Galatians 2:21

Plain English Version

Yes, God is really good to us, and he really did a lot for us. I will never change my mind about that. You see, we can’t become good people by following the law. If we could do that, it would mean that Jesus died for nothing. But, of course, he didn’t.

Cross References

Mark 7:9

And Jesus kept on talking to them. He said, “You mob are tricky in the way you turn your back on God’s law, and follow your own rules.

Romans 4:25

It was us who did bad things, but God let people kill Jesus instead of us. He took the payback for those bad things we did. Then God made him alive again, so now God tells us, “You are all right.”

Romans 8:31

So as we think about all of this, what do we learn? It is this. We are on God’s side. He is with us, so it doesn’t matter who is against us, they can’t win against God.

1 Corinthians 15:14

And if you reckon that God didn’t make Jesus Christ alive again, you are saying that our message is useless, and that you believed something that was wrong.

1 Corinthians 15:17

And if God didn’t make Jesus Christ alive again, like you reckon, then you believed in Jesus for nothing, and it means that you are still guilty of the bad things you did.

1 Corinthians 15:2

And if you keep on believing that good news, God will save you. If you don’t keep on believing it, I reckon you didn’t believe it properly in the first place.

Galatians 2:16

And we know that if people just try to follow that law, they can’t do it properly, so God will not say they are all right. He will only do that for people that trust Jesus Christ. And we trusted Jesus Christ, so now God will say we are all right. You see, if we believe in Jesus, God will say we are all right, and he will not punish us. If we only think about following the law, we will never do it properly, so he will never say we are all right. Nobody can get God to say they are all right by just following the law.

Galatians 2:18

You see, it is like this. I used to try to follow that law to get God to say that I’m all right, but then I found out that I just have to believe in Jesus. So now I can’t go back and think that law will make me all right. If I do that, then I really will be guilty.

Galatians 3:21

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.