In accordance with his own plan God had already decided that Jesus would be handed over to you; and you killed him by letting sinful men crucify him.

God announced long ago through all the prophets that his Messiah had to suffer; and he made it come true in this way.

For the people who live in Jerusalem and their leaders did not know that he is the Savior, nor did they understand the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. Yet they made the prophets' words come true by condemning Jesus.

And after they had done everything that the Scriptures say about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb.

You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good, in order to preserve the lives of many people who are alive today because of what happened.

Human anger only results in more praise for you; those who survive the wars will keep your festivals.

The Son of Man will die as the Scriptures say he will, but how terrible for that man who will betray the Son of Man! It would have been better for that man if he had never been born!"

But in that case, how could the Scriptures come true which say that this is what must happen?"

The Son of Man will die as God has decided, but how terrible for that man who betrays him!"

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."

and said to them, "This is what is written: the Messiah must suffer and must rise from death three days later,

This stone is of great value for you that believe; but for those who do not believe: "The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all."

And another scripture says, "This is the stone that will make people stumble, the rock that will make them fall." They stumbled because they did not believe in the word; such was God's will for them.

(SEE 12:12)

Human wisdom, brilliance, insight---they are of no help if the LORD is against you.

You say, "Let the LORD hurry up and do what he says he will, so that we can see it. Let Israel's holy God carry out his plans; let's see what he has in mind."

All this wisdom comes from the LORD Almighty. The plans God makes are wise, and they always succeed.

Can anyone tell the LORD what to do? Who can teach him or give him advice?

From the beginning I predicted the outcome; long ago I foretold what would happen. I said that my plans would never fail, that I would do everything I intended to do.

The LORD says, "It was my will that he should suffer; his death was a sacrifice to bring forgiveness. And so he will see his descendants; he will live a long life, and through him my purpose will succeed.

All things are done according to God's plan and decision; and God chose us to be his own people in union with Christ because of his own purpose, based on what he had decided from the very beginning.

To those who were to receive what he promised, God wanted to make it very clear that he would never change his purpose; so he added his vow to the promise.