That is enough to cover all our sins and to make us confident, freeing the conscience from the fear, The point here is that we take our very refined ability to outwardly look very differently than we inwardly So our Confession warns, if you try to appear before God relying on your ability to make yourself look

This renewal process looks different in every person; some are quite obviously gifted while others have

to the emperor, propagation of unlawful customs, defamation of the (pagan) gods, and general trouble making Christ within a system that challenged your faith; presenting the Gospel in the best possible light takes When someone makes your life difficult, before you retaliate, remember the encouragement of Peter.

You trust the Word of God, every time. Our faith is in Jesus Christ and in no one or nothing else.

Dig Deeper The passage ends this way a few verses later in v21: God made him who had no sin to be sin Jesus was innocent, so He is the one person who has ever lived who did not deserve to die. It is your duty, as a child of God, to make him known to a sin filled world. You were condemned.

First, by his resurrection he has overcome death, so that he might make us share in the righteousness mentally and spiritually, you're living in an entirely different world than other people, so it only makes What that means is that even though your life is most certainly hidden in Christ at this very moment,

believe and confess also that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son— neither made Throughout all of his letters, Paul uses one of the smallest words to convey this very big idea: ἐν ( The very same Being is described as the "Spirit of God" and a few words later is called the "Spirit of In v11, the Spirit is described as having a very active role in the act that makes your salvation possible Because you are now in this very same Spirit, you are given life even though your body is subject to

Israel falling into sin and invoking judgment upon themselves... that part is just as consistent as ever Sinful people can't be made holy by following rules. God would be faithful to His people. the words "hallowed be your name," or words similar to it, you're praying that God will continue to make

Realize how filthy your sins have made you, and that God is justified in His anger against you (v4). and restore David, who's terrible sin quite likely had far worse consequences than any wrong you've ever So make David's prayer of repentance in Psalm 51 your own and accept His gracious invitation to remember

, they do not hear or understand.  14  In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:  “ ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;  you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.  15  For this people someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making While there are different levels of fruitfulness, the fact that the word was heard and understood makes Some will hear the Gospel but will not have it take hold.