Galatians 3

1You foolish people of Galatia! Who has put a spell on you? Jesus Christ was clearly shown to you as the one who died on the cross.

2I want to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by obeying the law, or by believing what you heard?

3Are you so foolish? You began with the Spirit. Are you now trying to finish by your own human effort?

4Have you suffered so much for nothing — if it really was for nothing?

5So when God gives you his Spirit and does miracles among you, does he do it because you obey the law, or because you believe what you heard?

6It is the same as with Abraham: He believed God, and because of that he was accepted as right with God.

7So you can see that the true children of Abraham are the people who have faith.

8The Scripture knew ahead of time that God would make the other nations right with him through faith. So the Scripture told the good news to Abraham in advance: All nations will be blessed through you.

9So those who have faith are blessed together with Abraham, the man of faith.

10But all who depend on obeying the law are under a curse. For the Scripture says: Cursed is everyone who does not keep doing everything written in the book of the law.

11Clearly, no one is made right with God by the law, because the Scripture says: The person who is right with God will live by faith.

12The law is not based on faith. Instead it says: The person who does these things will live by them.

13Christ set us free from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For the Scripture says: Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.

14Christ did this so that the blessing given to Abraham could come to the other nations through Jesus Christ, and so that by faith we could receive the Spirit that God promised.

15Brothers and sisters, let me use an everyday example. Once an agreement between people is signed, no one can cancel it or add to it.

16Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people. It says “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.

17Here is what I mean: the law came four hundred and thirty years later. It cannot cancel the agreement God had already made, and so it cannot do away with the promise.

18For if what God gives depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise. But God gave it to Abraham as a promise, by his grace.

19Then what was the law for? It was added because of sin, until the Seed should come — the one to whom the promise was made. The law was given through angels, by a go-between.

20Now a go-between is for more than one side, but God is one.

21So is the law against the promises of God? No, never! If a law had been given that could give life, then being right with God really would come through the law.

22But the Scripture says that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that the promise might be given — through faith in Jesus Christ — to those who believe.

23Before this faith came, we were held prisoner by the law, locked up until the coming faith would be shown to us.

24So the law was like a guardian to lead us to Christ, so that we could be made right with God by faith.

25Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

26So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.

27For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

28There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. You are all one in Christ Jesus.

29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's family, and you will receive what God promised.