³ How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?

⁴ For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.

⁵ But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. ⁶ For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

⁷ You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? ⁸ It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom.

⁷ Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child.^[a] And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

Paul’s Concern for the Galatians

⁸ Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. ⁹ So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? ¹⁰ You are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years.

⁹ This is an illustration pointing to the present time. For the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them. ¹⁰ For that old system deals only with food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies—physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established.

¹⁶ Jesus became a priest, not by meeting the physical requirement of belonging to the tribe of Levi, but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed. ¹⁷ And the psalmist pointed this out when he prophesied,

¹⁸ Yes, the old requirement about the priesthood was set aside because it was weak and useless. ¹⁹ For the law never made anything perfect. But now we have confidence in a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

¹² Those who are trying to force you to be circumcised want to look good to others. They don’t want to be persecuted for teaching that the cross of Christ alone can save. ¹³ And even those who advocate circumcision don’t keep the whole law themselves. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast about it and claim you as their disciples.

¹⁴ As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross,^[a] my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.

² There were two rooms in that Tabernacle.^[a] In the first room were a lampstand, a table, and sacred loaves of bread on the table. This room was called the Holy Place.