21 passages · Salvation
After seven cycles of seven years, the fiftieth year is announced with a horn on the Day of Atonement. Liberty is proclaimed and each family returns to its property.
An Israelite who sells himself must be treated as a hired worker and released at Jubilee, because Israel belongs to God. Slaves may be taken from surrounding nations, and an Israelite sold to a foreigner may be redeemed by relatives or himself.
A Hebrew servant must be set free in the seventh year and sent away with generous supplies, remembering Israel's own slavery in Egypt. A servant who wishes to stay may become a servant for life.
The prophet Oded tells the returning army to free their captive kinsmen. Ephraimite leaders agree, and men clothe, feed, and heal the captives and take them back to Jericho.
A speaker says the Spirit of the Lord GOD is on him because he was anointed to bring good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, and free captives. He proclaims the year of the LORD's favor and comforts mourners with beauty for ashes.
Zedekiah makes a covenant with the people of Jerusalem to free Hebrew slaves, and they do so. Later they change their minds and force the freed slaves back into slavery.
God recalls the law requiring Hebrew slaves to be freed in the seventh year and accuses the people of profaning his name by taking their slaves back. He announces a different kind of freedom: to fall to sword, plague and famine, and Babylon will return to burn the city.
Speaking to those who believed, Jesus says truth will set them free. They say they are Abraham's children; Jesus says they seek to kill Him and belong to the devil rather than God, as shown by not hearing His words.
Paul asks whether grace means freedom to sin, and answers no. People are slaves to whatever they obey, and the Romans have been set free from sin to become slaves of righteousness.
Paul uses marriage as an illustration: death ends a spouse's obligation to the law of marriage. Likewise believers have died to the law through Christ, and now serve in the new way of the Spirit.
Paul declares that there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. What the law could not do, God did by sending his Son, so that the law's requirement is fulfilled in those who live by the Spirit.
Responding to slogans about freedom, Paul says not everything is beneficial and that the body is for the Lord, not for sexual immorality. Believers' bodies are members of Christ and a temple of the Spirit, bought at a price.
Paul explains that he makes himself a servant to everyone, adapting to Jews, those under the law, those outside it, and the weak, so that by all means some might be saved.
Paul says believers may eat what is sold in the market or served by an unbeliever without asking questions, but should abstain if told it was offered to idols. Whatever they do, they should do it for God's glory and others' good.
Paul went to Jerusalem again with Barnabas and Titus and privately laid out the gospel he preached. Titus, a Greek, was not forced to be circumcised, despite pressure from false believers.
Paul compares the time before Christ to an heir under guardians. When the time was right, God sent his Son to redeem those under the law, so believers are adopted and God's Spirit cries 'Abba, Father' in their hearts.
Paul reads the story of Abraham's two sons as an allegory: Hagar's son, born by ordinary means, stands for the covenant from Sinai and slavery, and Sarah's son, born by promise, stands for the free Jerusalem above. Believers are children of the promise.
Paul says Christ has set them free and they should not submit again to a yoke of slavery. If they accept circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to them, for what counts is faith working through love.
Paul says they are called to freedom but should not use it as an opportunity for the flesh. Instead they should serve one another in love, since the whole law is fulfilled in loving your neighbor as yourself.
Paul is sending Onesimus back, though he would have liked to keep him for help. He wants Philemon's kindness to be freely given, not forced.
Peter says the false teachers are like springs without water and use empty words to entice people while being slaves themselves. Those who knew the way of righteousness and turned back are worse off, like a dog returning to its vomit.