So now, listen to what the LORD Almighty, Israel's powerful God, is saying: "I will take revenge on you, my enemies, and you will cause me no more trouble.

I will give you rulers and advisers like those you had long ago. Then Jerusalem will be called the righteous, faithful city."

"Listen to me, you stubborn people who think that victory is far away.

I am bringing the day of victory near--- it is not far away at all. My triumph will not be delayed. I will save Jerusalem and bring honor to Israel there."

I will go in the strength of the LORD God; I will proclaim your goodness, yours alone.

Your righteousness, God, reaches the skies. You have done great things; there is no one like you.

Surely he is ready to save those who honor him, and his saving presence will remain in our land.

Human loyalty will reach up from the earth, and God's righteousness will look down from heaven.

"Seven times seventy years is the length of time God has set for freeing your people and your holy city from sin and evil. Sin will be forgiven and eternal justice established, so that the vision and the prophecy will come true, and the holy Temple will be rededicated.

And at the end of that time God's chosen leader will be killed unjustly. The city and the Temple will be destroyed by the invading army of a powerful ruler. The end will come like a flood, bringing the war and destruction which God has prepared.

Then a voice said from heaven, "This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased."

"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.

While he was talking, a shining cloud came over them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased---listen to him!"

And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him."

If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.

God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people's sins are forgiven through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate that he is righteous. In the past he was patient and overlooked people's sins; but in the present time he deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that he himself is righteous and that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.

(SEE 3:25)

Our message is that God was making all human beings his friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends.

Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God.

and be completely united with him. I no longer have a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the Law. I now have the righteousness that is given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith.

How I love to do your will, my God! I keep your teaching in my heart."

But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so for now. For in this way we shall do all that God requires." So John agreed.

"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.

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.

Does this mean that by this faith we do away with the Law? No, not at all; instead, we uphold the Law.

So then, the Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good.

What the Law could not do, because human nature was weak, God did. He condemned sin in human nature by sending his own Son, who came with a nature like our sinful nature, to do away with sin.

God did this so that the righteous demands of the Law might be fully satisfied in us who live according to the Spirit, and not according to human nature.

For Christ has brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God.

But by becoming a curse for us Christ has redeemed us from the curse that the Law brings; for the scripture says, "Anyone who is hanged on a tree is under God's curse."

Does this mean that the Law is against God's promises? No, not at all! For if human beings had received a law that could bring life, then everyone could be put right with God by obeying it.

But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these.

Now, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel in the days to come, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Whoever sins is guilty of breaking God's law, because sin is a breaking of the law.

You know that Christ appeared in order to take away sins, and that there is no sin in him.

After Judas had left, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man's glory is revealed; now God's glory is revealed through him.

And if God's glory is revealed through him, then God will reveal the glory of the Son of Man in himself, and he will do so at once.

I have shown your glory on earth; I have finished the work you gave me to do.

Father! Give me glory in your presence now, the same glory I had with you before the world was made.