Faith and Belief (James 2:14–26)
1 UDB You fellow believers there in Galatia are very foolish! Someone must have bewitched you with their evil eye! I told you exactly how they had crucified Jesus Christ, did I not? BSB BSB: O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
2 UDB So I want you to tell me only one thing: When the Holy Spirit came to you, did he come because you were obeying the law of Moses? Or did the Spirit come to you because you had heard the good news and trusted in Christ? Certainly this is what happened. BSB BSB: I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?
3 UDB You are very foolish! You first became Christians because God's Spirit enabled you. But now you think you will continue until you die by trying as hard as possible to obey the law. BSB BSB: Are you so foolish? After starting in the Spirit, are you now finishing in the flesh?
4 UDB All the difficult things you have experienced after you believed in Christ would have been of no value at all if you had not been trusting in him. BSB BSB: Have you suffered so much for nothing, if it really was for nothing?
5 UDB When God now generously gives to you his Spirit and performs mighty deeds among you, do you think that it is because you obey God's law? Surely you know it is because when you heard the good news about Christ, you trusted in him! BSB BSB: Does God lavish His Spirit on you and work miracles among you because you practice the law, or because you hear and believe?
6 UDB What you have experienced is just as Moses had written in the scriptures about Abraham. He wrote that Abraham trusted God, and as a result God declared Abraham right in his sight. BSB BSB: So also, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
7 UDB You should realize, therefore, that it is those who trust in Christ to save them whom God has made into descendants of Abraham. BSB BSB: Understand, then, that those who have faith are sons of Abraham.
8 UDB Even before God began to make Gentiles right in his sight when they trusted in him, men wrote in the scriptures that he would do this. God announced this good news to Abraham, as we read in the scriptures: "Because of what you have done, I will bless all the peoples in the world." BSB BSB: The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and foretold the gospel to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
9 UDB So, we know by this that it is all those who trust in Christ whom God blesses along with Abraham, who also trusted in God. BSB BSB: So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Christ Has Redeemed Us 10 UDB God curses all those who think they can please God by obeying his law. It is just as you can read in the scriptures: "God will eternally punish everyone who does not continuously and completely obey all the laws that Moses wrote in the book of the law." BSB BSB: All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
11 UDB But God has said that if he declares any people right in his sight, it will not be because they obeyed his law. You can read in the scriptures, "Every person whom God declares to be right in his sight will live because he trusts God." BSB BSB: Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”
12 UDB Whoever tries to obey the law is not trusting in Christ; "Whoever starts to do the things in the law must obey them all." BSB BSB: The law, however, is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”
14 UDB God cursed Christ in order to bless the Gentiles who believe in Christ just as he blessed Abraham. And he blessed the Gentiles so that we might receive the Spirit, whom he promised to all who trust in Christ. BSB BSB: He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
The Purpose of the Law (Romans 7:1–6)
15 UDB My fellow believers, God's promise is like a contract between two people. After they sign it, no one can cancel it, nor can they add anything to it. BSB BSB: Brothers, let me put this in human terms. Even a human covenant, once it is ratified, cannot be canceled or amended.
16 UDB God promised to bless Abraham and his special descendant. The scriptures do not say, "your descendants"; that is, many people; but instead, "your descendant," meaning just one person, Christ. BSB BSB: The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many, but “and to your seed,” meaning One, who is Christ.
17 UDB This is what I am saying. God established an agreement with Abraham that the law he gave to Moses 430 years later could not cancel. BSB BSB: What I mean is this: The law that came 430 years later does not revoke the covenant previously established by God, so as to nullify the promise.
18 UDB This is because if what God is giving to us forever comes because we keep his law, then he would not be giving it because he had promised to do so. In reality, however, God gave Abraham this gift because he had freely promised to give it. BSB BSB: For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God freely granted it to Abraham through a promise.
19 UDB So why did God later give his law to us? God gave his law to teach us that we all deliberately break it. And looking forward, God gave the law for the time when a descendent of Abraham would come. That descendent is the one who receives the promise that was made before to Abraham. The angels protected and applied the law by the authority of the one who would stand between God and people. BSB BSB: Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the seed to whom the promise referred. It was administered through angels by a mediator.
20 UDB Now when one person speaks directly with another, there is no mediator. And God himself made his promises directly to Abraham. BSB BSB: A mediator is unnecessary, however, for only one party; but God is one.
21 UDB So the words of the law certainly do not speak against what God promises. If we could obey the law and then live forever with God, then he certainly would have regarded us as right in his sight. BSB BSB: Is the law, then, opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come from the law.
22 UDB But that was impossible. Instead, because we sin, the law in the scriptures controls us—and all things—just as if we were in prison. So when God promised to free us from that prison, he was speaking about everyone who believes in Jesus Christ. BSB BSB: But the Scripture pronounces all things confined by sin, so that by faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe.
23 UDB Before God revealed the good news about how people should trust in Christ, his law was like a soldier who kept us in prison, unable to move about. BSB BSB: Before this faith came, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.
24 UDB Like a father protects his small child by telling a slave to take care of him, God was supervising us by his law until Christ came. He did this so that he might now declare us good in his sight, if we trust in Christ. BSB BSB: So the law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 UDB But now that we can trust in Christ, we no longer need God's law to supervise us. BSB BSB: Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
Sons through Faith in Christ 26 UDB I say this because you are all God's children because you have trusted in Christ Jesus. BSB BSB: You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
27 UDB All of you who trust in Christ and were baptized so that you are joined to him—you have taken on the characteristics of Christ's life. BSB BSB: For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
29 UDB Furthermore, since you belong to Christ, he makes you into descendants of Abraham, and you will receive everything that God has promised him and us. BSB BSB: And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.
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