Galatians 3

¹O you senseless Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you? Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. ²This one thing I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Pneuma because of works of the law, or because of hearing with faith? ³Are you so senseless? Having begun with the Pneuma, are you now reaching the finish line by means of the sarx? ⁴Did you experience so many things in vain? If indeed it really was in vain. ⁵Does the one who supplies the Pneuma to you and works miracles among you do so because of your works of the law, or because you heard with faith?

⁶It is just as it was with Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as justice.” ⁷Understand then: those who live by faith, these are the sons of Abraham. ⁸And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith, announced the good news in advance to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” ⁹So then, those who live by faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

¹⁰For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the scroll of the Law, to do them.” ¹¹Now it is clear that no one is made just before God by the law, because “The just one will live by faith.” ¹²But the law is not based on faith; rather, “The one who does these things will live by them.” ¹³Christ bought us out from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— ¹⁴so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Pneuma through faith.

¹⁵Brothers, I am speaking in human terms: even with a person's ratified covenant, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it once it is established. ¹⁶Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. It does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one: “And to your seed,” who is Christ. ¹⁷What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not revoke a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. ¹⁸For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from a promise; but God has freely granted it to Abraham through a promise.

¹⁹Why then the Law? It was added because of transgressions, until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made. It was delivered through angels by the hand of a mediator. ²⁰Now a mediator is not for one party alone, but God is one. ²¹Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then justice would indeed have come from the law. ²²But the Scripture imprisoned everything under the power of sin, so that the promise, based on the faith of Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

²³Before this faith came, we were held in custody under the law, imprisoned until the faith that was coming should be revealed. ²⁴So the law became our paidagogos until Christ, so that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a paidagogos. ²⁶For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is no Jew or Greek, there is no slave or free, there is no male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.