Galatians 3:10-18

But if you rely on works of keeping the law for salvation, you live under the law’s curse. For it is clearly written: “Utterly cursed is everyone who fails to practice every detail and requirement that is written in this law!” It is obvious that no one achieves the righteousness of God by attempting to keep the law, for it is written: “The one who is in a right relationship with God will live by faith!” But keeping the law does not require faith, but self-effort. For the law teaches, “If you practice the principles of law, you must follow all of them.” Yet, Christ paid the full price to set us free from the curse of the law. He absorbed the curse completely as he became a curse in our place. For it is written: “Everyone who is hung upon a tree is cursed.” Jesus Christ dissolved the curse from our lives, so that in him all the blessings of Abraham can be poured out upon gentiles. And now through faith we receive the promised Holy Spirit who lives in us. Beloved friends, let me use an illustration that we can all understand. Technically, when a contract is signed, it can’t be changed after it has been put into effect; it’s too late to alter the agreement. Remember the royal proclamation God spoke over Abraham and to Abraham’s child? God said that his promises were made to pass on to Abraham’s “Child,” not children. And who is this “Child?” It’s the Son of promise, Christ himself! This means that the covenant between God and Abraham was fulfilled in Messiah and cannot be altered. Yet the written law was not even given to Moses until 430 years after God had “signed” his contract with Abraham! The law, then, doesn’t supersede the promise since the royal proclamation was given before the law. If that were the case, it would have nullified what God said to Abraham. We receive all the promises because of the Promised One—not because we keep the law!