A COLLECTION OF EPISTLES

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1 O foolish Galatians! Who deceived you not to submit to the truth, you who had Jesus Christ predestined before your eyes, as if crucified?

2 This I only want to know from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by instruction in the faith?

3 Are you so foolish that, having begun in the Spirit, you now end in the flesh?

4 Have you suffered so much in vain? Oh, if only it were useless!

5 Does he who giveth you the Spirit, and doeth miracles among you, by the works of the law, or by instruction in the faith?

6 Thus Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.

7 Know therefore that those who believe are the sons of Abraham.

8 And the Scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, foretold to Abraham, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

9 Therefore believers are blessed with faithful Abraham,

10 And all that are established in the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not continually do all that is written in the book of the law.

11 And that no man is justified before God by the law, this is clear, for the righteous shall live by faith.

12 But the law is not according to faith; but whoever fulfills it will live by it.

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, becoming a curse for us [for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree],

14 that the blessing of Abraham through Christ Jesus might be extended to the Gentiles, that we might receive the promised Spirit by faith.

15 Brethren! I speak according to human reasoning: no one revokes or adds to a testament approved by a person.

16 But promises were given to Abraham, and to his seed. It is not said: and to the descendants, as of many, but as of one: and to thy seed, which is Christ.

17 What I say is that the covenant of Christ, which was established before God, is not abolished by the law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, so that the promise should be no longer valid.

18 For if it be an inheritance according to the law, it is no longer according to the promise; but to Abraham God gave it according to the promise.