Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.
Satan and Death with Sin Intervening, 1799-1800
Henry Fuseli (Swiss, 1741-1825)
There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich mans table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
Lazarus and the Rich Man, 1661
Barent Pietersz Fabritius (1624 - 1673)
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The Light Shone in the Darkness, and the Darkness Comprehended It Not
Oil on canvas, unknown painter.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel,
for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
St. Stephen Is Stoned to Death.
From Foxe's Christian Martyr's of the World, 1907
For Israel.
Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings
from the wicked who are out to destroy me,
from my mortal enemies who surround me.
My kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world,
my servants would have been fighting,
that I might not be delivered over to the Jews.
But my kingdom is not from the world.
Nikolay Ge. What is Truth? 1890
Glory to the King of Kings!
"Come now, let us settle the matter," says the Lord.
Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
Though you have made me see troubles,
many and bitter,
you will restore my life again;
from the depths of the earth
you will again bring me up.
After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.
Vasily Polenov (1844–1927)
Being Filled with Wisdom, 1896-1909
In His humanity, the young Jesus was taught the words of the Law and Prophets. He listened and he learned. He was not born with head-knowledge. But what he learnt he understood, and his authority was recognised from the moment he first spoke at the Temple… All Glory to God.
But after he had pondered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to embrace Mary as your wife, for the One conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins."
Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
Bacchanal, 1896
Raffaello Sorbi (Italian, 1844-1931)
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.
It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions,
and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,
while we wait for the blessed hope—
the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ
Jan Matejko (1838-1893)
Adoption of Christianity, 965 AD, from the series “History of Civilization in Poland”, painted 1889.
On your walls, O Jerusalem,
I have set watchmen;
all the day and all the night they shall never be silent.
You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest,
and give him no rest until he establishes
Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.
He was in the world,
and though the world was made through Him,
the world did not recognize Him.
He came to His own,
and His own did not receive Him.
But to all who did receive Him,
to those who believed in His name,
He gave the right to become children of God
Head of Christ, c. 1648-1656,
Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606 - 1669
For this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.
As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them,
so will I look after my sheep.
I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.
"He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn—and I would heal them."
Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him. 
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord —
and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
'The days are coming,' declares the Lord,
'when I will fulfill the good
promise I made to the people of
Israel and Judah.
'In those days and at that time
I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line;
he will do what is just and right in the land.
In those days Judah will be saved
and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which it will be called:
The Lord Our Righteous Savior.'
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.
The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
There was never anyone like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife.
Elijah rebuking Ahab, watercolour
Mary L. Gow (25 December 1851 – 27 May 1929)
Elijah challenges Israel to choose God.
"How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." And the people did not answer him a word.
The Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived. Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, "See, your son is alive." Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth."
"Elijah Raising the Widow’s Son"
Benjamin West, 1774
Elijah assures the widow of God's provision.
"For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.'"
