11 The message is that today a baby has been born in Bethlehem, the town where King David grew up. That baby will eventually save you from the guilt of your sins! He is the Messiah, your Lord!

6 Although he has the same nature as God has, he did not insist on keeping all the privileges of being equal with God. 7 Instead, he willingly gave up divine privileges. Specifically, he became a human being and took the attitude of a servant. When he had become a human being, 8 he humbled himself even more. Specifically, he obeyed God even to the extent of being willing to die. He was even willing to be nailed to a cross, to die as though he were a criminal.

4 But Yahweh says to his people, "I am Yahweh, your God,

the one who brought your ancestors out of Egypt.

You must believe that only I am God

and that there is no other God,

and that there is no one else who can save you!

2 Remember that Jesus Christ voluntarily sacrificed his own life for us, so that as a result God forgives our sins. Yes, God is able to forgive our sins, but not only ours! He is also able to forgive the sins of people everywhere!

10 And God has shown us what it means to love another person: It does not mean that we loved God, but it means that God loved us and sent ◄his Son/the one who was also God► to sacrifice his life in order that our sins might be forgiven {he might forgive our sins}.

10 Even when we were acting hostilely towards God, he enabled us to have a peaceful relationship with him as a result of his Son dying for us. So it is even more certain that we will be saved {Christ will be able to save us} from God’s punishing us [MTY] because Christ is alive again and because God has enabled us to have a peaceful relationship with himself.

18 Live reverently because you know that it was not with things that will not last forever, things like gold and silver, that God bought you to free you from your useless life-style that you learned from your ancestors. 19 Instead, it was with the precious blood of Christ that flowed from his body when he died that God bought you. Christ’s death was a perfect sacrifice for us [MET], like the lambs that the Jewish priests sacrificed were perfect, without any blemishes/defects/flaws or spots [DOU].

7 When the blood of Christ flowed when he died [MTY], it was as though he paid a price to free/save us from the guilt of our sins. That ◄provided a way/made it possible► for God to act very kindly toward us to forgive us for having sinned.

20 It is as though I was with Christ when he was crucified {died on the cross} [MET] (OR, It is as though my old way of life ended when Christ died on the cross.) No longer am I directing the way I behave as I did before I believed in Christ. Now Christ is directing how I behave. And whatever I do now while I live, I do it trusting in God’s Son. He is the one who loved me and offered himself as a sacrifice for me.

9 By becoming ◄all that God intended him to be/perfect►, he has now become fully qualified to be our Supreme Priest. As a result, he is the one who saves eternally all who obey him.

25 So, he can completely and eternally save those who come to God by trusting in what Jesus has done for them, since he lives forever to plead with God to help them.

15 By dying for us, Christ ◄redeemed/set free from the penalty for their sins► even those who disobeyed the conditions of (OR, during the time of) the first covenant. So, because no one could be made perfect by obeying the old covenant, now Christ establishes between God and people a new covenant. He does that in order that those whom God has chosen may eternally have the blessings that God has promised them.

2 And let us keep our minds on Jesus, as a runner keeps his eyes on the goal [MET]. Jesus is the one we should imitate in the way he perfectly trusted God. When he died on the cross he endured it as he suffered greatly [MTY], instead of thinking about the things he would rejoice about later. He disregarded being disgraced by dying that way. He is now sitting at the place of highest honor [MTY] at the throne where God rules.

23 All people have done evil, and all people have failed to accomplish the glorious goals that God set for them. 24 Our record of sins has been erased {God erased the record of our sins} by God acting kindly to forgive our sins, without our doing anything to earn it. Christ Jesus accomplished this by dying for us.

22 However, God has been helping me from that time, and he is still helping me today. So I stand here and I tell all of you people, those who are important and those who are not, who Jesus is. Everything that I say about him is what Moses and the other prophets wrote about long ago, things that they said would happen. 23 They wrote that people would cause the Messiah to suffer and die. They also wrote that he would be the first person to become alive again, to proclaim the message that would be like light, that he would save both his own Jewish people and non-Jewish people."

5 The angel said to the two women, "You should not be afraid! I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was {whom they} ◄nailed to a cross/crucified►. 6 He is not here! God has ◄caused him to be alive again/raised him from the dead►, just like Jesus told you would happen! Come and see the place where his body lay!

25 But I know that the one who vindicates/defends me in court is alive,

and that some day he will stand here on the earth and make the final decision about whether I deserve to be punished.