⁴ You are ^(A)severed from Christ, ^(B)you who would be justified^[a] by the law; ^(C)you have fallen away from grace.

²⁰ For if, ^(A)after they have escaped the defilements of the world ^(B)through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, ^(C)the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹ For ^(D)it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from ^(E)the holy commandment delivered to them. ²² What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The ^(F)dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

²¹ I do not nullify the grace of God, for ^(A)if righteousness^[a] were through the law, ^(B)then Christ died for no purpose.

³¹ but that Israel ^(A)who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness^{[a] (B)}did not succeed in reaching that law. ³² Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the ^(C)stumbling stone,

^6 (A)But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.