Galatians
Chapter 3
1 Silly Galatians, who tricked you into not following the truth, when you clearly saw Jesus Christ shown as crucified before you?
2 I want to know this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by following the law, or by believing what you heard?
3 Are you so foolish? After starting with the Spirit, are you now trying to become perfect by human effort?
4 Did you go through all this for nothing? If it was indeed for nothing.
5 So, the one who gives you the Spirit and does miracles among you, does he do it because you follow the law, or because you believe what you heard?
6 Abraham trusted God, and it was considered as righteousness for him.
7 Understand then that those who have faith are Abraham’s children.
8 The Bible, knowing that God would accept non-Jews because of their faith, told Abraham the good news in advance: “All peoples will be blessed through you.”
9 So those who have faith are blessed together with Abraham, who was faithful.
10 Everyone who relies on following the law is under a curse, because it is said, “Cursed is anyone who does not keep doing everything written in the law.”
11 It’s clear that no one can be seen as right by God just by following the law, for a person who is right will live by faith.
12 The law does not depend on faith; rather, a person who follows the rules will have life by them.
13 Christ has saved us from the law’s curse by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, “Everyone who hangs on a tree is cursed.”
14 So Abraham’s blessing could come to people of all nations through Jesus Christ; and so we could receive what the Spirit promised by believing.
15 Friends, I’m speaking in human terms; even with a human agreement, once it’s been made official, no one cancels or adds to it.
16 God made promises to Abraham and his one descendant, who is Christ, not to many descendants.
17 I tell you this: the agreement God made in Christ long ago cannot be canceled by the law that came 430 years later. It cannot erase the promise.
18 If the inheritance comes from the law, it is not based on a promise; but God gave it to Abraham through a promise.
19 Why then do we have the law? It was put in place for when people do wrong, until the one promised would come; and it was set up by God through messengers with a go-between.
20 A go-between does not just represent one person, but God is one.
21 Is the law against God’s promises? No way: because if there were a law that could give life, then being right with God would truly come from the law.
22 The Bible has shown everyone is under sin, so that the promise could be given through faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe.
23 Before we had faith, we were guarded by the law, locked up until the faith that was to be revealed later.
24 The law was our teacher to lead us to Christ, so that we could be made right with God by trusting in Him.
25 After faith arrives, we are no longer under a teacher.
26 You are all God’s children through faith in Christ Jesus.
27 All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
28 In Christ Jesus, everyone is the same—no Jew or Greek, no slave or free person, no male or female.
29 If you belong to Christ, then you are descendants of Abraham and will inherit what was promised.