Saturday before Nativity – Eve of Nativity

Brothers, speaking of human terms, though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been confirmed, no one makes it void or adds to it. ¹⁶Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his offspring. He doesn’t say, “To descendants”, as of many, but as of one, “To your offspring”, which is Christ. ¹⁷Now I say this: A covenant confirmed beforehand by God in Christ, the law, which came four hundred thirty years after, does not annul, so as to make the promise of no effect. ¹⁸For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by promise.

¹⁹Then why is there the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise has been made. It was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator. ²⁰Now a mediator is not between one, but God is one.

²¹Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could make alive, most certainly righteousness would have been of the law. ²²But the Scripture imprisoned all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and put in his own garden. It grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky live in its branches.”

²⁰Again he said, “To what shall I compare God’s Kingdom? ²¹It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

²²He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem.

²³One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them, ²⁴“Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able. ²⁵When once the master of the house has risen up and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ ²⁶Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ ²⁷He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’ ²⁸There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside. ²⁹They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in God’s Kingdom.