3 ²¹ Does the law, then, contradict the promises? No, never! If a law had been given which had power to bestow life, then indeed righteousness would have come from keeping the law. 3 ²² But Scripture has declared the whole world to be prisoners in subjection to sin, so that faith in Jesus Christ may be the ground on which the promised blessing is given, and given to those who have such faith.

3 ²³ Before this faith came, we were close prisoners in the custody of law, pending the revelation of faith. 3 ²⁴ Thus the law was a kind of tutor in charge of us until Christ should come, Or: a kind of tutor to conduct us to Christ. when we should be justified through faith; 3 ²⁵ and now that faith has come, the tutor's charge is at an end.
3 ²⁶ For through faith you are all sons of God in union with Christ Jesus. 3 ²⁷ Baptized into union with him, you have all put on Christ as a garment. 3 ²⁸ There is no such thing as Jew and Greek, slave and freeman, male and female; for you are all one person in Christ Jesus. 3 ²⁹ But if you thus belong to Christ, you are the 'issue' of Abraham, and so heirs by promise.

4 ¹ This is what I mean: so long as the heir is a minor, he is no better off than a slave, even though the whole estate is his; 4 ² he is under guardians and trustees until the date fixed by his father. 4 ³ And so it was with us. During our minority we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe, Or: the elements of the natural world; Or: elementary ideas belonging to this world. 4 ⁴ but when the term was completed, God sent his own Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 4 ⁵ to purchase freedom for the subjects of the law, in order that we might attain the status of sons.
4 ⁶ To prove that you are sons. God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, crying 'Abba! Father!' 4 ⁷ You are therefore no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then also by God's own act an heir.