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The Blue Letter Bible

Galatians 3 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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The Law and Faith in Christ
(cf. Rom 4:1–25 )

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:1

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:1 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:2

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:2 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:3

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:3 - How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:4

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:4 - Have you experienced[fn] so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:5

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:5 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:6

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:6 - In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:7

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:7 - The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:8

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:8 - 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.”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:9

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:9 - So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:10

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:10 - 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.”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:11

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:11 - 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.”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:12

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:12 - 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.”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:13

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:13 - 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.”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:14

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:14 - 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[fn] Holy Spirit through faith.
The Law and God’s Promise
(cf. Gen 12:1–3 )

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:15

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:15 - Dear brothers and sisters,[fn] 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:16

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:16 - God gave the promises to Abraham and his child.[fn] And notice that the Scripture doesn’t say “to his children,[fn]” as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says “to his child”—and that, of course, means Christ.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:17

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:17 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:18

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:18 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:19

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:19 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:20

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:20 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:21

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:21 - Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises?[fn] Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:22

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:22 - 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.
God’s Children through Faith

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:23

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:23 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:24

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:24 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:25

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:25 - And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:26

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:26 - For you are all children[fn] of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:27

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:27 - And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:28

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:28 - There is no longer Jew or Gentile,[fn] slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gal 3:29

Unchecked Copy BoxGal 3:29 - And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children[fn] of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.
See the NLT Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NLT Footnotes
Or Have you suffered.
Gen 15:6.
Gen 12:3; 18:18; 22:18.
Deut 27:26.
Hab 2:4.
Lev 18:5.
Deut 21:23 (Greek version).
Some manuscripts read the blessing of the.
Greek Brothers.
Greek seed; also in 3:16c, 19. See notes on Gen 12:7 and 13:15.
Greek seeds.
Some manuscripts read and the promises?
Greek sons.
Greek have put on Christ.
Greek Jew or Greek.
Greek seed.
NLT

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

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Galatians Chapter 3 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New International Version English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Morphological Greek New Testament Textus Receptus Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras