I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. You will keep my ordinances and do them. — God does not command a new heart — he promises to install one, and the implications destroy every self-improvement gospel.

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. — David doesn't ask God to repair his heart — he asks God to make one from nothing, because the old one is beyond salvage.

Blessed be his glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and amen. — A doxology that breaks the frame of its own psalm — and demands a throne no son of David can fill.

He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day. Behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bent over, and could in no way straighten herself up. When Jesus saw her, he called her, and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” — A woman bent double for eighteen years is straightened by a word — and the real crippling force turns out to be the synagogue itself.

In love of the brothers be tenderly affectionate to one another; in honor preferring one another; — Paul's command to outdo one another in showing honor demolishes every hierarchy believers construct to protect their status.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; — Paul doesn't describe two options; he diagnoses two operating systems — and only one has a pulse.

I will tell of the decree. Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father. Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” — God's coronation speech declares a Son whose inheritance is the earth and whose rule tolerates no rival.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. — Jesus doesn't raise the bar on morality — he redefines the family resemblance of God's children.

Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” — The promise of freedom is not an invitation to the curious — it is a surgical condition imposed on people who already believe but do not yet know what believing costs.

Who among you fears Yahweh, and obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in Yahweh’s name, and rely on his God. — The Servant's God demands trust in pitch-black obedience — and forbids you from lighting your own way.