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God gives us his spirit when we believe in Jesus
1 Listen, 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. 2 Think 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. 3 You 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. 4 You believed the good news about Jesus, so then you went through a lot of trouble. Was that all for nothing? I hope it was not for nothing. 5 Look, 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.”
We have to believe God, like Abraham did
6 Do you know the story about Abraham? It was the same for him. God’s book says,
“Abram believed what God said, so God was really happy with him, and told him, ‘You believe me, so now I’m saying you are properly good, like you never did anything wrong.’ ”*Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3
7 And from that you can understand that Abraham’s real family are the people that believe God, like Abraham did.*Romans 4:16 8 And, you know, God’s book says what will happen. It says that if anyone believes God, God will say they are all right. God will even say that to people that are not Jews. God told Abraham, “I will use your family to do good things for all the nations.”*Genesis 12:3; 18:18 9 So God will be good to everyone that believes him, just like he was good to Abraham when Abraham believed God.
10 You see, God will make trouble for those people that reckon they are all right by just following the law. They think that, in the end, God will agree that they are all right. But they are wrong. God says this in his book,
“You have to keep on doing everything in the law book, or God will punish you.”*Deuteronomy 27:26
11 And 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.”*Habakkuk 2:4
12 But if somebody reckons they will live just by following the law, they are not trusting God. God also says this in his book,
“A person that does everything in the law will live.”*Leviticus 18:5
13 But if 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. When Jesus died, he paid for us, and he made us free from that trouble that comes from the law. God also says this in his book,
“If people hang somebody from wood to kill them, that person gets trouble from God.”
And that is what they did, they nailed Jesus Christ to that wooden cross, and he got that trouble from God. Jesus Christ died like that to pay for all of us. He bought us for God.*Deuteronomy 21:23 14 So now the people that are not Jews can get the good things from God that he said he will give to Abraham’s family. And if we believe in Jesus Christ, God will give us his spirit, just like he promised.
Nothing can change what God promised
15 My Christian friends, you already know what 2 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. 16 Well, in the same way, nobody can change what God promised to Abraham, and to Abraham’s son, and to all the people in his family. You know, we can read this story in God’s book. God doesn’t say that he promised things to Abraham’s sons, like it is talking about a lot of people. No, he is talking about only one man. He says Abraham’s son. You see, God promised those things to just one man, and that man is Jesus Christ.*Genesis 12:7 17 It’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.*Exodus 12:40 18 You see, God promised to do something good for Abraham before that law came. God gives people good things because he promised those things, not because those people follow that law. And it is like that for us too. God is doing something good for us now, because he promised to be good to us.*Romans 4:14
The Jewish people had God’s law until Jesus Christ came
19 But maybe somebody is asking, “Why did God give his law to his people?” This is the answer. His people kept on 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 a long time ago when he promised good to Abraham. You see, God gave his law like this. He used his angel messengers to tell it to Moses. He was a man that stood in the middle, between God and the people, to help those people listen to God. 20 And 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. God himself promised good things to Abraham.
21 But 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 real life, God would give us that law, and we would follow it and become good people. But no law can do that. 22 God says in his book that everyone does bad things. They can’t stop doing those bad things. But if we listen to what God promises us, and if we believe in Jesus Christ, he will save us.
23-25 But 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.
People that trust Jesus are God’s kids
26 It’s like this now. You all believe in Jesus Christ, so you are joined to him, and you are all God’s kids. 27 You know, when the church leaders baptised you, they took you through that special washing ceremony to show that you are joined to Jesus Christ, and now it is like you are wearing new clothes. It is like you are wearing Jesus Christ himself. 28 You 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. 29 You belong to Jesus Christ, so you are in Abraham’s family, and you will get everything that God promised to Abraham.*Romans 4:13