Reformation Sunday

³¹ “Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: ³² not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says the LORD. ³³ “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says the LORD: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ They will no longer each teach his neighbor, and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD;’ for they will all know me, from their least to their greatest,” says the LORD: “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

¹ God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. ² Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes, though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas; ³ though its waters roar and are troubled, though the mountains tremble with their swelling. ⁴ There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad, the holy place of the tents of the Most High. ⁵ God is within her. She shall not be moved. God will help her at dawn. ⁶ The nations raged. The kingdoms were moved. He lifted his voice and the earth melted. ⁷ The LORD of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. ⁸ Come, see the LORD’s works, what desolations he has made in the earth. ⁹ He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots in the fire. ¹⁰ “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.” ¹¹ The LORD of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. ²⁰ Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. ²¹ But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; ²² even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, ²³ for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; ²⁴ being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; ²⁵ whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance; ²⁶ to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. ²⁷ Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. ²⁸ We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.