Galatians 3:1-14
Those who belong to Christ receive the Spirit and Abraham's blessing by faith because Christ redeemed them from the curse of the law.
1 Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified?
2 I just want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?
4 Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it is indeed in vain?
5 He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you and does miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
6 Even as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.”
7 Know therefore that those who are of faith are children of Abraham.
8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.”
9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham.
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
11 Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, “The righteous will live by faith.”
12 The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.”
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”
14 that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Those who belong to Christ receive the Spirit and Abraham's blessing by faith because Christ redeemed them from the curse of the law.
Paul confronts the Galatians' folly by showing that their reception of the Spirit, their inclusion in Abraham's blessing, and their redemption from the law's curse all come through faith in Christ rather than works of the law.
After defending the divine origin of his gospel and showing that even apostolic behavior must be measured by gospel truth, Paul now turns directly to the Galatians' theological confusion. Galatians 2:15-21 stated the doctrine: a person is not justified by works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, and the believer's life is now lived by faith in the Son of God. Galatians 3:1-14 presses that doctrine into argument, rebuke, and Scripture proof. Paul begins with the Galatians' reception of the Spirit, moves to Abraham as the pattern of faith, contrasts blessing and curse, and then anchors redemption in Christ's curse-bearing death. The passage begins the letter's major covenantal argument, showing that the Abrahamic promise is not fulfilled through circumcision-law identity markers but through faith in Christ. It also prepares for the later explanation of the law's temporary role and the believer's status as sons and heirs.
Paul writes to churches being pressured to add works of the law, especially identity-marking practices, to faith in Christ as necessary for full covenant standing. In this passage he appeals to their own experience of the Spirit and to Abraham's faith to expose the contradiction of seeking completion by the flesh after beginning by the Spirit.
Faith, Promise, and the Curse-Bearing Christ
God's promised blessing comes through faith in Christ, who bore the law's curse so that all who belong to him receive the Spirit, sonship, unity, and inheritance as Abraham's seed.