Bible Time

¹OH foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you from your faith after Jesus Messiah, crucified, has been pictured before your eyes? ²This only I want to know from you, Did you receive the Spirit through the works of the law or through obedience to faith? ³Are you so foolish, after having begun with spiritual things, to end now with things of the flesh? ⁴Have you believed all these things in vain? I hope that it is to no purpose. ⁵Does he therefore who gives you the Spirit and works miracles among you do these things by the works of the law or by obedience to faith?

⁶Just as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, ⁷You must know therefore that those who trust in faith are the children of Abraham. ⁸Because God knew in advance that the Gentiles would be declared righteous through faith, he first preached to Abraham, as it is said in the Holy Scripture, In you will all the Gentiles be blessed. ⁹So then, it is the believers who are blessed through Abraham the faithful. ¹⁰For those who rely on the works of the law are still under the curse; for as it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not practice everything which is written in the book of the law. ¹¹But that no man is justified by the law before God, is evident; for, as it is written, The righteous will live by faith. ¹²Thus the law is not made by faith, but, Whoever will do the things which are written in it will live in it. ¹³Messiah has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming accursed for our sakes, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a cross, ¹⁴That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Messiah, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. ¹⁵My brothers, I speak as I would to an assembly of men: Though it be but a man's contract, yet if it be confirmed, no man can reject it or change anything in it. ¹⁶Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his descendants as a contract. He did not say, To your descendants, as in many, but, To your descendants, as in 1, that is Messiah. ¹⁷And this I say, that the contract which was previously confirmed of God in Messiah cannot be repudiated and the promise nullified by the law which came 430 years later. ¹⁸For if the inheritance is by the law, then it would not be as the fulfillment of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

¹⁹Then what is the use of the law? It was added because of transgression, until the coming of the heir to whom the promise was made; and the law was given by angels by the hand of a mediator. ²⁰Now a mediator does not represent one alone, but God is one. ²¹Is the law then against the promises of God? Far be it; for if a law had been given which could have worked salvation, righteousness would truly have come as the result of the law. ²²But the scripture has included everything under sin, that the promise by the faith of Jesus Messiah might be given to those who believe. ²³But before faith came, we were guided by the law, while we were waiting for the faith which was to be revealed. ²⁴The law then was our pathfinder to bring us to Messiah, that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But since faith has come, we no longer are in need of the pathfinder. ²⁶For you are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Messiah. ²⁷For those who have been baptized in the name of Messiah have been clothed with Messiah. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Aramean, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Jesus Messiah. ²⁹So if you belong to Messiah, then you are descendants of Abraham, and his heirs according to the promise.