82 Bible Verses about law

for they show that the deeds the law demands are written on their hearts, because their consciences will testify for them, and their inner thoughts will either accuse or defend them,

'For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel in those days,' says the Lord; 'I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. And nevermore will each one need to teach his fellow-citizen,

for you are always showing that you are a letter of Christ, produced by my service, written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.

Now sin gives death its sting, and the law gives sin its power.

Because no human creature can be brought into right standing with God by observing the law. For all the law can do is to make men conscious of sin.

Besides, their minds were made dull; for to this day that same veil remains unlifted, whenever they read the Old Covenant; because it is only through union with Christ that it is removed. Indeed, to this very day, whenever Moses is read, a veil hangs over their hearts, but whenever anybody turns to the Lord, the veil is removed,

For Christ has put an end to law as a way to right standing for everyone who puts his trust in Him.

So then there is no condemnation at all for those who are in union with Christ Jesus. For the life-giving power of the Spirit through union with Christ Jesus has set us free from the power of sin and death. For though the law could not do it, because it was made helpless through our lower nature, yet God, by sending His own Son in a body similar to that of our lower nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, passed sentence upon sin through His body, read more.
so that the requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live by the standard set by our lower nature, but by the standard set by the Spirit.

Do you not know, brothers -- for I speak to those who are acquainted with the law -- that the law can press its claim over a man only so long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is freed from the marriage bond. So if she marries another man while her husband is living, she is called an adulteress, but if he dies, she is free from that marriage bond, so that she will not be an adulteress though later married to another man. read more.
So, my brothers, you too in the body of Christ have ended your relation to the law, so that you may be married to another husband, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were living in accordance with our lower nature, the sinful passions that were aroused by the law were operating in the parts of our bodies to make us bear fruit that leads to death. But now we have been freed from our relation to the law; we have ended our relation to that by which we once were held in bonds, so that we may serve in a new spiritual way and not in the old literalistic way. What are we then to conclude? Is the law sin? Of course not! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have learned what sin was, for I should not have known what an evil desire was, if the law had not said, "You must not have an evil desire." Sin found its rallying point in that command and stirred within me every sort of evil desire, for without law, sin is lifeless. I was once alive when I had no connection with the law, but when the command came, sin revived, and then I died; and so, in my case, the command which should have meant life turned out to mean death. For sin found its rallying point in that command and through it deceived me and killed me. So the law itself is holy, and its specific commands are holy, right, and good. Did that which is good, then, result in death to me? Of course not! It was sin that did it, so that it might show itself as sin, for by means of that good thing it brought about my death, so that through the command sin might appear surpassingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made of flesh that is frail, sold into slavery to sin. Indeed, I do not understand what I do, for I do not practice what I want to do, but I am always doing what I hate. But if I am always doing what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is right. Now really it is not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me. For I know that nothing good has its home in me; that is, in my lower self; I have the will but not the power to do what is right. Indeed, I do not do the good things that I want to do, but I do practice the evil things that I do not want to do. But if I do the things that I do not want to do, it is really not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me. So I find this law: When I want to do right, the wrong is always in my way. For in accordance with my better inner nature I approve God's law, but I see another power operating in my lower nature in conflict with the power operated by my reason, which makes me a prisoner to the power of sin which is operating in my lower nature. Wretched man that I am! Who can save me from this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my higher nature I am a slave to the law of God, but in my lower nature, to the law of sin.

because we know that a man does not come into right standing with God by doing what the law commands, but by simple trust in Christ, we too have trusted in Christ Jesus, in order to come into right standing with God by simple trust in Christ and not by doing what the law commands, because by doing what the law commands no man can come into right standing with God. Now if, in our efforts to come into right standing with God through union with Christ, we have proved ourselves to be sinners like the heathen themselves, does that make Christ a party to our sin? Of course not. For if I try to build again what I tore down, I really prove myself to be a wrongdoer. read more.
For through the law I myself have become dead to the law, so that I may live for God. I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live, but Christ is living in me; the life I now live as a mortal man I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I never can nullify the unmerited favor of God. For if right standing with God could come through law, then Christ died for nothing.

But if you really observe the law of the King in accordance with the Scripture, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself," you are doing right;

Then you must practice dealing with others as you would like for them to deal with you, for this is the summing up of the law and the prophets.

Just then an expert in the law got up to test Him by asking, "Teacher, what shall I do to get possession of eternal life?" And He answered him, "What is written in the law? How does it read?" Then he answered, "You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole strength, and your whole mind, and your neighbor as you do yourself." read more.
He said to him, "You have answered correctly. Continue to do this, and you will live."

Stop owing anybody anything, except the obligation to love one another, for whoever practices loving others has perfectly satisfied the law. For the commandments, "You must not commit adultery; you must not murder; you must not steal; you must not have an evil desire," and any other commandment if there is any, are summed up in this command, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself." Love never does a wrong to one's neighbor; so love is the perfect satisfaction of the law.

For the whole law is summed up in one saying, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself."

through His human nature He has put a stop to the hostility between us, namely, the law with its commands and decrees, in order to create one new humanity out of the two parties and so make peace through union with Himself, and in one body

canceled the note that stood against us, with its requirements, and has put it out of our way by nailing it to the cross.

Indeed, the rescinding of a previous regulation takes place, because it was weak and ineffective --

In speaking of a new covenant He makes the first one obsolete; and whatever is obsolete and antiquated is on the verge of vanishing.

For since the law cast only a shadow of the blessings to come and did not possess the reality itself of those blessings, the priests with the same sacrifices that are perpetually offered year after year cannot make perfect those who come to worship.

Then what about the law? It was added later on to increase transgressions, until the descendant to whom the promise was made should come, enacted through the agency of angels in the person of an intermediary.

that is, if he understands that law is not enacted for upright people but for the lawless and disorderly, the godless and sinful, the ignorant and profane, people who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers,

So the law has been our attendant to lead us to Christ, so that we might through faith obtain right standing with God.

Because no human creature can be brought into right standing with God by observing the law. For all the law can do is to make men conscious of sin.

Then law crept in to multiply the offense. Though sin has multiplied, yet God's favor has surpassed it and overflowed,

for the law had never made anything perfect -- and so a better hope is brought to us, through which we have approach to God.

So then there is no condemnation at all for those who are in union with Christ Jesus. For the life-giving power of the Spirit through union with Christ Jesus has set us free from the power of sin and death. For though the law could not do it, because it was made helpless through our lower nature, yet God, by sending His own Son in a body similar to that of our lower nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, passed sentence upon sin through His body, read more.
so that the requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live by the standard set by our lower nature, but by the standard set by the Spirit.

because we know that a man does not come into right standing with God by doing what the law commands, but by simple trust in Christ, we too have trusted in Christ Jesus, in order to come into right standing with God by simple trust in Christ and not by doing what the law commands, because by doing what the law commands no man can come into right standing with God.

Because no human creature can be brought into right standing with God by observing the law. For all the law can do is to make men conscious of sin.

that God has fulfilled it to us their children, by raising Jesus to life, just as the Scripture says in the Second Psalm, 'You are my Son, today I have become your Father.' Now as a proof that He has raised Him from the dead, no more to return to decay, He has spoken this, 'I will fulfill to you the holy promises made to David.' Because in another psalm he says, 'You will not let your Holy One experience decay.' read more.
For David, after having served God's purpose in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid among his forefathers, and so he did experience decay, but He whom God raised to life did not experience it. So, my brothers, you must understand that through Him the forgiveness of your sins is now proclaimed to you, and that through union with Him every one of you who believes is given right standing with God and freed from every charge from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

for the law had never made anything perfect -- and so a better hope is brought to us, through which we have approach to God.

For though the law could not do it, because it was made helpless through our lower nature, yet God, by sending His own Son in a body similar to that of our lower nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, passed sentence upon sin through His body,

through His human nature He has put a stop to the hostility between us, namely, the law with its commands and decrees, in order to create one new humanity out of the two parties and so make peace through union with Himself, and in one body

For through the law I myself have become dead to the law, so that I may live for God.

Now we know that everything the law says is spoken to those who are under its authority, that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be held responsible to God.

At Iconium too they went to the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks came to believe.

but they went on from Perga and arrived at Antioch in Pisidia. On the sabbath they went to the synagogue and took seats. After the reading of the law and the prophets, the leaders of the synagogue worship sent to them and said, "Brothers, if you have any message of encouragement for the people, you may speak." Then Paul got up and motioned with his hand and said: "Fellow Israelites, and you who reverence God, listen! read more.
The God of this people Israel chose our forefathers, and made this people important during their stay in Egypt, and then with an uplifted arm He led them out of it. Then after He had fed them forty years in the desert, He destroyed seven nations in Canaan and gave them their land as an inheritance for about four hundred and fifty years. And after that He gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. Then they demanded a king, and for forty years God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin. Then He deposed him and raised up for them David to be king, to whom He bore this testimony, 'I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all that my will requires.' It is from this man's descendants that God, as He promised, has brought to Israel a Saviour in the person of Jesus, as John, before His coming, had already preached baptism as an expression of repentance, for all the people of Israel. As John was closing his career, he said, 'What do you take me to be? I am not the Christ; no, but He is coming after me, and I am not fit to untie the shoes on His feet.' Brothers, descendants of the race of Abraham, and all among you who reverence God, it is to us that the message of this salvation has been sent. For the people of Jerusalem and their leaders, because they were ignorant of Him, by condemning Him have actually fulfilled the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, and although they could not find Him guilty of a capital offense, they begged Pilate to have Him put to death. When they had carried out everything that had been written in the Scriptures about Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead, and for many days He appeared to those who had come up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now witnesses for Him to the people. So now we are bringing you the good news about the promise that was made to our forefathers, that God has fulfilled it to us their children, by raising Jesus to life, just as the Scripture says in the Second Psalm, 'You are my Son, today I have become your Father.' Now as a proof that He has raised Him from the dead, no more to return to decay, He has spoken this, 'I will fulfill to you the holy promises made to David.' Because in another psalm he says, 'You will not let your Holy One experience decay.' For David, after having served God's purpose in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid among his forefathers, and so he did experience decay, but He whom God raised to life did not experience it. So, my brothers, you must understand that through Him the forgiveness of your sins is now proclaimed to you, and that through union with Him every one of you who believes is given right standing with God and freed from every charge from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. So take care that what is said in the prophets does not come upon you: 'Look, you scoffers! Then wonder and vanish away, for I am doing a work in your times which you will not at all believe though one may tell you in detail.'" As they were leaving the synagogue, the people kept begging that all this be repeated to them the next sabbath, and after the congregation had broken up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism allied themselves with Paul and Barnabas, and they kept talking to them and urging them to continue to rely on the unmerited favor of God. The next sabbath almost the whole town turned out to hear God's message. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were completely overcome by their jealousy and began to contradict the statements made by Paul, and even to abuse him. Then Paul and Barnabas courageously spoke out, "God's message had to be spoken to you Jews first, but since you continue to thrust it from you and since you show yourselves unworthy to receive eternal life, now and here we turn to the heathen. For here are the orders that the Lord has given us: 'I have made you a light to the heathen, To be the means of salvation to the very ends of the earth.'" The heathen kept on listening and rejoicing and giving the glory to God's message, and all who had been destined to eternal life believed, and so the message of the Lord spread all over the country. But the Jews stirred up the devout women of high rank and the men of first rank in town, and so started a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust from their feet as a protest against them, and went to Iconlure; and the disciples continued to be full of joy and the Holy Spirit.

He started speaking courageously in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him home with them and more accurately explained the way of God to him.

So He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up, and as His habit was on the Sabbath, He went to the synagogue and stood up to read.

and at once he began to preach in their synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made of flesh that is frail, sold into slavery to sin.

So the law itself is holy, and its specific commands are holy, right, and good.

Indeed, I know that the law is an excellent thing, if a man makes a lawful use of it;

As I have gotten help from God clear down to this very day, I stand here to testify to high and low alike, without adding a syllable to what Moses and the prophets said should take place, if the Christ should suffer, and by being the first to rise from the dead was to proclaim the light to the Jewish people and to the heathen."

But now God's way of giving men right standing with Himself has come to light; a way without connection with the law, and yet a way to which the law and the prophets testify. God's own way of giving men right standing with Himself is through faith in Jesus Christ. It is for everybody who has faith, for no distinction at all is made.

For if you really believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.

So they set a day for him, and came in large numbers to see him at the place where he was lodging, and from morning till night he continued to explain to them the kingdom of God, at the same time giving them his own testimony and trying from the law of Moses and the prophets to convince them about Jesus.

Philip sought out Nathaniel and said to him, "We have found the One about whom Moses wrote in the law and the One about whom the prophets wrote; it is Jesus, the son of Joseph, who comes from Nazareth."

you who received the law by order of the angels, and yet you did not obey it!"

Then what about the law? It was added later on to increase transgressions, until the descendant to whom the promise was made should come, enacted through the agency of angels in the person of an intermediary.

For if the message spoken through angels proved to be valid, and every violation and infraction of it had its adequate penalty,

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you high. Stop talking against one another, brothers. Whoever is in the habit of talking against a brother or of criticizing his brother is criticizing and condemning the law. But if you are in the habit of criticizing the law, you are not a practicer but a critic of the law. There is but one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who has the power to save and to destroy; then who are you that you presume to judge your brother?

Stop owing anybody anything, except the obligation to love one another, for whoever practices loving others has perfectly satisfied the law. For the commandments, "You must not commit adultery; you must not murder; you must not steal; you must not have an evil desire," and any other commandment if there is any, are summed up in this command, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself."

But if you really observe the law of the King in accordance with the Scripture, "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself," you are doing right;

So then there is no condemnation at all for those who are in union with Christ Jesus. For the life-giving power of the Spirit through union with Christ Jesus has set us free from the power of sin and death. For though the law could not do it, because it was made helpless through our lower nature, yet God, by sending His own Son in a body similar to that of our lower nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, passed sentence upon sin through His body, read more.
so that the requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live by the standard set by our lower nature, but by the standard set by the Spirit.

Then he answered, "You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole strength, and your whole mind, and your neighbor as you do yourself."

The essence of the whole law and the prophets is packed into these two commands."

Jesus answered, "The first one is, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole mind, and your whole strength.' And this is the second, 'You must love your neighbor as you do yourself.' No other command is greater than these." read more.
Then the scribe said to Him, "Indeed, Teacher, you have properly said that He is one by Himself, and there is no other but Him, and to love Him with one's whole heart, one's whole understanding, and one's whole strength, and to love one's neighbor as one loves himself is far more than all the burnt-offerings and sacrifices."

For while the law was given through Moses, spiritual blessing and truth have come through Jesus Christ.

Everything is permissible for people, but not everything is good for them. Everything is permissible for people, but not everything builds up their personality.

Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is good for me. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not become a slave to anything.

So here is the comparison: As through one man sin came into the world, and death as the consequence of sin, and death spread to all men; because all men sinned. Certainly sin was in the world before the law was given, but it is not charged to men's account where there is no law.

Do you not know, brothers -- for I speak to those who are acquainted with the law -- that the law can press its claim over a man only so long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is freed from the marriage bond. So if she marries another man while her husband is living, she is called an adulteress, but if he dies, she is free from that marriage bond, so that she will not be an adulteress though later married to another man. read more.
So, my brothers, you too in the body of Christ have ended your relation to the law, so that you may be married to another husband, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were living in accordance with our lower nature, the sinful passions that were aroused by the law were operating in the parts of our bodies to make us bear fruit that leads to death. But now we have been freed from our relation to the law; we have ended our relation to that by which we once were held in bonds, so that we may serve in a new spiritual way and not in the old literalistic way. What are we then to conclude? Is the law sin? Of course not! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have learned what sin was, for I should not have known what an evil desire was, if the law had not said, "You must not have an evil desire." Sin found its rallying point in that command and stirred within me every sort of evil desire, for without law, sin is lifeless.

I mean this: Practice living by the Spirit and then by no means will you gratify the cravings of your lower nature. For the cravings of the lower nature are just the opposite to those of the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are just the opposite of those of the lower nature; these two are opposed to each other, so that you cannot do anything you please. But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.

For those who depend on what the law commands are under a curse, for the Scripture says, "Cursed be everyone who does not continue in all the commands that are written in the book of the law, to do them." Now it is evident that through the law no man is brought into right standing with God, for "The man in right standing with God will live by faith," and the law has nothing to do with faith, but it says, "It is the man who does these things that will live by doing them."

Indeed, I know that the law is an excellent thing, if a man makes a lawful use of it; that is, if he understands that law is not enacted for upright people but for the lawless and disorderly, the godless and sinful, the ignorant and profane, people who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, the immoral, men who practice sodomy, men who make other men their slaves, liars, perjurers, or anything else that is contrary to sound teaching,

"Do not suppose that I have come to set aside the law or the prophets. I have not come to set them aside but to fill them up to the brim. For I solemnly say to you, heaven and earth would sooner pass away than the dotting of an 'i' or the crossing of a 't' from the law, until it all becomes in force.

You people, whoever you are among you, who try to get into right standing with God, through law have cut yourselves off from Christ, you have missed the way of God's favor. For we, by the Spirit, are awaiting the hoped-for blessing which our right standing with God will bring us. For in union with Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor lack of it counts for anything; but only faith that is spurred on to action by love.

Indeed, when heathen people who have no law instinctively do what the law demands, although they have no law, they are a law to themselves, for they show that the deeds the law demands are written on their hearts, because their consciences will testify for them, and their inner thoughts will either accuse or defend them,

What are we then to conclude? That heathen peoples who were not in search for right standing with God have obtained it, and that a right standing conditioned on faith; while Israel, though ever in pursuit of a law that would bring right standing, did not attain to it. Why? Because they did not try through faith but through what they could do. They have stumbled over the stone that causes people to stumble, read more.
as the Scripture says: "See, I put on Zion a stone for causing people to stumble, a rock to trip them on, but no one who puts his faith in it will ever be put to shame."

For we hold that a man is brought into right standing with God by faith, that observance of the law has no connection with it. Or is He the God of Jews alone? Is He not the God of heathen peoples too? Of course, He is the God of heathen peoples too, since there is but one God, who will consider the Jews in right standing with Himself, only on condition of their faith, and the heathen peoples on the same condition. read more.
Do we then through faith make null and void the law? Not at all; instead, we confirm it.

So, as through one offense there resulted condemnation for all men, just so through one act of uprightness there resulted right standing involving life for all men. For just as by that man's disobedience the whole race of men were constituted sinners, so by this One's obedience the whole race of men may be brought into right standing with God. Then law crept in to multiply the offense. Though sin has multiplied, yet God's favor has surpassed it and overflowed, read more.
so that just as sin had reigned by death, so His favor too might reign in right standing with God which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It was the law and the prophets until John, but ever since that time the good news of the kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everybody has been taking it by storm. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dotting of an 'i' in the law to fail.

Then what about the law? It was added later on to increase transgressions, until the descendant to whom the promise was made should come, enacted through the agency of angels in the person of an intermediary.