Montgomery - Galatians - 3

3:1  O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? You, before whose very eyes Jesus Christ was placarded as crucified!

3:2  Answer me this one question. "When you received the Spirit, was it from doing what the Law commands or from believing the message heard?"

3:3  Are you so without sense? After beginning with the Spirit, will you now end with the flesh?

3:4  Did you have such experience to no purpose - if indeed it was really to no purpose?

3:5  Does he then who supplies you with his Spirit and works miracles among you, do it because you do what the law commands of because you believe the message heard?

3:6  Even as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness?

3:7  Notice then that the true sons of Abraham are children of faith.

3:8  And the Scripture, anticipating God’s justification of the Gentiles by faith, announced the gospel to Abraham beforehand in the words, In thee shall all the Gentiles be blessed.

3:9  So then they who are children of faith are blessed with Abraham the faithful;

3:10  but a curse rests on those who have their root in the works of the Law; for it is written. Cursed is every one that continues not in all the things written in the Book of the Law, to do them.

3:11  And it is manifest that by the Law no man is justified in the sight of God. because The just shall live by faith,

3:12  and the Law has nothing to do with faith, but declares, The man that has done these things shall live therein.

3:13  Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us (for it is written, Cursed is every one who is hanged upon a tree),

3:14  to the end that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

3:15  Let me illustrate, brothers, from every-day life. When once a human testament is made, and formally ratified, no one sets it aside or adds to it.

3:16  Now it was to Abraham that the promises were spoken, and to his offspring. God did not say, "offsprings" as if speaking of many, but "and to your offspring," as of one; and this is Christ.

3:17  I mean to say that the testament which God has already ratified could not be annulled by the Law which came four hundred and thirty years later, so as to make the Promise void.

3:18  For if the inheritance comes from law, it no longer comes from a promise; but God did give it as a free gift to Abraham by a promise.

3:19  To what purpose, then, was the Law? It was imposed later for the sake of transgressions, until the "Offspring" should come to whom the promise had been made. It was arranged through angels by the hand of a mediator.

3:20  (Now a mediator implies more than one person, but God is only one.)

3:21  Is the Law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would actually have come from law;

3:22  but the Scripture has shut up the whole world in prison together under sin, in order that the promise due to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who have faith.

3:23  Before the Faith came we were perpetual prisoners under the Law, in preparation for the destined faith about to be revealed.

3:24  So the Law has been our tutor-slave our pedagogue to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith;

3:25  but now that the Faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor-slave.

3:26  You are all sons of God through your faith in Jesus Christ.

3:27  For all of you who were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ.

3:28  In him there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

3:29  And if you belong to Christ, then you are the descendants of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.