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.
Parallel translations
- WEB Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could make alive, most certainly righteousness would have been of the law.
- KJV Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
- NKJV Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.
- NASB Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? Far from it! For if a law had been given that was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.
- NLT Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The law is not against God's promises, but it could not give life. If any law could impart life, righteousness would indeed come by it, but none can.
Overview
Paul guards against the idea that law and promise conflict; both are God's gifts with different purposes. The law cannot make alive or produce righteousness, because it has no power to overcome sin. Only the promise, fulfilled in Christ, brings the life the law could never give.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Gal 2:21I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, Christ died for nothing.
- Rom 9:31but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.
- Rom 3:20–22Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.
- Gal 2:19For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.
- Rom 10:3–6Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
- Rom 7:7–13What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
- Rom 3:31Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.
- Gal 2:17But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, does that make Christ a minister of sin? Certainly not!
- Rom 3:4Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.”
- Matt 5:17–20Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
- Phil 3:6–9as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteousness in the law, faultless.
- Rom 3:6Certainly not! In that case, how could God judge the world?
- Heb 11:7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
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Original language
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