- Denunciation (1:6-10)
- The Galatians' Experience of the Gospel (3:1-5)
- The Experience of Abraham (3:6-9)
- The Curse of the Law (3:10-14)
- The Priority of the Promise (3:15-18)
- The Purpose of the Law (3:19-25)
- Sons, Not Slaves (3:26;4:7)
The Danger of Turning Back (4:8-11)Appeal to Embrace the Freedom of God's Children (4:12-20)God's Children Are Children of the Free Woman (4:21-31)
Galatians 3 NLT
1 Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast
an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear
to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross.
2 Let me ask you this one question: Did
you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You
received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about
Christ.
3 How foolish can you be? After
starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect
by your own human effort?
4 Have you experienced so much for
nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?
5 I ask you again, does God give you
the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course
not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.
6 In the same way, “Abraham believed
God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
7The real children of Abraham, then, are
those who put their faith in God.
8 What’s more, the Scriptures looked
forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous
because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when
he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.”
9 So all who put their faith in Christ
share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.
10 But those who depend on the law to
make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed
is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in
God’s Book of the Law.”
11 So it is clear that no one can be
made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is
through faith that a righteous person has life.”
12 This way of faith is very different
from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person
has life.”
13 But Christ has rescued us from the
curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon
himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures,
“Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
14 Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed
the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are
believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.
15 Dear brothers and sisters, here’s an
example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or amend an
irrevocable agreement, so it is in this case.
16 God gave the promises to Abraham and
his child. And notice that the Scripture doesn’t say “to his children, ” as if
it meant many descendants. Rather, it says “to his child”—and that, of course,
means Christ.
17 This is what I am trying to say: The
agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when
God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise.
18 For if the inheritance could be
received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s
promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise.
19 Why, then, was the law given? It was
given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed
to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law
through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people.
20 Now a mediator is helpful if more
than one party must reach an agreement. But God, who is one, did not use a mediator
when he gave his promise to Abraham.
21 Is there a conflict, then, between
God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new
life, we could be made right with God by obeying it.
22 But the Scriptures declare that we
are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by
believing in Jesus Christ.
23 Before the way of faith in Christ was
available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in
protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed.
24 Let me put it another way. The law
was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made
right with God through faith.
25And now that the way of faith has come, we
no longer need the law as our guardian.
26 For you are all children of God
through faith in Christ Jesus.
27 And all who have been united with
Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.
28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile,
slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And now that you
belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and
God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.
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