Galatians

Paul and the Other Apostles

After fourteen years, I once again traveled to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and Titus joined us too.

After a revelation, I went to share the gospel I am preaching to the Gentiles. I had a private meeting with the leaders to ensure I was not working or had not worked in the wrong way.

But they did not require circumcision, not even for Titus, who is Greek and was with me.

However, some intruders and false brothers had gained access to observe how we live out the freedom Christ has given us. They wanted to enslave us with the law,

but we refused to give in, even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel remains intact for you.

The other leaders, the more respected ones—regardless of what they were before—gave me no new instructions.

They understood that I had been trusted to deliver the Good News to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been trusted to deliver it to the circumcised.

Just as God made Peter the apostle of the Jews, he made me the apostle for the Gentiles.

James, Cephas, and John acknowledged the grace God gave me. Those men, regarded as the pillars of the Church, extended their hand to Barnabas and me as a sign of fellowship; we would go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews.

We should only remember the poor among them. I have made sure to do this.

Paul Confronts Peter

Later, when Cephas came to Antioch, I confronted him because he deserved to be blamed.

Before some of James’ followers arrived, he used to dine with the Gentiles. But once they arrived, he withdrew and no longer mingled with them out of fear of the Jewish group.

The rest of the Jews went along with him in this pretense, and even Barnabas was part of this insincerity.

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas publicly: If you, a Jew, are living like a Gentile, and not like a Jew, why do you now compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?

Jews and Gentiles Are Saved by Faith

We are Jews by birth; we are not Gentile sinners.

However, we know that a person is justified not by practicing the law but by faith in Christ Jesus. That’s why we believe in Christ Jesus—to receive the true righteousness through faith in him, not through our works under the law, because the works of the law will justify no one.

Now, if in our effort to be justified in Christ, we are found to be sinners, then Christ would serve sin. Not so!

But look: if we remove something and then bring it back, we admit we were wrong.

As for me, the law itself caused me to die to the law so that I might live for God. I am crucified with Christ.

Do I still live? It is no longer I who live; Christ lives in me. The life I now live in this body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

In this way, I do not ignore the gift of God, for if justification were achieved through the practice of the law, then Christ would have died for nothing.