14Because of the great debt of love that I owe, I must tell the good story to both the civilized and uncivilized—to all who walk in the ways of wisdom and to all who do not. 15And now I am able and ready to tell the good story to you who live in Village of Iron (Rome).
NOT ASHAMED
16I am not ashamed of this good story, for to all who trust in its message it has Creator’s power to set free and make whole. This is true, first for our Tribal People, and then to all the Outside Nations!1 17For this good story tells about Creator’s great faithfulness to do what is good and right. It is the story of faithfulness and trust from beginning to end. It is written in our Sacred Teachings, “The ones in good standing will find life by trusting2 in what the Great Spirit has done for them.”
NO EXCUSE FOR HIDING THE TRUTH
18From the spirit-world above, Creator’s great anger is being shown to the ones who hide the truth by following their bad hearts and wrongful ways. 19The Great Spirit has a reason to be angry, because he has clearly made himself known to all human beings. 20Ever since the world was made, his invisible, never-fading power and Sacred Spirit3 have been understood and clearly shown through the things that he has made.
So they have no good reason not to trust in what Creator has done for them. 21For even though they knew him as Creator, they did not thank him or give him the honor he deserved. This empty way of thinking took hold of their foolish hearts and led them into darkness.
FOOLISH WAYS
22Even though they thought they were wise, they became only foolish two-leggeds. 23They traded the beauty and honor of the Great Spirit, who has always existed, for carved images of short-lived human beings, winged ones, four-leggeds, and snakes that crawl on the ground.
24For this reason the Great Spirit permitted them to go their own way and follow the dark desires found in their own hearts, desires with one another that failed to honor the sacred purpose their bodies had been created for. 25In doing so, they traded Creator’s truth for something false, and honored and served created things more than the Great Spirit. He is the one who is to be given honor and blessing to the time beyond the end of all days. Aho! May it be so!
26So then, the Great Spirit permitted them to go their own way to dishonor themselves by following these dishonorable desires. Their women traded what was their natural sexual desire for what was not natural. 27Their men did the same things, giving up their natural desire for women and fanning into flame a hunger for one another, men with men, dishonoring their own bodies. In doing so, they had to face for themselves the end result of this wrong thinking. 28Since they did not want to know the Great Spirit, he turned them over to their worthless ways of thinking, to do things that should not be done.
FROM BAD TO WORSE
29-30Filled with these wrong ways, they followed their bad hearts and made evil their aim. Keeping all things for themselves and not sharing, they became filled with greed, hatred, and violence. This took them down a dark path of fighting and killing, of lies and telling bad stories about others. They became puffed up, disrespectful and arrogant, finders of new ways to do evil things, disobedient to parents, and they even began to hate the Great Spirit. 31This turned them into foolish, ruthless treaty breakers, with hearts like stone!
32Even though they know that Creator is right when he says these worthless ways deserve death and will lead others there, they continue to walk in these ways, and even worse, they give their approval to other people who also walk this path.
WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE?
1But you who judge and decide the guilt of those who walk in these broken ways have no excuse for doing so. When you decide the guilt of others, you are only proving your own guilt, because you are doing the same kinds of things. 2For we know that when the Great Spirit decides the guilt of the ones who do this, his judgment is always honorable and true.
3Tell me, when you do the same kinds of things that you judge others for, do you think what you have done will be hidden from the eyes of the Great Spirit? 4Or do you hold bitter thoughts about Creator’s kindness, patience, and willingness to bear with others? Do you not know that it is the kindness of the Great Spirit that draws you back to the path of his right ways?
5Because your hearts are unwilling to bend to the ways of the Great Spirit, your lives are becoming filled with the things that make the Great Spirit angry. A day is coming when Creator’s great anger against these things and his decision to do what is right will be made clear.
CREATOR WILL BE THE ONE TO DECIDE
6Creator will honor each of us for what we have done. 7He will honor the ones who have walked with firm steps on a path of doing good, and those who seek to live in the ways of beauty, honor, and spiritual purity.4 The life of the world to come that never fades away, full of beauty and harmony, will be waiting for them.
8But the ones who live only for themselves, who refuse to walk the path of truth and stand against the right ways of the Great Spirit, will face a coming storm of great anger.
CREATOR TREATS ALL THE SAME WAY
9Trouble and sorrow await all human beings who walk an evil path. This is true, first of all for the members of the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel) but also for the Outside Nations.5 10But beauty, honor, and peace await all who walk in a good way. To the Tribal Members first, and also for the Outside Nations. 11For the Great Spirit does not favor one over the other.
12For all the Outside Nations who have followed their bad hearts and broken ways, even though they had no written law to follow, will come to a bad end. And all who were given the tribal law but also followed their bad heart and broken ways, their own tribal law will decide against them. 13For it is not the ones who hear the law who have good standing with Creator but the ones who do what it says.
CREATION’S LAW WRITTEN ON HEARTS
14If the Outside Nations, who never heard the law, naturally do what they know is right, the things instructed by the law, this natural law is all they need. 15They show that creation’s law is already at work within them, carved into their hearts. There is a voice deep within their inner being that speaks to them about what is right and what is wrong. 16The good story that I tell says there will come a day when the Knower of Hearts, through Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One, will bring to light what is good and bad about the secrets hidden in every human heart.
A WORD OF WARNING
17To those among you who call yourselves Tribal Members, who take your stand on tribal law and boast about your knowledge of the Great Spirit, 18because you have been instructed by this law, you are sure you know what Creator wants and what is honorable to him. 19You see yourselves as guides to the blind, lights to those in dark places, 20wisdomkeepers to the unwise, and instructors of children. You, because you have the law, claim be the holders of all truth.
21So then, you who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who tell others not to steal, do you take what is not yours? 22You who instruct others to be faithful in marriage, do you sleep around from lodge to lodge? You who despise those who pray to spirit-images, do you steal from their sacred lodges?
23When you fail to follow the same tribal law you brag about, you bring insult to the Great Spirit. 24This is in agreement with the Sacred Teachings that say, “It is because of you that the Outside Nations are speaking against the Great Spirit.”6
25The cutting of the flesh ceremony has honor if you follow the instructions of our tribal law. But if you fail to follow the law, your cutting of the flesh ceremony is worthless. 26If someone who has never participated in the ceremony walks by nature in the right ways that the law teaches, then it will be as if he had participated in that ceremony.
27So then, if someone from an Outside Nation, who never participated in the cutting of the flesh ceremony, does by nature what the law instructs, that Outsider’s ways will expose the guilt of the one who participated in the ceremony. For if he does not walk true to the whole written law, he remains guilty of breaking the law.
A MATT
ER OF THE HEART
28-29Being a true Tribal Member is a matter of the heart, not of blood or ceremonial law. It is the same with the cutting of the flesh ceremony. It is a spiritual matter, not a physical one. One might perform the ceremony perfectly according to tribal law for all to see, but it is not what happens on the outside that counts. It is what happens spiritually, on the inside, that has true meaning. Such a person seeks honor from the Great Spirit and not from human beings.
THE BLESSINGS OF BEING A TRIBAL MEMBER
1So, you might ask, “What advantage do Tribal Members have that others do not have? What good does the cutting of the flesh ceremony do for them?”
2Being a Tribal Member is a blessing in many ways. The greatest blessing is that they were entrusted with the Sacred Teachings of the Great Spirit!
WILL CREATOR BE TRUE TO HIS PROMISE?
3But, you might also ask, “What if some of them failed to honor this trust? Will their failure stop the Great Spirit from keeping his promises?”
4Never! Creator will be true to his promise, even if every human being fails to be true to him. This is what the Sacred Teachings say about Creator, “You will be true to your word and always decide what is best.”
5As human beings we might think that our wrongdoing only proves that the Great Spirit was right about us all along. Would we then be able to say that it is wrong for him to show his anger toward us?
6This is a weak way of thinking, for if this were true, then how could Creator ever make things right again for the whole world?
7“But if the Great Spirit is proved to be right by my failure to stand true, why am I found to be in the wrong?”
8If this were true, then we might as well say what some have accused us of saying, “We should do evil that good may come of it.” But their own words are proving them to be in the wrong and will take them to a bad end.
TRIBAL MEMBERS AND THE OUTSIDE NATIONS
9So what are we to say? Are we Tribal Members in a better place than the Outside Nations? I tell you without a doubt that we are not! For I have already made my argument that all human beings have followed their bad hearts and broken ways.
10It is written in our Sacred Teachings of our tribal law, “There is no one who stands upright. Not even one! 11No one walks in wisdom. No one is seeking to walk with the Great Spirit. 12All have turned away from the good path to walk in worthless ways. No one is good and kind. Not even one!”7
13The Sacred Teachings also say, “Their throats are like open graves. They speak with forked tongues.”8 “From their lips come words full of snake venom.”9 14“Their mouths are filled with bitter curses.”10 15“Their feet are swift to shed blood. 16They leave behind a trail of misery and trouble wherever they go. 17The path of peace is beyond their way of thinking.”11 18“They turn their eyes from the path of giving honor and respect to the Great Spirit.”12
ALL HAVE FAILED
19From these Sacred Teachings we can see that we Tribal Members have not followed our own tribal laws. Our Sacred Teachings have spoken against us, giving us nothing to say in our own defense, and proving that we, along with all the people of the world, stand guilty. And we must give an answer to the Great Spirit for what we have done.
20So then, it should be clear to all that no one can be in good standing in the eyes of the Great Spirit by doing what our tribal law says. What is clear is that the law shows us how bad our hearts have become and how broken our lives truly are.
GOOD STANDING IS A GIFT
21But there is a way to be in good standing with the Great Spirit that does not depend on us keeping tribal law! Even our Law and the Prophets have spoken the truth about this. 22We can stand in a good way before the Great Spirit by trusting in Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One and what he has done for us. This good standing is a gift to all who believe. It does not matter whether you are a Tribal Member13 or from any other nation. 23We are all the same because all of us have followed our bad hearts and broken ways, 24but because of the gift of his great kindness all of us are put in good standing with the Great Spirit through what Creator Sets Free (Jesus) has done to set us free and make us whole.
25The Great Spirit sent Creator Sets Free (Jesus) to show through him the full meaning and purpose of the ancient mercy-seat ceremony, where our broken ways are washed clean when we trust in what the shedding of his lifeblood has accomplished.
The tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel) were given this ceremony to show that the Great Spirit had washed them clean from their bad hearts and broken ways. Once a year the chief holy man would take the blood of a ceremonial animal into the Most Holy Place in Creator’s sacred lodge and sprinkle the blood onto the lid of a wooden box covered with gold. This lid of this wooden box was called the mercy seat.
The Great Spirit did this to prove that he was in the right when he released people from their bad hearts and broken ways in the ages past. 26He also did this to show people in this present age that he has the right to put people in good standing with himself because they trust in what Creator Sets Free (Jesus) has done.
NO ROOM FOR BOASTING
27There is now no room for anyone to brag or boast. Why not? Because the Great Spirit has given us a new kind of law, not one that depends on what human strength or desire can do, but one that depends on trusting in what Creator Sets Free (Jesus) has done.
28Here is another way to see it. Good standing with the Great Spirit does not come by following our tribal law but by putting all our trust in what Creator has done for us. 29For is not the Great Spirit the maker of all people, not just our Tribal People? Yes! He is the Great Spirit of all Nations!
30Since there is only one Great Spirit and Creator, he will treat us all the same. We have good standing with him by trusting in what he has done. It does not matter whether we are Tribal Members who have the cutting of the flesh ceremony or whether we are people from the Outside Nations who do not have this ceremony. 31Does this new way of trusting in Creator Sets Free (Jesus) undo our tribal law? Not at all! Instead, it shows us the law’s true meaning and purpose.14
FATHER OF MANY NATIONS
1How does our tribal ancestor, Father of Many Nations (Abraham), fit into this way of trusting? What can we learn from what he found? 2If Father of Many Nations (Abraham) found good standing with Creator because he earned it by hard work, then he would be able to boast. But not in the eyes of the Great Spirit.
3But what do the Sacred Teachings tell us? “Father of Many Nations (Abraham) put his trust in Creator. This is what gave him good standing in the eyes of the Great Spirit.”15
4We know that what people gain from hard work is not a gift, but something earned. 5But when people do no work but simply trust in Creator to release them from their spiritual darkness, this kind of trusting gives them good standing in the eyes of the Great Spirit.
6Chief Much Loved One (David) also speaks of the goodwill that is poured out on the ones who did no work to be in good standing in the eyes of Creator. 7He says, “Creator’s blessing rests on the ones who are released from their broken ways and those who have been set free from their wrongdoings. 8His blessing rests on the ones whose bad hearts and broken ways are not held against them by the Great Spirit.”16
9Is this blessing only for our Tribal Members who have the cutting of the flesh ceremony? Or is it also for the Outside Nations who do not have this ceremony?
The “cutting of the flesh ceremony” was an initiation ceremony given to the men of the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel) that made one a Tribal Member in good standing and a participant in the peace treaty the Great Spirit made with the tribes.
Now we have already said that it was by trusting that Father of Many Nations (Abraham) had good standing in the eyes of the Great Spirit. 10So when was it that he trusted Creator and was counted to be in good standing? Was it before or after he performed the cutting of the flesh ceremony? We all know it was before. 11He was given the cutting of the flesh ceremony to mark him as Creator’s ow
n, as a sign that he had already put his trust in the Great Spirit and that he was in good standing even before he performed the ceremony.
This means Father of Many Nations (Abraham), just as his name says, is the ancestor of all the Outside Nations who believe and trust in the Great Spirit. Even though they have never performed the ceremony, they are now in good standing with Creator. 12He is also the ancestor of all of our Tribal Members who not only have performed the cutting of the flesh ceremony but who also follow the trust-filled path that Father of Many Nations (Abraham) walked before he performed the ceremony.
13The promise to Father of Many Nations (Abraham) that all the nations of the world would belong to him and his descendants did not come to him because he kept our tribal law, but because of the good standing that comes from trusting in the Great Spirit’s promise. 14But if the promise depends on walking the path of the law, then trusting means nothing and the promise falls to the ground.
15The law produces only anger for those who fail to walk in it. Where there is no law, only a promise, then no one would be failing to keep a law. 16That is why the promise comes from trusting in the gift of Creator’s great kindness, so that all the descendants of Father of Many Nations (Abraham) can be sure to receive it. This promise is not only for the ones who are under our tribal law, but for all who walk the same path of trust and faith that Father of Many Nations (Abraham) walked. For he is the father of us all!
First Nations Version Page 48
