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“It Is Those Who Have Faith Who Are Blessed along with Abraham”
1 You foolish Galatians! Exactly who was it+ that put a spell on you, in whose presence+ Jesus the Messiah was vividly described+ as crucified?
2 Answer me this one question: Was it+ by deeds of Torah that you received the Spirit, or by placing your faith in what you heard?+
3 Are you really so foolish+? Although+ you began by the Spirit, now is it+ mere human strength+ by which you are trying to finish?
4 Did you experience so many+ painful and remarkable+ things for nothing? I can’t believe that!+
5 Does the one who provides you with the Spirit and performs acts of power within+ you, therefore, do so by deeds of Torah, or by your placing your faith in what you heard?+
6 Abraham provides our example:+ “He placed+ his faith in God, and it was put down on record for him as righteousness.”+
7 Be assured of this, then: It is+ those who have faith who are Abraham’s *
8 Because+ the Scripture foresaw, moreover, that it was+ by faith that God would mercifully+ hold the Gentiles to be righteous, it proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham: “All the nations will be blessed in+ ˢyou.”+
9 So then, it is+ those who share faith+ who are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.+
10 Everyone who shares deeds of Torah,+ you see, is under a curse.+ Indeed, it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the Scroll+ of the Torah,+ and do them.”+
11 Now the fact that through Torah no one is “held to be righteous in the sight of God”+ is clear:+ “As for the righteous one, it is+ by faith that he will have life.”+
12 Torah, on the other hand,+ is not by faith, yet “the person who does these things will have life by them.”+
13 The Messiah, with regard to us, paid the price for us to be released+ from the curse pronounced in Torah,++ by+ becoming for us a curse (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree”+),
14 so that to the Gentiles would come, in union with Messiah Jesus,+ the very blessing promised to Abraham, so that the promised+ Spirit we might receive through faith.+
15 Let me illustrate, brothers and sisters,+ using something with which you are familiar.+ Once a covenant has been solemnly sworn+ into effect, even+ a merely+ human one, no one dares+ to turn his back on it or add to its terms.
16 Now, to whom exactly were the promises made?+ To Abraham, and to his “seed.”+ The Torah+ does not say, “and to seeds,” as though referring to multiple people, but says this—+“and to ˢyour seed”+—in reference to a single person, namely, the Messiah.
17 Now here is my point: The binding force+ of the covenant previously initiated+ and put into effect by God,+ Torah, which came a good+ four hundred thirty years later, does not undo+ so as to cancel the promise.
18 If it is+ by Torah that the inheritance comes, you see, then it no longer comes by promise. On Abraham, however, God has graciously bestowed+ it by promise.+
19 In light of these things, why was Torah given? It was added for this+ reason: To make sin even more severe and intense by giving it specific definition,+ added+ until the arrival of the “seed” to whom the inheritance+ has been promised,+ its instructions having been laid down in detail+ through angels,+ with Moses acting as an intermediary.++
20 An intermediary, moreover, by definition implies the existence of what?+ More than one party, who can’t meet directly.+ God, however, as a single party does+ act directly.+
21 Is Torah, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! If a Torah had been given that was capable of giving life, you see, then righteousness would have come, truly,+ by Torah.
22 However, as the Scriptures make clear,+ God chose to yield+ the entire human race+ over to the enslaving and tyrannical+ power+ of sin,+ so that what was promised might be given to those who place their faith in him* of Jesus the Messiah.+
23 Now, prior to the arrival of this faith,+ it was+ under the jurisdiction+ of Torah that we were being held prisoner,+ yielded over to the power of sin+ until+ the appearance+ of the faith that was destined to be revealed.+
24 As a result, Torah has turned out to be this:+ Our guardian. Like an attendant hired to escort a child to and from school, supervising and guiding his conduct until he comes of age,+ so Torah did with us+ until+ the arrival+ of the Messiah, so that we might be held to be righteous by faith.+
25 Because+ this faith has come, however, we are subject+ to a guardian no longer.+
26 All of you, you see, are through faith, in union+ with Messiah Jesus,+ sons of God.+
27 Indeed, all of you who were baptized+ into union+ with the Messiah became clothed,+ with the Messiah’s own life.+
28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile,+ there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female.+ Indeed, all of you constitute, in union with Messiah Jesus,+ a single and united fellowship.+
29 If ᵖyou belong to the Messiah, moreover, ᵖyou are “seed,” then,+ of Abraham, heirs+ according to promise.+