Consider the experience of Abraham; as the scripture says, "He believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous."

The scripture predicted that God would put the Gentiles right with himself through faith. And so the scripture announced the Good News to Abraham: "Through you God will bless all people."

I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, But I will curse those who curse you. And through you I will bless all the nations."

"But you, Israel my servant, you are the people that I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham, my friend.

Think of your ancestor, Abraham, and of Sarah, from whom you are descended. When I called Abraham, he was childless, but I blessed him and gave him children; I made his descendants numerous.

"I will show compassion to Jerusalem, to all who live in her ruins. Though her land is a desert, I will make it a garden, like the garden I planted in Eden. Joy and gladness will be there, and songs of praise and thanks to me.

The scripture says, "Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous."

But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself.

"Happy are those whose wrongs are forgiven, whose sins are pardoned!

Does this happiness that David spoke of belong only to those who are circumcised? No indeed! It belongs also to those who are not circumcised. For we have quoted the scripture, "Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous."

He was circumcised later, and his circumcision was a sign to show that because of his faith God had accepted him as righteous before he had been circumcised. And so Abraham is the spiritual father of all who believe in God and are accepted as righteous by him, even though they are not circumcised.

When God promised Abraham and his descendants that the world would belong to him, he did so, not because Abraham obeyed the Law, but because he believed and was accepted as righteous by God.

The Law brings down God's anger; but where there is no law, there is no disobeying of the law.

as the scripture says, "I have made you father of many nations." So the promise is good in the sight of God, in whom Abraham believed---the God who brings the dead to life and whose command brings into being what did not exist.

Now, God made his promises to Abraham and to his descendant. The scripture does not use the plural "descendants," meaning many people, but the singular "descendant," meaning one person only, namely, Christ.

All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants---all because you obeyed my command."

The LORD said to me, "I have a greater task for you, my servant. Not only will you restore to greatness the people of Israel who have survived, but I will also make you a light to the nations--- so that all the world may be saved."

The LORD will use his holy power; he will save his people, and all the world will see it.

but the angel said to them, "Don't be afraid! I am here with good news for you, which will bring great joy to all the people.

This very day in David's town your Savior was born---Christ the Lord!

For God's promise was made to you and your children, and to all who are far away---all whom the Lord our God calls to himself."

The promises of God through his prophets are for you, and you share in the covenant which God made with your ancestors. As he said to Abraham, 'Through your descendants I will bless all the people on earth.'

And so God chose his Servant and sent him to you first, to bless you by making every one of you turn away from your wicked ways."

Salvation is to be found through him alone; in all the world there is no one else whom God has given who can save us."

If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved.

The scripture says, "Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed."

As the scripture says, "Everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved."

And how can the message be proclaimed if the messengers are not sent out? As the scripture says, "How wonderful is the coming of messengers who bring good news!"

who wants everyone to be saved and to come to know the truth.

who gave himself to redeem the whole human race. That was the proof at the right time that God wants everyone to be saved,

Tell me this one thing: did you receive God's Spirit by doing what the Law requires or by hearing the gospel and believing it?

Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because you do what the Law requires or because you hear the gospel and believe it?

To show that you are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who cries out, "Father, my Father."

But once more God will send us his spirit. The wasteland will become fertile, and fields will produce rich crops.

"I will give water to the thirsty land and make streams flow on the dry ground. I will pour out my spirit on your children and my blessing on your descendants.

They will thrive like well-watered grass, like willows by streams of running water.

From east to west everyone will fear him and his great power. He will come like a rushing river, like a strong wind.

And I make a covenant with you: I have given you my power and my teachings to be yours forever, and from now on you are to obey me and teach your children and your descendants to obey me for all time to come."

The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

I will make an eternal covenant with them. I will never stop doing good things for them, and I will make them fear me with all their heart, so that they will never turn away from me.

I will give them a new heart and a new mind. I will take away their stubborn heart of stone and will give them an obedient heart.

I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart.

I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you.

I will pour out my spirit on the people of Israel and never again turn away from them. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken."

"Afterward I will pour out my Spirit on everyone: your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your old people will have dreams, and your young people will see visions.

At that time I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, both men and women.

"I will fill the descendants of David and the other people of Jerusalem with the spirit of mercy and the spirit of prayer. They will look at the one whom they stabbed to death, and they will mourn for him like those who mourn for an only child. They will mourn bitterly, like those who have lost their first-born son.

As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

And I myself will send upon you what my Father has promised. But you must wait in the city until the power from above comes down upon you."

Jesus said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were going to receive. At that time the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not been raised to glory.

And when they came together, he gave them this order: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift I told you about, the gift my Father promised.

John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

He has been raised to the right side of God, his Father, and has received from him the Holy Spirit, as he had promised. What you now see and hear is his gift that he has poured out on us.

Peter said to them, "Each one of you must turn away from your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins will be forgiven; and you will receive God's gift, the Holy Spirit.

We are witnesses to these things---we and the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to those who obey him."

The Jewish believers who had come from Joppa with Peter were amazed that God had poured out his gift of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles also.

"These people have received the Holy Spirit, just as we also did. Can anyone, then, stop them from being baptized with water?"

And when I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came down on them just as on us at the beginning.

Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'

But you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to---if, in fact, God's Spirit lives in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

If the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from death, lives in you, then he who raised Christ from death will also give life to your mortal bodies by the presence of his Spirit in you.

For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live.

For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, "Father! my Father!"

And God, who sees into our hearts, knows what the thought of the Spirit is; because the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of his people and in accordance with his will.

In the same way, all of us, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether slaves or free, have been baptized into the one body by the same Spirit, and we have all been given the one Spirit to drink.

who has placed his mark of ownership upon us, and who has given us the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.

And you also became God's people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation. You believed in Christ, and God put his stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit he had promised.

The Spirit is the guarantee that we shall receive what God has promised his people, and this assures us that God will give complete freedom to those who are his. Let us praise his glory!

It is through Christ that all of us, Jews and Gentiles, are able to come in the one Spirit into the presence of the Father.

In union with him you too are being built together with all the others into a place where God lives through his Spirit.

I ask God from the wealth of his glory to give you power through his Spirit to be strong in your inner selves,

And do not make God's Holy Spirit sad; for the Spirit is God's mark of ownership on you, a guarantee that the Day will come when God will set you free.

Now that by your obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves and have come to have a sincere love for other believers, love one another earnestly with all your heart.

These are the people who cause divisions, who are controlled by their natural desires, who do not have the Spirit.

But you, my friends, keep on building yourselves up on your most sacred faith. Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit,