An Illustration from Marriage

Since I am speaking to those who understand law, brothers,(A) are you unaware that the law has authority over someone as long as he lives? For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives.(B) But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband. So then, if she gives herself to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she gives herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

Therefore, my brothers, you also were put to death(C) in relation to the law(D) through the crucified body of the Messiah,(E) so that you may belong to another—to Him who was raised from the dead—that we may bear fruit for God.

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Released From the Law, Bound to Christ

Do you not know, brothers and sisters(A)—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him.(B) So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress.(C) But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law(D) through the body of Christ,(E) that you might belong to another,(F) to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

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24 The law, then, was our guardian[a] until Christ,(A) so that we could be justified by faith.

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Footnotes

  1. Galatians 3:24 The word translated guardian in vv. 24-25 is different from the word in Gl 4:2. In our culture, we do not have a slave who takes a child to and from school, protecting the child from harm or corruption. In Gk the word paidogogos described such a slave. This slave was not a teacher.

24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came(A) that we might be justified by faith.(B)

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to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.(A)

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to redeem(A) those under the law, that we might receive adoption(B) to sonship.[a](C)

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Footnotes

  1. Galatians 4:5 The Greek word for adoption to sonship is a legal term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture.