The Coming of the Holy Spirit

¹When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place.

²Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

³Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there.

⁴They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

⁵There were Jews living in Jerusalem, religious people who had come from every country in the world.

⁶When they heard this noise, a large crowd gathered. They were all excited, because all of them heard the believers talking in their own languages.

⁷In amazement and wonder they exclaimed, “These people who are talking like this are Galileans!

⁸How is it, then, that all of us hear them speaking in our own native languages?

⁹We are from Parthia, Media, and Elam; from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia; from Pontus and Asia,

¹⁰from Phrygia and Pamphylia, from Egypt and the regions of Libya near Cyrene. Some of us are from Rome,

¹¹both Jews and Gentiles converted to Judaism, and some of us are from Crete and Arabia—yet all of us hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things that God has done!”

¹²Amazed and confused, they kept asking each other, “What does this mean?”

¹³But others made fun of the believers, saying, “These people are drunk!”

Peter's Message

¹⁴Then Peter stood up with the other eleven apostles and in a loud voice began to speak to the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen to me and let me tell you what this means.

¹⁵These people are not drunk, as you suppose; it is only nine o'clock in the morning.

¹⁶Instead, this is what the prophet Joel spoke about:

¹⁷‘This is what I will do in the last days, God says: I will pour out my Spirit on everyone. Your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your young men will see visions, and your old men will have dreams.

¹⁸Yes, even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will proclaim my message.

¹⁹I will perform miracles in the sky above and wonders on the earth below. There will be blood, fire, and thick smoke;

²⁰the sun will be darkened, and the moon will turn red as blood, before the great and glorious Day of the Lord comes.

²¹And then, whoever calls out to the Lord for help will be saved.’

²²“Listen to these words, fellow Israelites! Jesus of Nazareth was a man whose divine authority was clearly proven to you by all the miracles and wonders which God performed through him. You yourselves know this, for it happened here among you.

²³In 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.

²⁴But God raised him from death, setting him free from its power, because it was impossible that death should hold him prisoner.

²⁵For David said about him, ‘I saw the Lord before me at all times; he is near me, and I will not be troubled.

²⁶And so I am filled with gladness, and my words are full of joy. And I, mortal though I am, will rest assured in hope,

²⁷because you will not abandon me in the world of the dead; you will not allow your faithful servant to rot in the grave.

²⁸You have shown me the paths that lead to life, and your presence will fill me with joy.’

²⁹“My friends, I must speak to you plainly about our famous ancestor King David. He died and was buried, and his grave is here with us to this very day.

³⁰He was a prophet, and he knew what God had promised him: God had made a vow that he would make one of David's descendants a king, just as David was.

³¹David saw what God was going to do in the future, and so he spoke about the resurrection of the Messiah when he said, ‘He was not abandoned in the world of the dead; his body did not rot in the grave.’

³²God has raised this very Jesus from death, and we are all witnesses to this fact.

³³He 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.

³⁴For it was not David who went up into heaven; rather he said, ‘The Lord said to my Lord: Sit here at my right side

³⁵until I put your enemies as a footstool under your feet.’

³⁶“All the people of Israel, then, are to know for sure that this Jesus, whom you crucified, is the one that God has made Lord and Messiah!”

³⁷When the people heard this, they were deeply troubled and said to Peter and the other apostles, “What shall we do, brothers?”

³⁸Peter 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.

³⁹For 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.”

⁴⁰Peter made his appeal to them and with many other words he urged them, saying, “Save yourselves from the punishment coming on this wicked people!”

⁴¹Many of them believed his message and were baptized, and about three thousand people were added to the group that day.

⁴²They spent their time in learning from the apostles, taking part in the fellowship, and sharing in the fellowship meals and the prayers.

Life among the Believers

⁴³Many miracles and wonders were being done through the apostles, and everyone was filled with awe.

⁴⁴All the believers continued together in close fellowship and shared their belongings with one another.

⁴⁵They would sell their property and possessions, and distribute the money among all, according to what each one needed.

⁴⁶Day after day they met as a group in the Temple, and they had their meals together in their homes, eating with glad and humble hearts,

⁴⁷praising God, and enjoying the good will of all the people. And every day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.

God's Judgment

¹Do you, my friend, pass judgment on others? You have no excuse at all, whoever you are. For when you judge others and then do the same things which they do, you condemn yourself.

²We know that God is right when he judges the people who do such things as these.

³But you, my friend, do those very things for which you pass judgment on others! Do you think you will escape God's judgment?

⁴Or perhaps you despise his great kindness, tolerance, and patience. Surely you know that God is kind, because he is trying to lead you to repent.

⁵But you have a hard and stubborn heart, and so you are making your own punishment even greater on the Day when God's anger and righteous judgments will be revealed.

⁶For God will reward each of us according to what we have done.

⁷Some people keep on doing good, and seek glory, honor, and immortal life; to them God will give eternal life.

⁸Other people are selfish and reject what is right, in order to follow what is wrong; on them God will pour out his anger and fury.

⁹There will be suffering and pain for all those who do what is evil, for the Jews first and also for the Gentiles.

¹⁰But God will give glory, honor, and peace to all who do what is good, to the Jews first and also to the Gentiles.

¹¹For God judges everyone by the same standard.

¹²The Gentiles do not have the Law of Moses; they sin and are lost apart from the Law. The Jews have the Law; they sin and are judged by the Law.

¹³For it is not by hearing the Law that people are put right with God, but by doing what the Law commands.

¹⁴The Gentiles do not have the Law; but whenever they do by instinct what the Law commands, they are their own law, even though they do not have the Law.

¹⁵Their conduct shows that what the Law commands is written in their hearts. Their consciences also show that this is true, since their thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them.

¹⁶And so, according to the Good News I preach, this is how it will be on that Day when God through Jesus Christ will judge the secret thoughts of all.

The Jews and the Law

¹⁷What about you? You call yourself a Jew; you depend on the Law and boast about God;

¹⁸you know what God wants you to do, and you have learned from the Law to choose what is right;

¹⁹you are sure that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in darkness,

²⁰an instructor for the foolish, and a teacher for the ignorant. You are certain that in the Law you have the full content of knowledge and of truth.

²¹You teach others—why don't you teach yourself? You preach, “Do not steal”—but do you yourself steal?

²²You say, “Do not commit adultery”—but do you commit adultery? You detest idols—but do you rob temples?

²³You boast about having God's law—but do you bring shame on God by breaking his law?

²⁴The scripture says, “Because of you Jews, the Gentiles speak evil of God.”

²⁵If you obey the Law, your circumcision is of value; but if you disobey the Law, you might as well never have been circumcised.

²⁶If the Gentile, who is not circumcised, obeys the commands of the Law, will not God regard him as though he were circumcised?

²⁷And so you Jews will be condemned by the Gentiles because you break the Law, even though you have it written down and are circumcised; but they obey the Law, even though they are not physically circumcised.

²⁸After all, who is a real Jew, truly circumcised? It is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, whose circumcision is a physical thing.

²⁹Rather, the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God's Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives praise from God, not from human beings.

¹Do the Jews then have any advantage over the Gentiles? Or is there any value in being circumcised?

²Much, indeed, in every way! In the first place, God trusted his message to the Jews.

³But what if some of them were not faithful? Does this mean that God will not be faithful?

⁴Certainly not! God must be true, even though all human beings are liars. As the scripture says, “You must be shown to be right when you speak; you must win your case when you are being tried.”

⁵But what if our doing wrong serves to show up more clearly God's doing right? Can we say that God does wrong when he punishes us? (This would be the natural question to ask.)

⁶By no means! If God is not just, how can he judge the world?

⁷But what if my untruth serves God's glory by making his truth stand out more clearly? Why should I still be condemned as a sinner?

⁸Why not say, then, “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Some people, indeed, have insulted me by accusing me of saying this very thing! They will be condemned, as they should be.

No One Is Righteous

⁹Well then, are we Jews in any better condition than the Gentiles? Not at all! I have already shown that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.

¹⁰As the Scriptures say: “There is no one who is righteous,

¹¹no one who is wise or who worships God.

¹²All have turned away from God; they have all gone wrong; no one does what is right, not even one.

¹³Their words are full of deadly deceit; wicked lies roll off their tongues, and dangerous threats, like snake's poison, from their lips;

¹⁴their speech is filled with bitter curses.

¹⁵They are quick to hurt and kill;

¹⁶they leave ruin and destruction wherever they go.

¹⁷They have not known the path of peace,

¹⁸nor have they learned reverence for God.”

¹⁹Now we know that everything in the Law applies to those who live under the Law, in order to stop all human excuses and bring the whole world under God's judgment.

²⁰For no one is put right in God's sight by doing what the Law requires; what the Law does is to make us know that we have sinned.

How We Are Put Right with God

²¹But now God's way of putting people right with himself has been revealed. It has nothing to do with law, even though the Law of Moses and the prophets gave their witness to it.

²²God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all:

²³everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence.

²⁴But by the free gift of God's grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free.

^25-26God 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.

²⁷What, then, can we boast about? Nothing! And what is the reason for this? Is it that we obey the Law? No, but that we believe.

²⁸For we conclude that a person is put right with God only through faith, and not by doing what the Law commands.

²⁹Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Of course he is.

³⁰God is one, and he will put the Jews right with himself on the basis of their faith, and will put the Gentiles right through their faith.

³¹Does this mean that by this faith we do away with the Law? No, not at all; instead, we uphold the Law.

²⁷People who set traps for others get caught themselves. People who start landslides get crushed.

²⁸You have to hate someone to want to hurt him with lies. Insincere talk brings nothing but ruin.