⁴ You who want to be reckoned as righteous^[a] by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.^(A)

²⁰ For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the^[a] Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.^{(A) 21} For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was handed on to them.^{(B) 22} It has happened to them according to the true proverb,

and,

²¹ I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness^[a] comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

³¹ but Israel, who did strive for the law of righteousness, did not attain that law.^{(A) 32} Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,^(B)

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

¹⁵ See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and through it many become defiled.^(A)

The Nature of Christian Freedom

² Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that, if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you.

⁴ Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due.^{(A) 5} But to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

²⁰ For no human will be justified before him by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.^(A)

⁴ For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit^{(A) 5} and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come^{(B) 6} and then have fallen away, since they are crucifying again the Son of God to their own harm and are holding him up to contempt.^(C)