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The Letter to the Galatians 3

3 You fellow believers who live in Galatia are acting mindlessly! Someone must have put an evil spell on you! I clearly explained to you what Jesus the Messiah accomplished when he died on the cross. 2 So, I want to tell you this one thing: God did not give you his Holy Spirit because you obeyed the laws that he gave Moses. Surely you must know that the reason he gave you his Holy Spirit is because when you heard the good news about the Messiah you believed it. 3 You are acting very foolishly! You first became Christians because God’s Spirit enabled you. So, you should not now think that it is because of what you do by obeying the laws God gave Moses that you will continue to grow spiritually. 4 Keep in mind that if what God has done for you was because of your obeying the laws that God gave to Moses and not because of trusting in the Messiah then you suffered many things needlessly! I certainly hope that you did not suffer like that needlessly. 5 So then, when God now generously gives to you his Spirit and performs mighty deeds among you, it is not because you obey the laws that God gave to Moses? Surely you know it is because when you heard the good news about the Messiah you believed it!

6 What you have experienced is just as Moses had written in the scriptures about Abraham. He wrote that Abraham trusted God, and as a result, God considered Abraham as being righteous. 7 You must realize, therefore, that it is those who trust in what the Messiah has done who are like Abraham’s descendants because they trust in God as Abraham did. 8 Furthermore, God planned beforehand that it was when non-Jews trusted him that he would consider them righteous. Moses wrote in the Scriptures this good message that God told Abraham: “Through you, I will bless people in all nations.” 9 So, we can conclude that it is those who trust in what the Messiah has done whom God blesses along with Abraham, the one who trusted him long ago. 10 That is, God will eternally punish all those who mistakenly think that God will consider them righteous as a result of their trying to obey the laws that God gave to Moses. What Moses wrote in the Scriptures is that God will eternally punish everyone who does not continuously and completely obey all the laws that God instructed him to write in the Book of the Law. 11 God does not regard any person as righteous as a result of their trying to obey the laws that he gave to Moses. This is evident since the Scriptures say, “Every righteous person lives spiritually as a result of their trusting God.” 12 But when God gave his laws to the Jews, he did not make them dependent upon a person believing in him. Instead God said that it is those who obey all God’s laws, continuously and completely, who will live through obeying them.

13 Even though we humans have not continuously and completely obeyed God’s laws, the Messiah rescued us from God punishing us eternally. The Messiah rescued us by his being the one God condemned instead of God condemning us. What Moses wrote in the Scriptures shows that this is true. He wrote, “God has cursed anyone whom people have executed for his crimes by hanging his body on a tree.” 14 The Messiah rescued us in order that as a result of what he has done, God might bless the non-Jews, in a way similar to the way God blessed Abraham. The reason for this is that as a result of our trusting in the Messiah, we all might receive the Holy Spirit whom God promised to give to us.

15 My fellow believers, I will now illustrate by referring to human relationships. After two people have signed an agreement, no one can reject it or add to it. 16 God declared to Abraham and his descendant that he was promising to give blessings to Abraham. The words that God spoke were not “and your descendants.” He was not referring to many persons. Instead, he was referring to one person, who is the Messiah, because the words that God spoke were, “and your descendant.” 17 This is what I am saying: God established an agreement with Abraham that the laws which he gave to the Jews 430 years later could not cancel. 18 I want you to know that if it is because we obey the laws God gave to the Jews that he gives to us what he has promised to give to us, then he would not be giving it because he had promised to do so. However, God kindly gave to Abraham what he had promised to give to him, just because God had promised that he would give it to him. Similarly, it is not because we obey God’s laws that God kindly gives to us what he has promised to give to us.

19 So, if someone should ask, “Why did God later give his laws to Moses?” I would reply that it was in order that people might realize how sinful they were. Those laws were valid until Jesus came. He was the descendant that God was referring to when he made the promises to Abraham. God gave his laws to Moses by God’s causing angels to speak to him. Moses was the mediator, the one who told the laws to the people. 20 Now, when a mediator functions, one person is not speaking with another directly; but God himself made his promises directly to Abraham.

21 If someone should ask, “When God gave his laws to Moses long after he told Abraham what he was promising to give to him, was he changing his mind?” I would reply that God certainly did not change his mind when he did that! If God had given a law that could enable people to live eternally and spiritually, then it certainly would be because of people obeying that law that God would consider people righteous. 22 But, in fact, it is impossible for the law to enable people to live eternally or spiritually. Instead, the law given in the Scriptures caused all people to be unable to escape being punished for their sins, just like people in prison are unable to escape. God did that in order that he might give what he promised to those who trust Jesus Christ, just because they trust him. 23 Before God revealed the good news about trusting in the Messiah, the laws that God gave to Moses were confining us, as a prisoner in jail is confined. This happened until the time we might believe the good news concerning the Messiah, the good news that God was about to reveal and now has. 24 Like a father supervises his immature child by appointing a servant to take care of that child, God was supervising us by his laws until the Messiah came. He did this in order that he might now declare us righteous in his sight only because we trust in the Messiah. 25 But now that God has revealed the message about trusting in the Messiah, the laws that God gave to Moses no longer supervise us.

26 Now all of you Jews and non-Jews are as though you are God’s children because you trust in the Messiah Jesus. You are now in close spiritual union with the Messiah Jesus because you believe in Him. 27 That is, you who began a relationship with the Messiah when you were baptized identified yourselves with Christ. 28 If you believe in the Messiah, it does not matter to God if you are Jews or non-Jews; slaves or ones who are not slaves; males or females, because all of you are as one sort of person because of your relationship with the Messiah Jesus. 29 Furthermore, since you belong to the Messiah, you are like Abraham’s descendants because you trust God as Abraham did, and you will possess what God promised Abraham.

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