 12 disciples. Having called the 12, it was time for Him to lay out His plan for His ministry in Galilee. He did so by presenting what we call the Sermon on the Mount.

3.    Many of the points in His sermon flew directly in the face of the teachings of the Pharisees and the common beliefs of the people. Does that sound like the best way for a young rabbi/teacher/pastor to begin His ministry? Can you antagonize and instruct at the same time? Read Matthew 5:17-19iii. Having given the Beatitudes, Jesus recognized that what He was saying would seem to almost everyone listening to be contradicting the teachings of the Old Testament. So, He stated in unequivocal terms that it was not His purpose to overthrow the teachings of the Old Testament. Recognizing how far the Jewish teachers had corrupted the true teachings of the Old Testament, Jesus was trying to present the truth as it was originally intended. The New Testament, of course, had not yet been written.

4.    What does it mean to fulfill the law? When speaking of the law, the Jews often meant the five books of Moses. But, in this passage, it seems clear that Jesus was focusing particularly on the Ten Commandments.

5.    How do you interpret Jesus’s repeated statement, “It was said of old, . . . but I say . . .”? As a young rabbi, did He have the right to overturn their understanding of the law? What was Jesus’s real relationship to the law?

6.    Many modern Christians have suggested that the God of the Old Testament was the harsh, exacting, arbitrary Father-God. By contrast, they love to talk about the loving, caring, forgiving God of the New Testament which they, of course, recognize as Jesus. Where did that idea come from? Who was the God of the Old Testament? Look at some passages in the New Testament. Luke 4:16-21iv talks of the time when Jesus went back to Nazareth and gave a sermon in the synagogue. Having read the Scripture from Isaiah 61:1-2[v]-Where did Jesus learn to read Hebrew?-He then openly stated that that passage which they all recognized as describing the Messiah was being fulfilled before their eyes. When they realized what He was implying, they wanted to kill Him. (DA 164.3; 287.1; John 5:18vi)

7.    Read Luke 24:44vii. After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples and said (GNB): “‘These are the very things I told you about when I was still with you: everything written about me in the law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms had to come true.’” In these words, He was clearly stating that He was the God of the Old Testament.

8.    Compare John 5:39viii (GNB): “‘You study the Scriptures, because you think that in them you will find eternal life. And these very Scriptures speak about me!’”

9.    Stephen recognized the truth about the Messiah being the God of the Old Testament when he said, as recorded in Acts 7:38: “‘He is the one who was with the people of Israel assembled in the desert; he was there with our ancestors and with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and he received God’s living messages to pass on to us.’” (GNB)

10.    The apostle Paul wanted to make that very clear to his readers. After describing the experience of the children of Israel with Moses in the wilderness, he stated in 1 Corinthians 10:3-4: “All ate the same spiritual bread and drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from the spiritual rock that went with them; and that rock was Christ himself.” (GNB)

11.    What did Ellen White say about this issue? Patriarchs and Prophets 362.2-3.

Christ was not only the leader of the Hebrews in the wilderness--the Angel in whom was the name of Jehovah, and who, veiled in the cloudy pillar, went before the host--but it was He who gave the law to Israel. Amid the awful glory of Sinai, Christ declared in the hearing of all the people the ten precepts of His Father’s law. It was He who gave to Moses the law engraved upon the tables of stone. (Patriarchs and Prophets 366.2)

It is the voice of Christ that speaks to us through the Old Testament. (Patriarchs and Prophets 366.3)

It was Christ who, amid thunder and flame, had proclaimed the law upon Mount Sinai. The glory of God, like devouring fire, rested upon its summit, and the mountain quaked at the presence of the Lord. The hosts of Israel, lying prostrate upon the earth, had listened in awe to the sacred precepts of the law. What a contrast to the scene upon the mount of the Beatitudes!

Under the summer sky, with no sound to break the stillness but the song of birds, Jesus unfolded the principles of His kingdom. Yet He who spoke to the people that day in accents of love, was opening to them the principles of the law proclaimed upon Sinai.—White, E. G. (1896). Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 45.1.

He knew that spies stood ready to seize upon every word that might be wrested to serve their purpose. He knew the prejudice that existed in the minds of many of His hearers, and He said nothing to unsettle their faith in the religion and institutions that had been committed to them through Moses.

Christ Himself had given both the moral and the ceremonial law. He did not come to destroy confidence in His own instruction. It was because of His great reverence for the law and the prophets that He sought to break through the wall of traditional requirements which hemmed in the Jews. While He set aside their false interpretations of the law, He carefully guarded His disciples against yielding up the vital truths committed to the Hebrews. —White, E. G. (1898), The Desire of Ages, 307.2. [Bold type is added.]

12.    No wonder Jesus felt comfortable in saying, “‘You have heard that it was said by them of old time... But I say unto you.’” (NKJV) Since He was the God of the Old Testament, He had the perfect right to interpret His own words for the crowd listening to Him that day.

13.    So, why do so many Christians think that it is okay to set aside the Ten Commandments of God based on their understanding of the teachings of Jesus? Is there any hint in the Gospels that Jesus was trying to set aside His own words given on Mount Sinai?

14.    Read [Exodus 20:13-14; Deuteronomy 5:17-18; Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:20; and Deuteronomy 19:21]ix. Jesus quoted these passages from the Old Testament and then appeared to argue against them as if they were wrong. But, He was not arguing against the actual teachings from the Old Testament. Instead, He was arguing against the interpretation that have been placed on those teachings by the Pharisees and the scribes. Look specifically at the attitude of the scribes and Pharisees as described in Matthew 23:35,23-28[x]. At the wall in Jerusalem, the Jews still teach people how to put on phylacteries.

15.    Jesus was pointing out that the Pharisees’ religion was specifically designed for outward show. They wanted to convince the other Israelites that they were saints.

16.    But, how should we interpret these new standards set by Jesus? Read Matthew 5:27-28xi. Does this seem like an impossible standard? It is impossible to avoid suggestive materials today! Do you know of any Christian who has slipped up in his/her observance of the law? Has s/he taken out an eye or cut off a hand? How are we to understand Matthew 5:29-30xii?

In verses 29 and 30 Christ was using a figure of speech. Of course, one could argue that it would be better to go through life mutilated than to forfeit eternity with Christ. However, rather than pointing to mutilation, which would be contrary to other biblical teachings (see Lev. 19:27, 28; 21:17-20xiii), Jesus was referring to the control of one’s thoughts and impulses. In His references to plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand, Christ was figuratively speaking of the importance of taking resolute decisions and actions toward guarding oneself against temptation and sin.—Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide for Tuesday, September 2.

17.    In the final weeks and months of Jesus’s ministry on this earth, the Pharisees, the scribes, and even the Sadducees sought by every possible means to trip Him up and to get Him to say something that they thought they could use to condemn Him.

18.    Read [Deuteronomy 24:1 and Matthew 19:3-12xiv].

In Jesus’ days there were two rabbinic schools that interpreted this text [Deuteronomy 24:1] in two different ways: Hillel understood it to allow divorce for almost any reason, while Shammai interpreted it to mean only explicit adultery. The Pharisees were trying to trick Jesus into taking sides with one school or the other.—Ibid. [Content in brackets is added.]

19.    But, as always, Jesus was one step ahead of them. He reminded them of how was it back in the beginning. What was God’s original intention for marriage? While God had allowed the Israelites to divorce their wives legally, it was only necessary because of the hardness of their hearts and the stiffness of their necks. What do you think Jesus would say to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the 21st century? Should we take Jesus’s words seriously about plucking out eyes or cutting off hands? That sounds crazy to us? Is it really scary? Should it be? Is it possible for God to scare us into doing what is right? If so, why didn’t He do it with Lucifer in the beginning?

20.    Jesus also raised questions about the keeping of the fifth commandment which instructs us to honor our parents. When the scribes and the Pharisees began to criticize how Jesus and His disciples were not correctly washing their hands before eating, Jesus pointed out how they had directly contradicted the fifth commandment by their practice of Corban. (See Mark 7:9-13xv.)

21.    The Pharisees seemed to argue endlessly about the priority of the laws given by God in the Old Testament. They could think up multiple examples when one law might appear to be in conflict with another law. And if they could establish that the first law was-in their opinion-more important than the second law, they thought that was an adequate reason for them to ignore the second law.

22.    Do we have subtle little ways of producing “technical loopholes” in order to try to avoid doing what we know the law specifically says we should do?

23.    There is a very sad story told Matthew 19:16-22xvi. Jesus had just been laying His hands on children as mothers brought them to Him for His blessing. A rich young ruler-we do not know exactly what his position was; but, he may have been a member the Sanhedrin-still felt a spiritual emptiness in his life. He thought that if perhaps Jesus would bless him as He blessed the children, then his spiritual emptiness would go away. Jesus recognized that this young man would be a great asset to the cause. But, He knew that there was a plague spot in his character. It was his money. In order to understand the story, we need to understand how wealth was regarded in Jesus’s day. Based on the teachings of Deuteronomy 28xvii, it was assumed that if one was wealthy, he was obviously being blessed by God; and therefore, he must be a saint. So, when Jesus told this young man to sell everything he had and give the money to poor, He was asking that young man to give away the proof of his righteousness! Was that fair? Jesus did not require that of Nicodemus, or the disciples. What about the riches of Abraham, David, Solomon, and Job?

24.    But, Jesus recognized that this young man’s wealth was his god. Jesus knew that full and complete obedience and surrender to God was essential for living a true Christian life. He knew that soon His disciples would be scattered throughout the then-known world preaching the gospel, living almost pennilessly, and eventually being martyred. The rich young ruler would have to adjust his priorities to fit with that crowd!

Nothing short of obedience can be accepted. Self-surrender is the substance of the teachings of Christ. Often it is presented and enjoined in language that seems authoritative, because there is no other way to save man than to cut away those things which, if entertained, will demoralize the whole being.—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 523.3.

25.    So, in all of this, we see that Jesus very carefully and consistently upheld not only the Ten Commandments but also all of the Old Testament.

Speaking of the law, Jesus said, “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” . .

. ; that is, to fill up the measure of the law’s requirement, to give an example of perfect conformity to the will of God. . . .

His mission was to “magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isaiah 42:21xviii.

He was to show the spiritual nature of the law, to present its far-reaching principles, and to make plain its eternal obligation. . . .

Jesus, the express image of the Father’s person, the effulgence of His glory; the self-denying Redeemer, throughout His pilgrimage of love on earth was a living representation of the character of the law of God. In His life it is made manifest that heaven-born love, Christlike principles, underlie the laws of eternal rectitude.—Ellen G. White, Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 48.3-49.2.

26.    We know that most of the challenges in modern times against the keeping of the Ten Commandments are specifically attempts to do away with the seventh-day Sabbath. Can you find anything in the Gospels or in the teachings of the New Testament that directly suggest that the law of God from the Old Testament should be set aside?

27.    Jesus performed several miracles on the Sabbath, and He did them in ways directly defying the rules which the Pharisees had set up. Does that mean He was trying to do away with the Sabbath? Not at all! He was trying to reestablish a correct keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath. He was trying to do away with their pile of rules.

28.    Jesus died to demonstrate the truth about God’s character, His government, and the importance of strict obedience to God’s law. God does not change. (See [Malachi 3:6 and 1 Samuel 15:29xix]; but, compare 1 Samuel 15:10,11,35xx.) The permanence of God’s law demonstrates the orderliness of God’s government and even of His universe. Human laws may change; but, God’s laws are permanent. Consider some modern examples. How have secular laws have changed about divorce and remarriage and even about homosexuality? Should Seventh-day Adventists teach that God’s law changes to meet changing conditions in society? Do we worship a chameleon God? Or, should we regard the laws given so many years ago from Mount Sinai as out of date?

God requires perfection of His children. His law is a transcript of His own character, and it is the standard of all character. This infinite standard is presented to all that there may be no mistake in regard to the kind of people whom God will have to compose His kingdom. The life of Christ on earth was a perfect expression of God’s law, and when those who claim to be children of God become Christlike in character, they will be obedient to God’s commandments. Then the Lord can trust them to be of the number who shall compose the family of heaven. Clothed in the glorious apparel of Christ’s righteousness, they have a place at the King’s feast. They have a right to join the blood-washed throng.—Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, 315.1. [Bold type is added.]

© 2014, Kenneth Hart, MD, MA, MPH. Permission is hereby granted for any noncommercial use of these materials. Free distribution of all or of a portion of this material such as to a Bible study class is encouraged.    Info@.theox.org

Last Modified: July 6, 2014

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i-Matthew 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to do away with the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets. I have not come to do away with them, but to make their teachings come true. 18 Remember that as long as heaven and earth last, not the least point nor the smallest detail of the Law will be done away with - not until the end of all things. 19 So then, whoever disobeys even the least important of the commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be least in the Kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, whoever obeys the Law and teaches others to do the same, will be great in the Kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:21 "You have heard that people were told in the past, "Do not commit murder; anyone who does will be brought to trial.' 22 But now I tell you: if you are angry with your brother you will be brought to trial, if you call your brother "You good-for-nothing!' you will be brought before the Council, and if you call your brother a worthless fool you will be in danger of going to the fire of hell. 23 So if you are about to offer your gift to God at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar, go at once and make peace with your brother, and then come back and offer your gift to God.

Matthew 19:16 Once a man came to Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what good thing must I do to receive eternal life?" 17 "Why do you ask me concerning what is good?" answered Jesus. "There is only One who is good. Keep the commandments if you want to enter life." 18 "What commandments?" he asked. Jesus answered, "Do not commit murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not accuse anyone falsely; 19 respect your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as you love yourself." 20 "I have obeyed all these commandments," the young man replied. "What else do I need to do?" 21 Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me." 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he was very rich.

Mark 7:9 And Jesus continued, "You have a clever way of rejecting God's law in order to uphold your own teaching. 10 For Moses commanded, "Respect your father and your mother,' and, "If you curse your father or your mother, you are to be put to death.' 11 But you teach that if people have something they could use to help their father or mother, but say, "This is Corban' (which means, it belongs to God), 12 they are excused from helping their father or mother. 13 In this way the teaching you pass on to others cancels out the word of God. And there are many other things like this that you do."

ii-John 1:1 In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 From the very beginning the Word was with God. 3 Through him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him. 4 The Word was the source of life, and this life brought light to people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out. 6 God sent his messenger, a man named John, 7 who came to tell people about the light, so that all should hear the message and believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came to tell about the light. 9 This was the real light - the light that comes into the world and shines on all people. 10 The Word was in the world, and though God made the world through him, yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own country, but his own people did not receive him. 12 Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God's children. 13 They did not become God's children by natural means, that is, by being born as the children of a human father; God himself was their Father. 14 The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father's only Son. 15 John spoke about him. He cried out, "This is the one I was talking about when I said, "He comes after me, but he is greater than I am, because he existed before I was born.' " 16 Out of the fullness of his grace he has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another. 17 God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father's side, he has made him known. 19 The Jewish authorities in Jerusalem sent some priests and Levites to John to ask him, "Who are you?" 20 John did not refuse to answer, but spoke out openly and clearly, saying: "I am not the Messiah." 21 "Who are you, then?" they asked. "Are you Elijah?" "No, I am not," John answered. "Are you the Prophet?" they asked. "No," he replied. 22 "Then tell us who you are," they said. "We have to take an answer back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" 23 John answered by quoting the prophet Isaiah: "I am "the voice of someone shouting in the desert: Make a straight path for the Lord to travel!' " 24 The messengers, who had been sent by the Pharisees, 25 then asked John, "If you are not the Messiah nor Elijah nor the Prophet, why do you baptize?" 26 John answered, "I baptize with water, but among you stands the one you do not know. 27 He is coming after me, but I am not good enough even to untie his sandals." 28 All this happened in Bethany on the east side of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing. 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I was talking about when I said, "A man is coming after me, but he is greater than I am, because he existed before I was born.' 31 I did not know who he would be, but I came baptizing with water in order to make him known to the people of Israel." 32 And John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and stay on him. 33 I still did not know that he was the one, but God, who sent me to baptize with water, had said to me, "You will see the Spirit come down and stay on a man; he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 I have seen it," said John, "and I tell you that he is the Son of God." 35 The next day John was standing there again with two of his disciples, 36 when he saw Jesus walking by. "There is the Lamb of God!" he said. 37 The two disciples heard him say this and went with Jesus. 38 Jesus turned, saw them following him, and asked, "What are you looking for?" They answered, "Where do you live, Rabbi?" (This word means "Teacher.") 39 "Come and see," he answered. (It was then about four o'clock in the afternoon.) So they went with him and saw where he lived, and spent the rest of that day with him. 40 One of them was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 At once he found his brother Simon and told him, "We have found the Messiah." (This word means "Christ.") 42 Then he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "Your name is Simon son of John, but you will be called Cephas." (This is the same as Peter and means "a rock.") 43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Come with me! 44 (Philip was from Bethsaida, the town where Andrew and Peter lived.) 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one whom Moses wrote about in the book of the Law and whom the prophets also wrote about. He is Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth." 46 "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," answered Philip. 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, he said about him, "Here is a real Israelite; there is nothing false in him!" 48 Nathanael asked him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you when you were under the fig tree before Philip called you." 49 "Teacher," answered Nathanael, "you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 50 Jesus said, "Do you believe just because I told you I saw you when you were under the fig tree? You will see much greater things than this!" 51 And he said to them, "I am telling you the truth: you will see heaven open and God's angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man."

John 2:1 Two days later there was a wedding in the town of Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine had given out, Jesus' mother said to him, "They are out of wine." 4 "You must not tell me what to do," Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come." 5 Jesus' mother then told the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." 6 The Jews have rules about ritual washing, and for this purpose six stone water jars were there, each one large enough to hold between twenty and thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, "Fill these jars with water." They filled them to the brim, 8 and then he told them, "Now draw some water out and take it to the man in charge of the feast." They took him the water, 9 which now had turned into wine, and he tasted it. He did not know where this wine had come from (but, of course, the servants who had drawn out the water knew); so he called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, "Everyone else serves the best wine first, and after the guests have drunk a lot, he serves the ordinary wine. But you have kept the best wine until now!" 11 Jesus performed this first miracle in Cana in Galilee; there he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. 12 After this, Jesus and his mother, brothers, and disciples went to Capernaum and stayed there a few days. 13 It was almost time for the Passover Festival, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14 There in the Temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and pigeons, and also the moneychangers sitting at their tables. 15 So he made a whip from cords and drove all the animals out of the Temple, both the sheep and the cattle; he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins; 16 and he ordered those who sold the pigeons, "Take them out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" 17 His disciples remembered that the scripture says, "My devotion to your house, O God, burns in me like a fire." 18 The Jewish authorities came back at him with a question, "What miracle can you perform to show us that you have the right to do this?" 19 Jesus answered, "Tear down this Temple, and in three days I will build it again." 20 "Are you going to build it again in three days?" they asked him. "It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple!" 21 But the temple Jesus was speaking about was his body. 22 So when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and what Jesus had said. 23 While Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, many believed in him as they saw the miracles he performed. 24 But Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew them all. 25 There was no need for anyone to tell him about them, because he himself knew what was in their hearts.

John 3:1 There was a Jewish leader named Nicodemus, who belonged to the party of the Pharisees. 2 One night he went to Jesus and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent by God. No one could perform the miracles you are doing unless God were with him." 3 Jesus answered, "I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again." 4 "How can a grown man be born again?" Nicodemus asked. "He certainly cannot enter his mother's womb and be born a second time!" 5 "I am telling you the truth," replied Jesus, "that no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 A person is born physically of human parents, but is born spiritually of the Spirit. 7 Do not be surprised because I tell you that you must all be born again. 8 The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit." 9 "How can this be?" asked Nicodemus. 10 Jesus answered, "You are a great teacher in Israel, and you don't know this? 11 I am telling you the truth: we speak of what we know and report what we have seen, yet none of you is willing to accept our message. 12 You do not believe me when I tell you about the things of this world; how will you ever believe me, then, when I tell you about the things of heaven? 13 And no one has ever gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from heaven." 14 As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the desert, in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior. 18 Those who believe in the Son are not judged; but those who do not believe have already been judged, because they have not believed in God's only Son. 19 This is how the judgment works: the light has come into the world, but people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil. 20 Those who do evil things hate the light and will not come to the light, because they do not want their evil deeds to be shown up. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light in order that the light may show that what they did was in obedience to God. 22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went to the province of Judea, where he spent some time with them and baptized. 23 John also was baptizing in Aenon, not far from Salim, because there was plenty of water in that place. People were going to him, and he was baptizing them 24 (This was before John had been put in prison.) 25 Some of John's disciples began arguing with a Jew about the matter of ritual washing. 26 So they went to John and told him, "Teacher, you remember the man who was with you on the east side of the Jordan, the one you spoke about? Well, he is baptizing now, and everyone is going to him!" 27 John answered, "No one can have anything unless God gives it. 28 You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, "I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.' 29 The bridegroom is the one to whom the bride belongs; but the bridegroom's friend, who stands by and listens, is glad when he hears the bridegroom's voice. This is how my own happiness is made complete. 30 He must become more important while I become less important." 31 He who comes from above is greater than all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly matters, but he who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He tells what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his message. 33 But whoever accepts his message confirms by this that God is truthful. 34 The one whom God has sent speaks God's words, because God gives him the fullness of his Spirit. 35 The Father loves his Son and has put everything in his power. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not have life, but will remain under God's punishment.

John 4:1 (The Pharisees heard that Jesus was winning and baptizing more disciples than John 2 Actually, Jesus himself did not baptize anyone; only his disciples did.) 3 So when Jesus heard what was being said, he left Judea and went back to Galilee; 4 on his way there he had to go through Samaria. 5 In Samaria he came to a town named Sychar, which was not far from the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by the trip, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 (A Samaritan woman came to draw some water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink of water. 8 His disciples had gone into town to buy food.) 9 The woman answered, "You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan - so how can you ask me for a drink?" (Jews will not use the same cups and bowls that Samaritans use.) 10 Jesus answered, "If you only knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you life-giving water." 11 "Sir," the woman said, "you don't have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where would you get that life-giving water? 12 It was our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well; he and his children and his flocks all drank from it. You don't claim to be greater than Jacob, do you?" 13 Jesus answered, "Those who drink this water will get thirsty again, 14 but those who drink the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring which will provide them with life-giving water and give them eternal life." 15 "Sir," the woman said, "give me that water! Then I will never be thirsty again, nor will I have to come here to draw water." 16 "Go and call your husband," Jesus told her, "and come back." 17 "I don't have a husband," she answered. Jesus replied, "You are right when you say you don't have a husband. 18 You have been married to five men, and the man you live with now is not really your husband. You have told me the truth." 19 "I see you are a prophet, sir," the woman said. 20 "My Samaritan ancestors worshiped God on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where we should worship God." 21 Jesus said to her, "Believe me, woman, the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans do not really know whom you worship; but we Jews know whom we worship, because it is from the Jews that salvation comes. 23 But the time is coming and is already here, when by the power of God's Spirit people will worship the Father as he really is, offering him the true worship that he wants. 24 God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is." 25 The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah will come, and when he comes, he will tell us everything." 26 Jesus answered, "I am he, I who am talking with you." 27 At that moment Jesus' disciples returned, and they were greatly surprised to find him talking with a woman. But none of them said to her, "What do you want?" or asked him, "Why are you talking with her?" 28 Then the woman left her water jar, went back to the town, and said to the people there, 29 "Come and see the man who told me everything I have ever done. Could he be the Messiah?" 30 So they left the town and went to Jesus. 31 In the meantime the disciples were begging Jesus, "Teacher, have something to eat!" 32 But he answered, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." 33 So the disciples started asking among themselves, "Could somebody have brought him food?" 34 "My food," Jesus said to them, "is to obey the will of the one who sent me and to finish the work he gave me to do. 35 You have a saying, "Four more months and then the harvest.' But I tell you, take a good look at the fields; the crops are now ripe and ready to be harvested! 36 The one who reaps the harvest is being paid and gathers the crops for eternal life; so the one who plants and the one who reaps will be glad together. 37 For the saying is true, "Someone plants, someone else reaps.' 38 I have sent you to reap a harvest in a field where you did not work; others worked there, and you profit from their work." 39 Many of the Samaritans in that town believed in Jesus because the woman had said, "He told me everything I have ever done." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of his message, 42 and they told the woman, "We believe now, not because of what you said, but because we ourselves have heard him, and we know that he really is the Savior of the world." 43 After spending two days there, Jesus left and went to Galilee. 44 For he himself had said, "Prophets are not respected in their own country." 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the people there welcomed him, because they had gone to the Passover Festival in Jerusalem and had seen everything that he had done during the festival. 46 Then Jesus went back to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. A government official was there whose son was sick in Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to go to Capernaum and heal his son, who was about to die. 48 Jesus said to him, "None of you will ever believe unless you see miracles and wonders." 49 "Sir," replied the official, "come with me before my child dies." 50 Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live!" The man believed Jesus' words and went. 51 On his way home his servants met him with the news, "Your boy is going to live!" 52 He asked them what time it was when his son got better, and they answered, "It was one o'clock yesterday afternoon when the fever left him." 53 Then the father remembered that it was at that very hour when Jesus had told him, "Your son will live." So he and all his family believed. 54 This was the second miracle that Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

iii-Matthew 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to do away with the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets. I have not come to do away with them, but to make their teachings come true. 18 Remember that as long as heaven and earth last, not the least point nor the smallest detail of the Law will be done away with - not until the end of all things. 19 So then, whoever disobeys even the least important of the commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be least in the Kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, whoever obeys the Law and teaches others to do the same, will be great in the Kingdom of heaven.

iv-Luke 4:16 Then Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath he went as usual to the synagogue. He stood up to read the Scriptures 17 and was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written, 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed 19 and announce that the time has come when the Lord will save his people." 20 Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. All the people in the synagogue had their eyes fixed on him, 21 as he said to them, "This passage of scripture has come true today, as you heard it being read."

v-Isaiah 61:1 The Sovereign Lord has filled me with his Spirit. He has chosen me and sent me To bring good news to the poor, To heal the broken-hearted, To announce release to captives And freedom to those in prison. 2 He has sent me to proclaim That the time has come When the Lord will save his people And defeat their enemies. He has sent me to comfort all who mourn,

vi-John 5:18 This saying made the Jewish authorities all the more determined to kill him; not only had he broken the Sabbath law, but he had said that God was his own Father and in this way had made himself equal with God.

vii-Luke 24:44 Then he said to them, "These are the very things I told you about while I was still with you: everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms had to come true."

viii-John 5:39 You study the Scriptures, because you think that in them you will find eternal life. And these very Scriptures speak about me!

ix-Exodus 20:13 "Do not commit murder. 14 "Do not commit adultery.

Deuteronomy 5:17 " "Do not commit murder. 18 " "Do not commit adultery.

Exodus 21:24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Leviticus 24:20 If you break a bone, one of your bones shall be broken; if you put out an eye, one of your eyes shall be put out; if you knock out a tooth, one of your teeth shall be knocked out. Whatever injury you cause another person shall be done to you in return.

Deuteronomy 19:21 In such cases show no mercy; the punishment is to be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot.

x-Matthew 23:3 So you must obey and follow everything they tell you to do; do not, however, imitate their actions, because they don't practice what they preach. 4 They tie onto people's backs loads that are heavy and hard to carry, yet they aren't willing even to lift a finger to help them carry those loads 5 They do everything so that people will see them. Look at the straps with scripture verses on them which they wear on their foreheads and arms, and notice how large they are! Notice also how long are the tassels on their cloaks! 23 "How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You give to God one tenth even of the seasoning herbs, such as mint, dill, and cumin, but you neglect to obey the really important teachings of the Law, such as justice and mercy and honesty. These you should practice, without neglecting the others. 24 Blind guides! You strain a fly out of your drink, but swallow a camel! 25 "How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You clean the outside of your cup and plate, while the inside is full of what you have gotten by violence and selfishness. 26 Blind Pharisee! Clean what is inside the cup first, and then the outside will be clean too! 27 "How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but are full of bones and decaying corpses on the inside. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear good to everybody, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and sins.

xi-Matthew 5:27 "You have heard that it was said, "Do not commit adultery.' 28 But now I tell you: anyone who looks at a woman and wants to possess her is guilty of committing adultery with her in his heart.

xii-Matthew 5:29 So if your right eye causes you to sin, take it out and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose a part of your body than to have your whole body thrown into hell. 30 If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose one of your limbs than to have your whole body go off to hell.

xiii-Lev. 19:27 Do not cut the hair on the sides of your head or trim your beard 28 or tattoo yourselves or cut gashes in your body to mourn for the dead. I am the Lord. 17 to tell Aaron, "None of your descendants who has any physical defects may present the food offering to me. This applies for all time to come. 18 No man with any physical defects may make the offering: no one who is blind, lame, disfigured, or deformed; 19 no one with a crippled hand or foot; 20 no one who is a hunchback or a dwarf; no one with any eye or skin disease; and no eunuch.

xiv-Deuteronomy 24:1 "Suppose a man marries a woman and later decides that he doesn't want her, because he finds something about her that he doesn't like. So he writes out divorce papers, gives them to her, and sends her away from his home.

Matthew 19:3 Some Pharisees came to him and tried to trap him by asking, "Does our Law allow a man to divorce his wife for whatever reason he wishes?" 4 Jesus answered, "Haven't you read the scripture that says that in the beginning the Creator made people male and female? 5 And God said, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife, and the two will become one.' 6 So they are no longer two, but one. No human being must separate, then, what God has joined together." 7 The Pharisees asked him, "Why, then, did Moses give the law for a man to hand his wife a divorce notice and send her away?" 8 Jesus answered, "Moses gave you permission to divorce your wives because you are so hard to teach. But it was not like that at the time of creation. 9 I tell you, then, that any man who divorces his wife for any cause other than her unfaithfulness, commits adultery if he marries some other woman." 10 His disciples said to him, "If this is how it is between a man and his wife, it is better not to marry." 11 Jesus answered, "This teaching does not apply to everyone, but only to those to whom God has given it. 12 For there are different reasons why men cannot marry: some, because they were born that way; others, because men made them that way; and others do not marry for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. Let him who can accept this teaching do so."

xv-Mark 7:9 And Jesus continued, "You have a clever way of rejecting God's law in order to uphold your own teaching. 10 For Moses commanded, "Respect your father and your mother,' and, "If you curse your father or your mother, you are to be put to death.' 11 But you teach that if people have something they could use to help their father or mother, but say, "This is Corban' (which means, it belongs to God), 12 they are excused from helping their father or mother. 13 In this way the teaching you pass on to others cancels out the word of God. And there are many other things like this that you do."

xvi-Matthew 19:16 Once a man came to Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what good thing must I do to receive eternal life?" 17 "Why do you ask me concerning what is good?" answered Jesus. "There is only One who is good. Keep the commandments if you want to enter life." 18 "What commandments?" he asked. Jesus answered, "Do not commit murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not accuse anyone falsely; 19 respect your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as you love yourself." 20 "I have obeyed all these commandments," the young man replied. "What else do I need to do?" 21 Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me." 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he was very rich.

xvii-Deuteronomy 28:1 "If you obey the Lord your God and faithfully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, he will make you greater than any other nation on earth. 2 Obey the Lord your God and all these blessings will be yours: 3 "The Lord will bless your towns and your fields. 4 "The Lord will bless you with many children, with abundant crops, and with many cattle and sheep. 5 "The Lord will bless your grain crops and the food you prepare from them. 6 "The Lord will bless everything you do. 7 "The Lord will defeat your enemies when they attack you. They will attack from one direction, but they will run from you in all directions. 8 "The Lord your God will bless your work and fill your barns with grain. He will bless you in the land that he is giving you. 9 "If you obey the Lord your God and do everything he commands, he will make you his own people, as he has promised. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that the Lord has chosen you to be his own people, and they will be afraid of you. 11 The Lord will give you many children, many cattle, and abundant crops in the land that he promised your ancestors to give you. 12 He will send rain in season from his rich storehouse in the sky and bless all your work, so that you will lend to many nations, but you will not have to borrow from any. 13 The Lord your God will make you the leader among the nations and not a follower; you will always prosper and never fail if you obey faithfully all his commands that I am giving you today. 14 But you must never disobey them in any way, or worship and serve other gods. 15 "But if you disobey the Lord your God and do not faithfully keep all his commands and laws that I am giving you today, all these evil things will happen to you: 16 "The Lord will curse your towns and your fields. 17 "The Lord will curse your grain crops and the food you prepare from them. 18 "The Lord will curse you by giving you only a few children, poor crops, and few cattle and sheep. 19 "The Lord will curse everything you do. 20 "If you do evil and reject the Lord, he will bring on you disaster, confusion, and trouble in everything you do, until you are quickly and completely destroyed. 21 He will send disease after disease on you until there is not one of you left in the land that you are about to occupy. 22 The Lord will strike you with infectious diseases, with swelling and fever; he will send drought and scorching winds to destroy your crops. These disasters will be with you until you die. 23 No rain will fall, and your ground will become as hard as iron. 24 Instead of rain, the Lord will send down duststorms and sandstorms until you are destroyed. 25 "The Lord will give your enemies victory over you. You will attack them from one direction, but you will run from them in all directions, and all the people on earth will be terrified when they see what happens to you. 26 When you die, birds and wild animals will come and eat your bodies, and there will be no one to scare them off. 27 The Lord will send boils on you, as he did on the Egyptians. He will make your bodies break out with sores. You will be covered with scabs, and you will itch, but there will be no cure. 28 The Lord will make you lose your mind; he will strike you with blindness and confusion. 29 You will grope about in broad daylight like someone blind, and you will not be able to find your way. You will not prosper in anything you do. You will be constantly oppressed and robbed, and there will be no one to help you. 30 "You will be engaged to a young woman - but someone else will marry her. You will build a house - but never live in it. You will plant a vineyard - but never eat its grapes. 31 Your cattle will be butchered before your very eyes, but you will not eat any of the meat. Your donkeys will be dragged away while you look on, and they will not be given back to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and there will be no one to help you. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given as slaves to foreigners while you look on. Every day you will strain your eyes, looking in vain for your children to return. 33 A foreign nation will take all the crops that you have worked so hard to grow, while you receive nothing but constant oppression and harsh treatment. 34 Your sufferings will make you lose your mind. 35 The Lord will cover your legs with incurable, painful sores; boils will cover you from head to foot. 36 "The Lord will take you and your king away to a foreign land, where neither you nor your ancestors ever lived before; there you will serve gods made of wood and stone. 37 In the countries to which the Lord will scatter you, the people will be shocked at what has happened to you; they will make fun of you and ridicule you. 38 "You will plant plenty of seed, but reap only a small harvest, because the locusts will eat your crops. 39 You will plant vineyards and take care of them, but you will not gather their grapes or drink wine from them, because worms will eat the vines. 40 Olive trees will grow everywhere in your land, but you will not have any olive oil, because the olives will drop off. 41 You will have sons and daughters, but you will lose them, because they will be taken away as prisoners of war. 42 All your trees and crops will be devoured by insects. 43 "Foreigners who live in your land will gain more and more power, while you gradually lose yours. 44 They will have money to lend you, but you will have none to lend them. In the end they will be your rulers. 45 "All these disasters will come on you, and they will be with you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and keep all the laws that he gave you. 46 They will be the evidence of God's judgment on you and your descendants forever. 47 The Lord blessed you in every way, but you would not serve him with glad and joyful hearts. 48 So then, you will serve the enemies that the Lord is going to send against you. You will be hungry, thirsty, and naked - in need of everything. The Lord will oppress you harshly until you are destroyed. 49 The Lord will bring against you a nation from the ends of the earth, a nation whose language you do not know. They will swoop down on you like an eagle. 50 They will be ruthless and show no mercy to anyone, young or old. 51 They will eat your livestock and your crops, and you will starve to death. They will not leave you any grain, wine, olive oil, cattle, or sheep; and you will die. 52 They will attack every town in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and the high, fortified walls in which you trust will fall. 53 "When your enemies are besieging your towns, you will become so desperate for food that you will even eat the children that the Lord your God has given you. 54 Even the most refined man of noble birth will become so desperate during the siege that he will eat some of his own children because he has no other food. He will not even give any to his brother or to the wife he loves or to any of his children who are left. 56 Even the most refined woman of noble birth, so rich that she has never had to walk anywhere, will behave in the same way. When the enemy besieges her town, she will become so desperate for food that she will secretly eat her newborn child and the afterbirth as well. She will not share them with the husband she loves or with any of her children. 58 "If you do not obey faithfully all of God's teachings that are written in this book and if you do not honor the wonderful and awesome name of the Lord your God, 59 he will send on you and on your descendants incurable diseases and horrible epidemics that can never be stopped. 60 He will bring on you once again all the dreadful diseases you experienced in Egypt, and you will never recover. 61 He will also send all kinds of diseases and epidemics that are not mentioned in this book of God's laws and teachings, and you will be destroyed. 62 Although you become as numerous as the stars in the sky, only a few of you will survive, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63 Just as the Lord took delight in making you prosper and in making you increase in number, so he will take delight in destroying you and in bringing ruin on you. You will be uprooted from the land that you are about to occupy. 64 "The Lord will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve gods made of wood and stone, gods that neither you nor your ancestors have ever worshiped before. 65 You will find no peace anywhere, no place to call your own; the Lord will overwhelm you with anxiety, hopelessness, and despair. 66 Your life will always be in danger. Day and night you will be filled with terror, and you will live in constant fear of death. 67 Your hearts will pound with fear at everything you see. Every morning you will wish for evening; every evening you will wish for morning. 68 The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships, even though he said that you would never have to go there again. There you will try to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves, but no one will want to buy you."

xviii-Isaiah 42:21 The Lord is a God who is eager to save, so he exalted his laws and teachings, and he wanted his people to honor them.

xix-Malachi 3:6 "I am the Lord, and I do not change. And so you, the descendants of Jacob, are not yet completely lost.

Samuel 15:29 Israel's majestic God does not lie or change his mind. He is not a human being - he does not change his mind."

xx-1 Samuel 15:10 The Lord said to Samuel, 11 "I am sorry that I made Saul king; he has turned away from me and disobeyed my commands." Samuel was angry, and all night long he pleaded with the Lord. 35 As long as Samuel lived, he never again saw the king; but he grieved over him. The Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king of Israel.

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