Galatians 3:19

Plain English Version

But maybe somebody is asking, “Why did God give his law to his people?” This is the answer. His people kept on doing bad things, so God gave them his law. And he wanted them to follow that law until Abraham’s special grand-son came. This was the grand-son that God was talking about a long time ago when he promised good to Abraham. You see, God gave his law like this. He used his angel messengers to tell it to Moses. He was a man that stood in the middle, between God and the people, to help those people listen to God.

Cross References

Luke 16:31

But Abraham said, ‘Look, if they take no notice of Moses, and if they take no notice of the things that God’s men wrote in his book, they will not take any notice of anyone, not even a dead person that comes alive again.’ ”

John 1:17

You know, God gave Moses the law a long time ago, so that our people could live God’s way, but Jesus Christ gave us God’s true message. He showed us that God loves us, even though we did nothing good for him.

John 15:22

I came and talked to them, but they didn’t listen to me. So they are going against God, and he will say they are guilty. And they can’t argue with him. They can’t say they didn’t hear my message.

Acts 7:38

All our grand-fathers were with Moses in the desert country. And God sent an angel messenger to Moses, at the big hill called Sinai, to tell him the good message that helps people live with God. And then Moses told our grand-fathers that same message.

Acts 7:53

You see, God sent his angel messengers to your grand-fathers to give you God’s law, but you didn’t listen, and you didn’t do anything it says.”

Romans 2:13

It doesn’t matter if you know that law or not, if you do good things, God will tell you, “You are all right.”

Romans 4:15

People try to follow that law, but they can’t do it, and whenever they break that law, God gets angry with them and punishes them. So all the law does is give us trouble. (The only way people will not break the law is if there is no law to break.)

Galatians 3:16

Well, in the same way, nobody can change what God promised to Abraham, and to Abraham’s son, and to all the people in his family. You know, we can read this story in God’s book. God doesn’t say that he promised things to Abraham’s sons, like it is talking about a lot of people. No, he is talking about only one man. He says Abraham’s son. You see, God promised those things to just one man, and that man is Jesus Christ.