Study Desk

It is foolish of me to write all this, but you have compelled me to do so. Why, you ought to have been my vindicators; for in no respect have I been inferior to these superlatively great Apostles, even though in myself I am nothing.

If I love you so intensely, am I the less to be loved? Be that as it may: I was not a burden to you. But being by no means scrupulous, I entrapped you, they say!

Those who cling to their old sins, and indeed all of you, I have forewarned and still forewarn (as I did on my second visit when present, so I do now, though absent) that, when I come again, I shall not spare you;

I marvel that you are so readily leaving Him who called you by the grace of Christ, and are adhering to a different Good News.

And along with him the other Jews also concealed their real opinions, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their lack of straightforwardness.

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now going to reach perfection through what is external?

He who gives you His Spirit and works miracles among you--does He do so on the ground of your obedience to the Law, or is it the result of your having heard and believed:

So we see that it is those who possess faith that are blessed with believing Abraham.

Our freedom has been thus purchased in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing belonging to Abraham may come upon the nations, so that through faith we may receive the promised Spirit.

I mean that the Covenant which God had already formally made is not abrogated by the Law which was given four hundred and thirty years later--so as to annul the promise.

So that the Law has acted the part of a tutor-slave to lead us to Christ, in order that through faith we may be declared to be free from guilt.

Now I say that so long as an heir is a child, he in no respect differs from a slave, although he is the owner of everything,

So we also, when spiritually we were children, were subject to the world's rudimentary notions, and were enslaved.

in order to purchase the freedom of all who were subject to Law, so that we might receive recognition as sons.

These men pay court to you, but not with honourable motives. They want to exclude you, so that you may pay court to them.

Yet just as, at that time, the child born in the common course of nature persecuted the one whose birth was due to the power of the Spirit, so it is now.

For the cravings of the lower nature are opposed to those of the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are opposed to those of the lower nature; because these are antagonistic to each other, so that you cannot do everything to which you are inclined.

Always carry one another's burdens, and so obey the whole of Christ's Law.

So then, as we have opportunity, let us labour for the good of all, and especially of those who belong to the household of the faith.

It is in Him, and through the shedding of His blood, that we have our deliverance--the forgiveness of our offences--so abundant was God's grace,