3 ¹ YOU STUPID GALATIANS! You must have been bewitched—you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly displayed upon his cross! 3 ² Answer me one question: did you receive the Spirit by keeping the law or by believing the gospel message? Or: or by the message of faith; Or: or by hearing and believing. 3 ³ Can it be that you are so stupid? You started with the spiritual; do you now look to the material to make you perfect? 3 ⁴ Have all your great experiences been in vain—if vain indeed they should be? I ask then: 3 ⁵ when God gives you the Spirit and works miracles among you, why is this? Is it because you keep the law, or is it because you have faith in the gospel message? 3 ^{6 [ Gn.15.6. ]} Look at Abraham: he put his faith in God, and that faith was counted to him as righteousness.
3 ⁷ You may take it, then, that it is the men of faith who are Abraham's sons. 3 ^{8 [ Gn.12.3. ]} And Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles through faith, declared the Gospel to Abraham beforehand: 'In you all nations shall find blessing.' 3 ⁹ Thus it is the men of faith who share the blessing with faithful Abraham.

3 ^{10 [ Dt.27.26. ]} On the other hand those who rely on obedience to the law are under a curse; for Scripture says, 'A curse is on all who do not persevere in doing everything that is written in the Book of the Law.' 3 ^{11 [ Hab.2.4. ]} It is evident that no one is ever justified before God in terms of law; because we read, 'he shall gain life who is justified through faith'. 3 ^{12 [ Lv.18.5. ]} Now law is not at all a matter of having faith: we read, 'he who does this shall gain life by what he does'.
3 ^{13 [ Dt.21.23. ]} Christ bought us freedom from the curse of the law by becoming for our sake an accursed thing; for Scripture says, 'A curse is on everyone who is hanged on a gibbet.' 3 ¹⁴ And the purpose of it all was that the blessing of Abraham should in Jesus Christ be extended to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.