Add parallel Print Page Options

20 Now there is no mediator when only one party is involved, and God is one.(A) 21 Is the law then opposed to the promises [of God]? Of course not! For if a law had been given that could bring life, then righteousness would in reality come from the law.(B) 22 But scripture confined all things under the power of sin, that through faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe.(C)

What Faith Has Brought Us.[a]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 3:23–29 Paul adds a further argument in support of righteousness or justification by faith and through God’s promise rather than by works of the law (Gal 2:16; 3:22): as children of God, baptized into Christ, the Galatians are all Abraham’s descendant and heirs of the promise to Abraham (Gal 3:8, 14, 16–18, 29). The teaching in Gal 3:23–25, that since faith (Christianity) has come, we are no longer under the law, could be taken with the previous paragraph on the role of the Mosaic law, but it also fits here as a contrast between the situation before faith (Gal 3:23) and the results after faith has come (Gal 3:25–29).

20 A mediator,(A) however, implies more than one party; but God is one.

21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not!(B) For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.(C) 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin,(D) so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

Read full chapter