Galatians 3:15-29

Easy-to-Read Version

The Law and the Promise

¹⁵ Brothers and sisters, let me give you an example from everyday life: Think about an agreement that one person makes with another. After that agreement is made official, no one can stop it or add anything to it, and no one can ignore it. ¹⁶ God made promises to Abraham and his Descendant.^[a] The Scripture does not say, “and to your descendants.” That would mean many people. But it says, “and to your Descendant.” That means only one, and that one is Christ. ¹⁷ This is what I mean: The agreement that God gave to Abraham was made official long before the law came. The law came 430 years later. So the law could not take away the agreement and change God’s promise.

¹⁸ Can following the law give us the blessing God promised? If we could receive it by following the law, then it would not be God’s promise that brings it to us. But God freely gave his blessings to Abraham through the promise God made.

¹⁹ So what was the law for? The law was given to show the wrong things people do. The law would continue until the special Descendant of Abraham came. This is the Descendant mentioned in the promise, which came directly from God. But the law was given through angels, and the angels used Moses as a mediator to give the law to the people. ²⁰ But when God gave the promise, there was no mediator, because a mediator is not needed when there is only one side, and God is one.^[b]

The Purpose of the Law of Moses

²¹ Does this mean that the law works against God’s promises? Of course not. The law was never God’s way of giving new life to people. If it were, then we could be made right with God by following the law. ²² But this is not possible. The Scriptures put the whole world in prison under the control of sin, so that the only way for people to get what God promised would be through faith in^[c] Jesus Christ. It is given to those who believe in him.

²³ Before this faith came, the law held us as prisoners. We had no freedom until God showed us the way of faith that was coming. ²⁴ I mean the law was the guardian in charge of us until Christ came. After he came, we could be made right with God through faith. ²⁵ Now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law to be our guardian.

^26-27 You were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ. This shows that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁸ Now, in Christ, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or free, male or female. You are all the same in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ You belong to Christ, so you are Abraham’s descendants. You get all of God’s blessings because of the promise that God made to Abraham.