Galatians 3:1-14 - Justified By The Law, Or Justified By Faith?
1 You foolish Galatians! Whose sophistry has bewitched you--you to whom Jesus Christ has been vividly portrayed as on the Cross? 2 Answer me this one question, "Is it on the ground of your obedience to the Law that you received the Spirit, or is it because, when you heard, you believed?" 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now going to reach perfection through what is external? 4 Have you endured such sufferings to no purpose--if indeed it has been to no purpose? 5 He who gives you His Spirit and works miracles among you--does He do so on the ground of your obedience to the Law, or is it the result of your having heard and believed:
6 even as Abraham believed God, and his faith was placed to his account as righteousness? 7 Notice therefore that those who possess faith are true sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that in consequence of faith God would declare the nations to be free from guilt, sent beforehand the Good News to Abraham, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed." 9 So we see that it is those who possess faith that are blessed with believing Abraham.
10 All who are depending upon their own obedience to the Law are under a curse, for it is written, "Cursed is every one who does not remain faithful to all the precepts of the Law, and practise them." 11 It is evident, too, that no one can find acceptance with God simply by obeying the Law, because "the righteous shall live by faith," 12 and the Law has nothing to do with faith. It teaches that "he who does these things shall live by doing them." 13 Christ has purchased our freedom from the curse of the Law by becoming accursed for us--because "Cursed is every one who is hanged upon a tree." 14 Our freedom has been thus purchased in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing belonging to Abraham may come upon the nations, so that through faith we may receive the promised Spirit.