Study Desk

They are stupid, unreliable, and don't have any love or pity for others.

Some of you accuse others of doing wrong. But there is no excuse for what you do. When you judge others, you condemn yourselves, because you are guilty of doing the very same things.

But you are stubborn and refuse to turn to God. So you are making things even worse for yourselves on that day when he will show how angry he is and will judge the world with fairness.

God will reward each of us for what we have done.

Those people who don't know about God's Law will still be punished for what they do wrong. And the Law will be used to judge everyone who knows what it says.

You are sure that you are a guide for the blind and a light for all who are in the dark.

If our evil deeds show how right God is, then what can we say? Is it wrong for God to become angry and punish us? What a foolish thing to ask.

Not one of them understands or even searches for God.

Their words are like an open pit, and their tongues are good only for telling lies. Each word is as deadly as the fangs of a snake,

We know that everything in the Law was written for those who are under its power. The Law says these things to stop anyone from making excuses and to let God show that the whole world is guilty.

What is left for us to brag about? Not a thing! Is it because we obeyed some law? No! It is because of faith.

Are these blessings meant for circumcised people or for those who are not circumcised? Well, the Scriptures say that God accepted Abraham because Abraham had faith in him.

Everything depends on having faith in God, so that God's promise is assured by his great kindness. This promise isn't only for Abraham's descendants who have the Law. It is for all who are Abraham's descendants because they have faith, just as he did. Abraham is the ancestor of us all.

just as we read in the Scriptures. But these words were not written only for Abraham.

They were written for us, since we will also be accepted because of our faith in God, who raised our Lord Jesus to life.

God gave Jesus to die for our sins, and he raised him to life, so that we would be made acceptable to God.

Christ died for us at a time when we were helpless and sinful.

No one is really willing to die for an honest person, though someone might be willing to die for a truly good person.

But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful.

Even when we were God's enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son's life.