1Listen, you mob in Galatia, I told you clearly why Jesus Christ died. It is like I painted a picture of him on the cross for you all to see. But now you are forgetting him. You are so silly, it's like somebody tricked you.
2Think about God’s spirit. When did he come into you? Was it when you were trying to follow the law? No, it was when you believed the good news about Jesus.
3You started your Christian life with the power of God’s spirit, and now you are trying to keep it going with just your own power. That is really stupid.
4You believed God, and then you went through a lot of trouble. Was that all for nothing? I hope it was not for nothing.
5Look, God gives you his spirit and he does great things among you with his power. You see, he doesn’t think, “They are following the law, so I will do powerful things for them.” But he thinks, “They believe the message about Jesus, so I will do powerful things for them.”
6Do you know the story about Abraham? It was the same for him. In God’s book we read, “Abraham believed God, so God reckoned that Abraham was properly good.”
7And from that you can understand that Abraham’s real family are the people that believe God.
8And, you know, God’s book says what will happen later, and it says that if anyone believes God, he will say they are all right. God will even say this to people that are not Jews. His book says that God told Abraham, “I will use you to make the people in every tribe happy.”
9So God will be good to everyone that believes him, just like he was good to Abraham when Abraham believed God.
10You see, God will make trouble for those people who reckon they are all right if they just follow the law. They think that, in the end, God will agree that they are all right. But they are wrong. God’s book says, “You have to keep on doing everything in the law book, or God will punish you.”
11And we all know that nobody can follow that law properly, so nobody is good enough for God to say they are all right. But God says this in his book, “If you trust God he will say you are all right, and you will live.”
12But if somebody just follows the Jewish law they never think about trusting God. You see, God’s book says, “Everyone that reckons they will live if they follow the law, they have to do everything in that law.”
13If we try to follow that law we will not be able to do it properly, and in the end God will punish us. But we don’t have to follow that law. You see, God already punished Jesus Christ instead of us. In that way he paid for us, and he made us free from that trouble. God’s book says, “If people hang somebody from wood to kill him, that person gets trouble from God.” Well, they nailed Jesus Christ to that wooden cross, and he got that trouble from God.
14Jesus Christ died like that to pay for all of us. He bought us for God. So now the people that are not Jews can get the good things from God that he promised to Abraham’s mob. So, if we believe in Jesus Christ, God will give us his spirit, just like he promised.
15My Christian friends, you already know what people do when they agree about something, so I will use that as a picture. They write it on paper, and both of them sign it, that makes those words very strong. Nobody can say, “Forget it.” Nobody can change it at all.
16Well, in the same way, nobody can change what God promised to Abraham, and to Abraham’s grand-son to come. You know, we can read this story in God’s book. It doesn’t say that God promised things to Abraham’s grand-sons to come, like it is talking about a lot of people. No, it is talking about only one man. It says Abraham’s grand-son to come. You see, God promised those things to just one man, and that man is Jesus Christ.
17It’s like this. At first God and Abraham agreed together, and God promised something to Abraham. Then the law came 430 years later. But that law can’t stop what God promised in his agreement with Abraham.
18You see, God was really good to Abraham, and he promised to give Abraham something good. Abraham didn’t get it by following the law. Well, it is like that now. God is good to us too.
19But maybe somebody is asking, “Why did God give his law to his people?” This is the answer. His people kept doing bad things, so God gave them his law. And he wanted them to follow that law until Abraham’s special grand-son came. This was the grand-son that God was talking about long ago when he promised good to Abraham. You see, God gave his law like this. He used his angel messengers to tell it to a man, called Moses. That man stood in the middle between God and the people, to help those people listen to God.
20And you know that a man that stands in the middle has to listen to both sides and help sort things out. But when God talked to Abraham, he didn’t need anyone to stand in the middle. He promised good things to Abraham just by himself.
21But somebody might say, “God did something wrong. He gave a law that goes against what he promised.” That’s not right. No way. You see, if a law can give us life, God would give us that law, and we would follow it and become good people. But no law can do that.
22God’s book says that everyone does bad things. We can’t control ourselves. So our only chance is to listen to what God promises us, and if we believe in Jesus Christ he will save us.
23But before Jesus Christ came, the law was like a boss, and like a school teacher for us Jewish people. It controlled us, and it looked after us. God wanted it to be like that, until Jesus came. We waited for God to send him, so that we can trust him. And then Jesus came, and now we trust him, and God says we are all right. So now we don’t need that law to be a boss or a school teacher for us any more.
26It’s like this now. You all believe in Jesus Christ, so you are joined to him, and you are all God’s kids.
27You know, they baptised you to show that you are joined to Jesus Christ, and now it is like you are wearing new clothes, like you are wearing Jesus himself.
28You are all joined to Jesus Christ so you are all joined to each other. You are not different from each other any more. It doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or not. It doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman. It doesn’t matter if somebody keeps you like a prisoner, or if you are free. None of that matters. You are all joined to Jesus Christ, so you are all the same as each other.
29You belong to Jesus Christ, so you are in Abraham’s family, and you will get everything that God promised to Abraham.
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