Galatians 3

¹O senseless Galatians, who has cast a spell on you? Before your eyes Jesus Christ as crucified was openly proclaimed as if on a public placard.

²I only want to learn this from you: did you receive the spirit by the works of the law, or by trusting what you heard?

³Are you so senseless? After beginning in the spirit, are you now trying to finish in the flesh?

⁴Did you experience so many things in vain—if it really was in vain?

⁵So then, does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do it because you do the works of the law or because you trust what you heard—

⁶just like Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness?

⁷Know then, that those who rely on trust, they are children of Abraham.

⁸And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would declare the Gentiles righteous by trust, proclaimed the good news to Abraham ahead of time, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you.

⁹So then, those who rely on trust are blessed along with Abraham, the man of trust.

¹⁰You see, everyone who relies on works of the law is under a curse, because it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything that is written in the book of the law.

¹¹But it is clear that no one is declared righteous before God by the law, because the righteous will live by trust.

¹²But the law is not based on trust; rather, the one who does them will live by them.

¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (for it is written: cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree),

¹⁴so that in connection with Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham could come to the Gentiles, and so that through trust we could receive the spirit that was promised.

¹⁵Brothers and sisters, I am speaking from a human perspective: even with a human covenant, no one annuls or adds to it after it has been ratified.

¹⁶Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. It does not say, “and to seeds,” as if referring to many, but “and to your seed,” referring to one, which is Christ.

¹⁷Now I tell you this: the law, which came 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.

¹⁸For if the inheritance is based on the law, it is no longer based on the promise, but God will graciously give it to Abraham because of the promise.

¹⁹Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the seed for whom the promise was intended would come, and it was commanded by God through angels by the hand of a mediator.

²⁰Now a mediator is not for one party only; but God is only one.

²¹Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have been based on law.

²²But the Scripture has imprisoned everyone under sin, so that the promise would be given based on trust in Jesus Christ to those who believe.

²³But before that trust came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the trust that was going to come was revealed.

²⁴So then, the law has been our guardian-tutor until Christ, so that we could now be declared righteous by trust.

²⁵But now that trust has come, we are no longer under a guardian-tutor.

²⁶For you are all sons of God through trust in Christ Jesus.

²⁷For every one of you who was baptized into union with Christ has put on Christ.

²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you all are one in union with Christ Jesus.

²⁹Now if you are one with Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs of what was promised.