Study Desk

Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because you do what the Law requires or because you hear the gospel and believe it?

Consider the experience of Abraham; as the scripture says, "He believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous."

The scripture predicted that God would put the Gentiles right with himself through faith. And so the scripture announced the Good News to Abraham: "Through you God will bless all people."

Now, it is clear that no one is put right with God by means of the Law, because the scripture says, "Only the person who is put right with God through faith shall live."

Christ did this in order that the blessing which God promised to Abraham might be given to the Gentiles by means of Christ Jesus, so that through faith we might receive the Spirit promised by God.

Now, God made his promises to Abraham and to his descendant. The scripture does not use the plural "descendants," meaning many people, but the singular "descendant," meaning one person only, namely, Christ.

What I mean is that God made a covenant with Abraham and promised to keep it. The Law, which was given four hundred and thirty years later, cannot break that covenant and cancel God's promise.

For if God's gift depends on the Law, then it no longer depends on his promise. However, it was because of his promise that God gave that gift to Abraham.

But a go-between is not needed when only one person is involved; and God is one.

Does this mean that the Law is against God's promises? No, not at all! For if human beings had received a law that could bring life, then everyone could be put right with God by obeying it.

And so the Law was in charge of us until Christ came, in order that we might then be put right with God through faith.

If you belong to Christ, then you are the descendants of Abraham and will receive what God has promised.

But when the right time finally came, God sent his own Son. He came as the son of a human mother and lived under the Jewish Law,

To show that you are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who cries out, "Father, my Father."

So then, you are no longer a slave but a child. And since you are his child, God will give you all that he has for his children.

In the past you did not know God, and so you were slaves of beings who are not gods.

But now that you know God—or, I should say, now that God knows you—how is it that you want to turn back to those weak and pitiful ruling spirits? Why do you want to become their slaves all over again?

Those of you who try to be put right with God by obeying the Law have cut yourselves off from Christ. You are outside God's grace.

As for us, our hope is that God will put us right with him; and this is what we wait for by the power of God's Spirit working through our faith.

It was not done by God, who calls you.