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1You foolish Galatians! Who cast a spell on you? When I preached, I showed you clearly that Jesus Christ had been nailed to the cross.
2I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by keeping the law, or by believing what you heard?
3Are you so foolish? You began by the Spirit; are you now trying to finish by your own efforts?
4Have you experienced so much for nothing? (If it really was for nothing.)
5Let me ask again: Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you do what the law says? Or is it because you believe what you’ve heard?
6In the same way, Abraham “believed God, and this was considered to make him right with God.”
7So you should understand that people who have faith are children of Abraham.
8Scripture saw long ago that God would make the Gentiles right with himself by faith. It announced the good news ahead of time to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
9So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
10All who rely on obeying the law are under a curse. It is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
11We know that no one who relies on the law is made right with God, because “the one who is right with God will live by faith.”
12The law isn’t based on faith. In fact, it’s just the opposite. The law 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. It is written, “Everyone who is hanged on a pole is under God’s curse.”
14He set us free so that the blessing that was given to Abraham would come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus. That way by faith we would receive the promised Holy Spirit.
15Brothers and sisters, let me give you an example from everyday life. Once people make an official agreement, no one else can cancel it or change it.
16It’s the same with the promises that God made to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture doesn’t say, “and to your seeds.” That would mean many people. It says, “and to your seed.” That means one person—Christ.
17Here’s what I mean: The law was introduced 430 years after the covenant God made with Abraham. It can’t cancel their agreement or get rid of the promise.
18If the benefits of this agreement depended on the law, then they would no longer depend on the promise. But God gave them to Abraham as a free gift through a promise.
19Then why was the law given at all? It was added because of human sin. It was supposed to control us until the promised Seed came. The law was given through angels, and a mediator was put in charge of it.
20When a mediator is involved, that means there’s more than one party to an agreement. But God didn’t use a mediator when he made his promise to Abraham.
21So is the law opposed to God’s promises? Certainly not! If a law had been given that could give life, then people could become right with God by obeying that law.
22But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised could be given through faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe.
23Before faith in Christ came, the law was guarding us. We were locked up while waiting for faith to appear.
24So the law was put in charge of us until Christ came. He came so that we could be shown to be in the right because of faith.
25But now that this faith has come, the law is no longer in charge of us.
26So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.
27All of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ as if he were new clothes.
28There’s no longer any Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, because you’re all one in Christ Jesus.
29If you belong to Christ, then you’re Abraham’s seed, and you’ll receive what God has promised.