3 You Christians in Galatia are like fools! Someone has taught you to believe crazy ideas! I taught you clearly that Jesus Christ died on the cross as a sacrifice on our behalf. You understood that. 2 So think about this: When you received God's Spirit, was it because you had obeyed the rules of God's Law? No! You received God's Spirit because you heard the message about Christ and you believed it. 3 Do not think like fools! You first became believers by the help of God's Spirit. So do not try now to continue by your own human power. That will never get you to the end! 4 You have had many troubles as believers. I want those troubles to help you. Surely they could not be without any good purpose. 5 God gives to you the gift of his Spirit. He also does powerful miracles among you. But he does not do these things because you obey the rules of his Law. No, he does them because you believed the message about Christ which you heard.
6 Think about our Jewish ancestor Abraham. We know this: ‘Abraham believed God. As a result, God accepted Abraham as right with him’. 7 So you should understand who Abraham's children really are. It is those people who trust God. 8 The Bible already said what would happen at a future time. It said that God would make the Gentiles right with himself, if they believed in him. God showed this good news to Abraham a long time before it happened. He said to Abraham, ‘I will bless people from all countries because of you.’ [ a ] 9 So then, God did not bless only Abraham when he trusted God. God also blesses all people who trust him like Abraham did.
10 But some people try to obey all the rules of God's Law. They think that they will become right with God if they do this very well. But God will speak against people like that and he will punish them. It is written in the Bible: ‘God will punish everyone who does not always obey all the rules in his Law completely.’ [ b ] 11 We know that the Law can not cause anyone to become right with God. That is clear because the Bible says, ‘The person that God has accepted as right will live because they trust him.’ [ c ]
12 But the Law does not tell people to trust God. It tells people about all the things that they must do. The Bible says, ‘The person who obeys all the rules in God's Law completely will live’. 13 So God's Law shows that it is right for God to punish us. But Christ took that punishment away from us, because God punished him instead of us. It says in the Bible: ‘When people hang someone on a tree to kill him, it shows that God has cursed that person.’ [ d ] 14 Christ died in that way so that God would bless the Gentiles in the way that he blessed Abraham. Also, if we believe in Christ, we can then receive God's Spirit that he promised.
15 My Christian friends, I will use an example from our lives. Two people may make an agreement together and they both agree to it properly. If they do that, nobody else can change that agreement. They cannot take away its authority. 16 In the same way, God promised to bless Abraham and Abraham's descendant. The Bible does not say ‘descendants’. It does not speak about ‘many people’. No, God promised to bless Abraham's descendant. He speaks about one person, and that person is Christ. [ e ] 17 What I mean is this: God made an agreement with Abraham. He promised to bless him. Then, 430 years later, God gave his Law to Moses for the Jewish people. But that Law could not take away the authority of God's agreement with Abraham. It could not stop what God had already promised. 18 God has promised to give good things to his children. But that does not happen as a result of God's Law. If that were true, then we would not receive God's good things as a result of his promise. But God gave those good things to Abraham as a gift, because he had promised to bless Abraham.
19 So we could ask: Why did God give his Law to his people after his promise to Abraham? He gave his Law to show them which things are wrong. It would have authority until Abraham's special descendant would come. That was the descendant that God had promised to bless. God used angels to give his Law to his people. [ f ] It was Moses who received the Law from God, and Moses then took it to God's people. 20 But God himself gave his promise to Abraham. It was not necessary to have somebody in between, like Moses.
21 So should we say that God's Law works against God's promises? No, certainly that is not true! It is not possible for the rules of any law to give us life with God. If that could happen, then God would have accepted us as right if we obeyed those rules. 22 But the Bible says that sin has power over everyone. People can not get free. This means that we can only receive what God has promised when we trust Jesus Christ. God gives his promise to those who believe.
23 But before God showed us the way of faith, the Law had authority over us. God's Law kept us safe, until God showed us that we must believe in Christ. 24 In that way, God's Law was like our guide. It kept us safe until Christ came. Then God could accept us as right because we trusted Christ. 25 But now that the way of faith in Christ has come, we do not need God's Law to keep us safe any longer.
26 All of you are God's children because you believe in Christ Jesus. 27 They baptized you as believers in Christ. That means that you have put on Christ, like someone who puts on new clothes. 28 It does not matter whether you are a Jew or a Gentile. It does not matter whether you are a slave or a free person. It does not matter whether you are a man or a woman. You all belong together because you all belong to Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are descendants of Abraham. Because of that, you will receive all the good things that God promised to Abraham.
3 You people in Galatia are so foolish! Why do I say this? Because I told you very clearly about the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. But now it seems as though you have let someone use their magical powers to make you forget. 2 Tell me this one thing: How did you receive the Spirit? Did you receive the Spirit by following the law? No, you received the Spirit because you heard the message about Jesus and believed it. 3 You began your life in Christ with the Spirit. Now do you try to complete it by your own power? That is foolish. 4 You have experienced many things. Were all those experiences wasted? I hope they were not wasted! 5 Does God give you the Spirit because you follow the law? Does God work miracles among you because you follow the law? No, God gives you his Spirit and works miracles among you because you heard the message about Jesus and believed it.
6 The Scriptures say the same thing about Abraham. “Abraham believed God, and because of this faith he was accepted as one who is right with God.” [ a ] 7 So you should know that the true children of Abraham are those who have faith. 8 The Scriptures told what would happen in the future. These writings said that God would make the non-Jewish people right through their faith. God told this Good News to Abraham before it happened. God said to Abraham, “I will use you to bless all the people on earth.” [ b ] 9 Abraham believed this, and because he believed, he was blessed. All people who believe are blessed the same as Abraham was.
10 But people who depend on following the law to make them right are under a curse. As the Scriptures say, “They must do everything that is written in the law. If they do not always obey, they are under a curse.” [ c ] 11 So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by the law. The Scriptures say, “The one who is right with God by faith will live forever.” [ d ]
12 The law does not depend on faith. No, it says that the only way a person will find life by the law is to obey its commands. [ e ] 13 The law says we are under a curse for not always obeying it. But Christ took away that curse. He changed places with us and put himself under that curse. The Scriptures say, “Anyone who is hung on a tree [ f ] is under a curse.” [ g ] 14 Because of what Jesus Christ did, the blessing God promised to Abraham was given to all people. Christ died so that by believing in him we could have the Spirit that God promised.
15 Brothers and sisters, let me give you an example from everyday life: Think about an agreement that one person makes with another. After that agreement is made official, no one can stop it or add anything to it, and no one can ignore it. 16 God made promises to Abraham and his Descendant. [ h ] The Scripture does not say, “and to your descendants.” That would mean many people. But it says, “and to your Descendant.” That means only one, and that one is Christ. 17 This is what I mean: The agreement that God gave to Abraham was made official long before the law came. The law came 430 years later. So the law could not take away the agreement and change God’s promise.
18 Can following the law give us the blessing God promised? If we could receive it by following the law, then it would not be God’s promise that brings it to us. But God freely gave his blessings to Abraham through the promise God made.
19 So what was the law for? The law was given to show the wrong things people do. The law would continue until the special Descendant of Abraham came. This is the Descendant mentioned in the promise, which came directly from God. But the law was given through angels, and the angels used Moses as a mediator to give the law to the people. 20 But when God gave the promise, there was no mediator, because a mediator is not needed when there is only one side, and God is one. [ i ]
21 Does this mean that the law works against God’s promises? Of course not. The law was never God’s way of giving new life to people. If it were, then we could be made right with God by following the law. 22 But this is not possible. The Scriptures put the whole world in prison under the control of sin, so that the only way for people to get what God promised would be through faith in [ j ] Jesus Christ. It is given to those who believe in him.
23 Before this faith came, the law held us as prisoners. We had no freedom until God showed us the way of faith that was coming. 24 I mean the law was the guardian in charge of us until Christ came. After he came, we could be made right with God through faith. 25 Now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law to be our guardian.
26-27 You were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ. This shows that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 28 Now, in Christ, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or free, male or female. You are all the same in Christ Jesus. 29 You belong to Christ, so you are Abraham’s descendants. You get all of God’s blessings because of the promise that God made to Abraham.
3 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.
16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
3 [ a ] You foolish ( A ) Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ ( B ) was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by works of [ b ] the Law, or by ( C ) hearing [ c ] with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun [ d ] by the Spirit, are you now [ e ] being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you [ f ] suffer so many things in vain— ( D ) if indeed it was in vain? 5 So then, does He who ( E ) provides you with the Spirit and ( F ) works [ g ] miracles among you, do it by works of [ h ] the Law, or by ( G ) hearing [ i ] with faith?
6 Just as ( H ) Abraham ( I ) believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness . 7 Therefore, recognize that ( J ) it is those who are of faith who are ( K ) sons of Abraham. 8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God [ j ] would justify the [ k ] Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying , “ ( L ) All the nations will be blessed in you .” 9 So then, ( M ) those who are of faith are blessed with [ l ] Abraham, the believer.
10 For all who are of works of [ m ] the Law are under a curse; for it is written: “ ( N ) Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the Law, to do them .” 11 Now, that ( O ) no one is justified [ n ] by [ o ] the Law before God is evident; for, “ [ p ] ( P ) the righteous one will live by faith .” 12 [ q ] However, the Law is not [ r ] of faith; on the contrary, “ ( Q ) The person who performs [ s ] them will live by [ t ] them .” 13 Christ ( R ) redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written: “ ( S ) Cursed is everyone who hangs on ( T ) a [ u ] tree ”— 14 in order that ( U ) in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we ( V ) would receive ( W ) the promise of the Spirit through faith.
15 ( X ) Brothers and sisters , ( Y ) I speak [ v ] in terms of human relations: ( Z ) even though it is only a man’s [ w ] covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds [ x ] conditions to it. 16 Now the promises were spoken ( AA ) to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as one would in referring to many, but rather as in referring to one, “ ( AB ) And to your seed,” that is, Christ. 17 What I am saying is this: the Law, which came ( AC ) 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. 18 For ( AD ) if the inheritance is [ y ] based on law, it is no longer [ z ] based on a promise; but ( AE ) God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.
19 ( AF ) Why the Law then? It was added on account of the [ aa ] violations, having been ( AG ) ordered through angels ( AH ) at the hand of a [ ab ] mediator, until ( AI ) the Seed would come to whom the promise had been made. 20 Now ( AJ ) a mediator is not [ ac ] for one party only ; but God is only one. 21 Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? [ ad ] ( AK ) Far from it! For ( AL ) if a law had been given that was able to impart life, then righteousness [ ae ] would indeed have been [ af ] based on law. 22 But the Scripture has ( AM ) confined [ ag ] everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
23 But before faith came, [ ah ] we were kept in custody under the Law, ( AN ) being confined for the faith that was destined to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our [ ai ] ( AO ) guardian to lead us to Christ, so that ( AP ) we may be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a [ aj ] ( AQ ) guardian. 26 For you are all ( AR ) sons and daughters of God through faith in ( AS ) Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were ( AT ) baptized into Christ have ( AU ) clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 ( AV ) There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is [ ak ] neither male nor female; for ( AW ) you are all one in ( AX ) Christ Jesus. 29 And if ( AY ) you [ al ] belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s [ am ] descendants, heirs according to ( AZ ) promise.
3 You foolish ( A ) Galatians! ( B ) Who has bewitched you? ( C ) Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. ( D ) 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit ( E ) by the works of the law, ( F ) or by believing what you heard? ( G ) 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? [ a ] 4 Have you experienced [ b ] so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles ( H ) among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? ( I ) 6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” [ c ] ( J )
7 Understand, then, that those who have faith ( K ) are children of Abraham. ( L ) 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” [ d ] ( M ) 9 So those who rely on faith ( N ) are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. ( O )
10 For all who rely on the works of the law ( P ) are under a curse, ( Q ) as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” [ e ] ( R ) 11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, ( S ) because “the righteous will live by faith.” [ f ] ( T ) 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” [ g ] ( U ) 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law ( V ) by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” [ h ] ( W ) 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, ( X ) so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. ( Y )
15 Brothers and sisters, ( Z ) let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. ( AA ) Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” [ i ] ( AB ) meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years ( AC ) later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; ( AD ) but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions ( AE ) until the Seed ( AF ) to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels ( AG ) and entrusted to a mediator. ( AH ) 20 A mediator, ( AI ) however, implies more than one party; but God is one.
21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! ( AJ ) For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. ( AK ) 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, ( AL ) so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
23 Before the coming of this faith, [ j ] we were held in custody ( AM ) under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. ( AN ) 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came ( AO ) that we might be justified by faith. ( AP ) 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. ( AQ )
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God ( AR ) through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ ( AS ) have clothed yourselves with Christ. ( AT ) 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, ( AU ) nor is there male and female, ( AV ) for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ( AW ) 29 If you belong to Christ, ( AX ) then you are Abraham’s seed, ( AY ) and heirs ( AZ ) according to the promise. ( BA )
