The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time.

The wicked are estranged from the womb; the liars go astray from birth.

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.

Then Jesus said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless the Father has granted it to him.”

because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.

All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.

They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Neither are you able to do good—you who are accustomed to doing evil.

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,

All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.

because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God.

yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.

But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.

All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!

And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.

Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.” . . .

Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden. One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?” Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use? What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction? . . .

He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”

Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds because of your evil deeds.

When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses,

This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.

remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.

For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness.

“Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

When they sin against You—for there is no one who does not sin—and You become angry with them and deliver them to an enemy who takes them as captives to his own land, whether far or near,

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us.

Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made men upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw the Egyptians marching after them, and they were terrified and cried out to the LORD. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us into the wilderness to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Did we not say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” But Moses told the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the LORD’s salvation, which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

But the Scripture pronounces all things confined by sin, so that by faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe.

But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.

What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous? If God puts no trust in His holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in His eyes, how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water?

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.”

And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day.

But the seeds on good soil are those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, cling to it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek.

Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned. For sin was in the world before the law was given; but sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin in the way that Adam transgressed. He is a pattern of the One to come. But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many! Again, the gift is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment that followed one sin brought condemnation, but the gift that followed many trespasses brought justification. . . .

The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,

We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

To this end we labor and strive, because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of everyone, and especially of those who believe.

When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will,

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!

Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD.

But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!

You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

So then, just as one trespass brought condemnation for all men, so also one act of righteousness brought justification and life for all men.

So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.

They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.

If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

He has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose and by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time began.

They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent.

in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!

But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”

For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evils come from within, and these are what defile a man.”

For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him,

For the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their acts are vile. There is no one who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if any understand, if any seek God. All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.

But the one who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that is not from faith is sin.

Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. So they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts either accusing or defending them on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Christ Jesus, as proclaimed by my gospel.

For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. . . .