Galatians
3 You stupid Galatians, who hypnotized you, you who had had it advertised before your eyes that Jesus Christ was crucified? 2** I want to find out this one thing from you: was it as the outcome of deeds in observance of the law that you received the Spirit or was it as the outcome of listening in faith? 3 Are you so stupid as this? when you began by Spirit are you now finishing by flesh? 4 Did you undergo so much for nothing?—if for nothing it was! 5** Does he who furnishes the Spirit to you, then, and who works miracles among you, do it as the outcome of deeds in observance of the law or as the outcome of listening in faith? 6 As Abraham “believed God, and it was counted as righteousness for him.” 7* Know, then, that it is the men of faith who are sons of Abraham. 8 And the text, foreseeing that God is justifying the nations as the outcome of faith, gave Abraham the anticipatory gospel message “In you all the nations shall be blessed,” 9 so that the men of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. 10* For as many as are on the basis of deeds in observance of the law are under a curse; for it says “Accursed is everyone who does not persist in everything written in the book of the law to live up to it.” 11* And that in the law nobody is justified in God’s presence is obvious, because “the righteous man shall have life by virtue of faith” 12 and the law is not by virtue of faith but “he who practices them shall have life by them.” 13* Christ bought us off from the curse of the law, becoming a curse for us (because it says “anyone hanging on wood is accursed”), 14* that in Jesus Christ Abraham’s blessing might be on the nations, that we might receive the promised gift of the Spirit through faith.
15 Brothers, I speak from a human point of view; it is the same with a human engagement: when it has been validated, nobody ignores it or adds new conditions to it. 16 But the promise was uttered to Abraham “and his seed”—he does not say “and seeds” as referring to many, but, as referring to one, “and your seed,” who is Christ. 17 And this is what I am saying: when an engagement had been previously validated by God, the law that came into existence four hundred and thirty years later could not invalidate it so as to supersede the promise. 18* For if the inheritance is on the basis of a law it is no longer on the basis of a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by a promise.
19* How about the law then? It was added with a view to transgressions, until the Seed to whom the promise was made should come, and was prescribed through angels by the hand of an intermediary. 20* But an intermediary is not the intermediary of one. But God is one. 21** So is the law in antagonism to God’s promises? away with the thought! For if there had been given a law that could bring life, righteousness would really be by the law; 22* but the text has shut up everything under sin in order that as the outcome of faith in Jesus Christ the fulfillment of the promise might be given to those who believe.
23* But before faith came we were kept in custody under the law, shut up to be ready for the faith that was going to be revealed, 24* so that the law has been our conductor to Christ in order that we might be justified on the basis of faith. 25 But now that faith has come we are no longer under a conductor.
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all you who have been baptized to Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ; 28 there is no such thing as Jew or Greek, there is no such thing as slave or free, there is no such thing as male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are seed of Abraham, heirs by promise.