Galatians

GalatiansPaul, apostle not from men nor through men, but through Jesus Christ and God the father, who raised him from the dead; and all the brothers with me, to the churches of Galatia:Grace to you and peace from God our father and Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, so that he might set us free from the evil present age according to the will of God our father, to whom the glory forever and ever, amen.I’m astonished so quickly you have turned away from the one who called you in grace to another gospel, which is not another, except that there are some people disturbing you and who desire to distort the gospel of Christ.  But, if we, or an angel from heaven, proclaim a gospel different from the one that we have already proclaimed to you, let him be cursed!  As I said before, I now say it again: if anyone proclaims a gospel to you different than the one you already received, let him be cursed.Am I now appealing to men, or to God?  Or do I seek to please men?  Yet, if I please men, I am not Christ’s servant.For I to make it known to you, brothers, that the gospel proclaimed by me is not according to man.  For I neither received it from man nor was I taught, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ.  For you have heard of my lifestyle when in Judaism, that according to excess I pursued the church, and destroyed it, and grew in Judaism beyond many of my peers among my people, being even more of a zealot for the traditions of my forefathers.   But when God, (the one who separated me from my mothers womb and called me through his grace), was pleased to reveal his son to me, in order that I might proclaim him to the gentiles, immediately I did not seek advice from flesh and blood.  Nor did I go to Jerusalem to the ones who were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned again to Damascus.  Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days.  But I saw no other apostle except James the apostle of the Lord.  What I write to you, behold, before God I do not lie!  Then, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.  I was unknown by face to the churches in Christ of Judea.  They only heard that I, the one pursuing them at one time, was now proclaiming the faith which I once tried to destroy.  And because of me, they glorified God.Then, fourteen years later, I went to Jerusalem again with Barnabus, taking Titus along, too. I went according to a revelation. And privately, with the ones who seemed influential, I set out to them the gospel I preach to the Gentiles, to make sure that somehow I wasn’t running or had run in vain. But not even Titus, who was with me, and a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. It came up because of some false brothers who came in secretly, who came in to spy on the freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, in order that they might enslave us. We did not consider obedience to them for even a moment, in order that the truth of the gospel might continue for you.Now from those who seemed influential (if they ever were does not matter to me, God does not show favoritism to men), but to me they added nothing, but rather, seeing that the gospel to the uncircumcised had been entrusted to me as the gospel to the circumcised had been entrusted to Peter (for the one working in Peter’s apostleship to the circumcised worked in me in the apostleship the gentiles) and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, knew the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to me, and to Barnabus, in order that we might go to the gentiles, they to the circumcised.  They only wanted us to remember the poor, which is the same thing I am eager to do!But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was in the wrong!  For before certain men came from James, he ate with gentiles; but when they came, he stepped away from the gentiles and separated himself from them, fearing those men from the circumcision.  And many of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabus got carried away with them!But when I saw that they weren’t being straight with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of everyone, “If you are a Jew, and yet live like a gentile and not like a jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?  We are natural Jews and not from the Gentile sinners.  We know that man is not justified from works of the law, if not through the faith of Jesus Christ.  And we have put our faith in Christ Jesus, in order that we might be justified from the faith of Christ and not from works of the law, because no flesh can be justified by works of the law.  But if we are seeking to be justified in christ, and are found to also be sinners, is Christ a servant of sin?  May it not be so!”For if I build up that which I tore down, I demonstrate that I myself am a lawbreaker.  For through the law I put the law to death, in order that I might live in God.I have been crucified with Christ.I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.What I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, the one who loved me and gave himself for me.I do not set aside the grace of God, for if justification is through law, Christ died for no reason.O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, when before your eyes Christ was displayed as being crucified? This is all I want you to tell me: was it from works of the law that you received the Spirit, or from the hearing of faith? You are so foolish, beginning in faith and now finishing in flesh. Have you suffered so much for nothing? If indeed it is for nothing. Is the one supplying you with the Spirit and working with power among you doing it through works of the law, or through the hearing of faith?  In the same way, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.You know, therefore, that the ones who are by faith, these are the sons of Abraham.  The scriptures saw ahead of time that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaiming the good news beforehand to Abraham that, “All the peoples would be blessed in you.”  So, the ones who are by faith are blessed together in the faith of Abraham.  But who ever is by works of the law, is under a curse; for it has been written that “cursed is everyone who does not keep all of the things that have been written in the book of the law, and do them.”  That no one is justified to God by the law is evident, because “the righteous shall, by faith, live.”  But the law is not by faith, but “the one who does these things will live in them.”  Christ raised us from the curse of the law, becoming cursed for us, because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hung from a tree.”  This is in order that the blessing of Abraham could come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus,  in order that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith.Brothers, I speak according to man. Even so, of a man who put in place a covenant that nobody can nullify or add to.  And to Abraham the promise was spoken, and to his seed.  He did not say, “to your seeds”, as in to many, but as if to one, “to your seed”, who is Christ.  And this I say: the law, coming four hundred and thirty years later, does not cancel out the covenant made by God, so that the promise would be nullified.  For if the inheritance is from the law, it would no longer be from the promise.  But God gave it to Abraham through a promise.  What then about the law?  It was because of sin that it was added, until the Seed came who had given the promise, handed down through angels into the hands of a mediator.  And the mediator is not one, but God is one.Is the law, then, opposed to the promises of God? May it never be so! For if a law capable of giving life was given, certainly justification would come from the law. But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin in order that by faith of Jesus Christ the promise might be given to the ones believing. And before faith came, we were held captive, imprisoned until faith was revealed, so that the law became our guide until Christ in order that we might be justified by faith. Faith having now come, we are no longer under the guide. For you are all sons of God, because of faith in Christ Jesus. For whoever among you has been baptized into Christ has been clothed in Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.