Peter and John before the Council

¹Peter and John were still speaking to the people when some priests, the officer in charge of the Temple guards, and some Sadducees arrived.

²They were annoyed because the two apostles were teaching the people that Jesus had risen from death, which proved that the dead will rise to life.

³So they arrested them and put them in jail until the next day, since it was already late.

⁴But many who heard the message believed; and the number grew to about five thousand.

⁵The next day the Jewish leaders, the elders, and the teachers of the Law gathered in Jerusalem.

⁶They met with the High Priest Annas and with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and the others who belonged to the High Priest's family.

⁷They made the apostles stand before them and asked them, “How did you do this? What power do you have or whose name did you use?”

⁸Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, answered them, “Leaders of the people and elders:

⁹if we are being questioned today about the good deed done to the lame man and how he was healed,

¹⁰then you should all know, and all the people of Israel should know, that this man stands here before you completely well through the power of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth—whom you crucified and whom God raised from death.

¹¹Jesus is the one of whom the scripture says, ‘The stone that you the builders despised turned out to be the most important of all.’

¹²Salvation is to be found through him alone; in all the world there is no one else whom God has given who can save us.”

¹³The members of the Council were amazed to see how bold Peter and John were and to learn that they were ordinary men of no education. They realized then that they had been companions of Jesus.

¹⁴But there was nothing that they could say, because they saw the man who had been healed standing there with Peter and John.

¹⁵So they told them to leave the Council room, and then they started discussing among themselves.

¹⁶“What shall we do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone in Jerusalem knows that this extraordinary miracle has been performed by them, and we cannot deny it.

¹⁷But to keep this matter from spreading any further among the people, let us warn these men never again to speak to anyone in the name of Jesus.”

¹⁸So they called them back in and told them that under no condition were they to speak or to teach in the name of Jesus.

¹⁹But Peter and John answered them, “You yourselves judge which is right in God's sight—to obey you or to obey God.

²⁰For we cannot stop speaking of what we ourselves have seen and heard.”

²¹So the Council warned them even more strongly and then set them free. They saw that it was impossible to punish them, because the people were all praising God for what had happened.

²²The man on whom this miracle of healing had been performed was over forty years old.

The Believers Pray for Boldness

²³As soon as Peter and John were set free, they returned to their group and told them what the chief priests and the elders had said.

²⁴When the believers heard it, they all joined together in prayer to God: “Master and Creator of heaven, earth, and sea, and all that is in them!

²⁵By means of the Holy Spirit you spoke through our ancestor David, your servant, when he said, ‘Why were the Gentiles furious; why did people make their useless plots?

²⁶The kings of the earth prepared themselves, and the rulers met together against the Lord and his Messiah.’

²⁷For indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together in this city with the Gentiles and the people of Israel against Jesus, your holy Servant, whom you made Messiah.

²⁸They gathered to do everything that you by your power and will had already decided would happen.

²⁹And now, Lord, take notice of the threats they have made, and allow us, your servants, to speak your message with all boldness.

³⁰Reach out your hand to heal, and grant that wonders and miracles may be performed through the name of your holy Servant Jesus.”

³¹When they finished praying, the place where they were meeting was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to proclaim God's message with boldness.

The Believers Share Their Possessions

³²The group of believers was one in mind and heart. None of them said that any of their belongings were their own, but they all shared with one another everything they had.

³³With great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God poured rich blessings on them all.

³⁴There was no one in the group who was in need. Those who owned fields or houses would sell them, bring the money received from the sale,

³⁵and turn it over to the apostles; and the money was distributed according to the needs of the people.

³⁶And so it was that Joseph, a Levite born in Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “One who Encourages”),

³⁷sold a field he owned, brought the money, and turned it over to the apostles.

Dead to Sin but Alive in Union with Christ

¹What shall we say, then? Should we continue to live in sin so that God's grace will increase?

²Certainly not! We have died to sin—how then can we go on living in it?

³For surely you know that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, we were baptized into union with his death.

⁴By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life.

⁵For since we have become one with him in dying as he did, in the same way we shall be one with him by being raised to life as he was.

⁶And we know that our old being has been put to death with Christ on his cross, in order that the power of the sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin.

⁷For when we die, we are set free from the power of sin.

⁸Since we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

⁹For we know that Christ has been raised from death and will never die again—death will no longer rule over him.

¹⁰And so, because he died, sin has no power over him; and now he lives his life in fellowship with God.

¹¹In the same way you are to think of yourselves as dead, so far as sin is concerned, but living in fellowship with God through Christ Jesus.

¹²Sin must no longer rule in your mortal bodies, so that you obey the desires of your natural self.

¹³Nor must you surrender any part of yourselves to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes.

¹⁴Sin must not be your master; for you do not live under law but under God's grace.

Slaves of Righteousness

¹⁵What, then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law but under God's grace? By no means!

¹⁶Surely you know that when you surrender yourselves as slaves to obey someone, you are in fact the slaves of the master you obey—either of sin, which results in death, or of obedience, which results in being put right with God.

¹⁷But thanks be to God! For though at one time you were slaves to sin, you have obeyed with all your heart the truths found in the teaching you received.

¹⁸You were set free from sin and became the slaves of righteousness.

¹⁹(I use everyday language because of the weakness of your natural selves.) At one time you surrendered yourselves entirely as slaves to impurity and wickedness for wicked purposes. In the same way you must now surrender yourselves entirely as slaves of righteousness for holy purposes.

²⁰When you were the slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.

²¹What did you gain from doing the things that you are now ashamed of? The result of those things is death!

²²But now you have been set free from sin and are the slaves of God. Your gain is a life fully dedicated to him, and the result is eternal life.

²³For sin pays its wage—death; but God's free gift is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

An Illustration from Marriage

¹Certainly you will understand what I am about to say, my friends, because all of you know about law. The law rules over people only as long as they live.

²A married woman, for example, is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if he dies, then she is free from the law that bound her to him.

³So then, if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is legally a free woman and does not commit adultery if she marries another man.

⁴That is how it is with you, my friends. As far as the Law is concerned, you also have died because you are part of the body of Christ; and now you belong to him who was raised from death in order that we might be useful in the service of God.

⁵For when we lived according to our human nature, the sinful desires stirred up by the Law were at work in our bodies, and all we did ended in death.

⁶Now, however, we are free from the Law, because we died to that which once held us prisoners. No longer do we serve in the old way of a written law, but in the new way of the Spirit.

Law and Sin

⁷Shall we say, then, that the Law itself is sinful? Of course not! But it was the Law that made me know what sin is. If the Law had not said, “Do not desire what belongs to someone else,” I would not have known such a desire.

⁸But by means of that commandment sin found its chance to stir up all kinds of selfish desires in me. Apart from law, sin is a dead thing.

⁹I myself was once alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life,

¹⁰and I died. And the commandment which was meant to bring life, in my case brought death.

¹¹Sin found its chance, and by means of the commandment it deceived me and killed me.

¹²So then, the Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good.

¹³But does this mean that what is good caused my death? By no means! It was sin that did it; by using what is good, sin brought death to me, in order that its true nature as sin might be revealed. And so, by means of the commandment sin is shown to be even more terribly sinful.

The Conflict in Us

¹⁴We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a mortal, sold as a slave to sin.

¹⁵I do not understand what I do; for I don't do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate.

¹⁶Since what I do is what I don't want to do, this shows that I agree that the Law is right.

¹⁷So I am not really the one who does this thing; rather it is the sin that lives in me.

¹⁸I know that good does not live in me—that is, in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it.

¹⁹I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do.

²⁰If I do what I don't want to do, this means that I am no longer the one who does it; instead, it is the sin that lives in me.

²¹So I find that this law is at work: when I want to do what is good, what is evil is the only choice I have.

²²My inner being delights in the law of God.

²³But I see a different law at work in my body—a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body.

²⁴What an unhappy man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death?

²⁵Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ! This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin.

⁴Anger is cruel and destructive, but it is nothing compared to jealousy.

⁵Better to correct someone openly than to let him think you don't care for him at all.

⁶Friends mean well, even when they hurt you. But when an enemy puts his arm around your shoulder—watch out!