Which is really no Good News at all. But then, I know that there are people who are harassing you, and who want to pervert the Good News of the Christ.

Yet even if we--or if an angel from Heaven were to tell you any other 'Good News' than that which we told you, may he be accursed!

We have said it before, and I repeat it now--If any one tells you a 'Good News' other than that which you received, may he be accursed!

I would remind you, Brothers, that the Good News which I told is no mere human invention.

Saw fit to reveal his Son in me, so that I might tell the Good News of him among the Gentiles, then at once, instead of consulting any human being,

(As to what I am now writing to you, I call God to witness that I am speaking the truth).

All that they had heard was--'The man who once persecuted us is now telling the Good News of the very Faith of which he once made havoc.'

It was in obedience to a revelation that I went; and I laid before the Apostles the Good News that I am proclaiming among the Gentiles. I did this privately before those who are thought highly of, for fear that I might possibly be taking, or might have already taken, a course which would prove useless.

Why, we did not for a moment yield submission to them, that the Truth of the Good News might be yours always!

On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the Gentiles, just as Peter had been for the Jews.

Recognizing the charge entrusted to me, James, Peter, and John, who were regarded as pillars of the Church, openly acknowledged Barnabas and me as fellow-workers, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews.

The rest of the Jewish converts were guilty of the same hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led away by it.

But, when I saw that they were not dealing straightforwardly with the Truth of the Good News, I said to Peter, before them all, "If you, who were born a Jew, adopt Gentile customs, instead of Jewish, why are you trying to compel the Gentile converts to adopt Jewish customs?"

We, though we are Jews by birth and not outcasts of Gentile origin, know that no one is pronounced righteous as the result of obedience to Law, but only through faith in Christ Jesus.

So we placed our faith in Christ Jesus, in order that we might be pronounced righteous, as the result of faith in Christ, and not of obedience to Law; for such obedience 'will not result in even one soul's being pronounced righteous.'

If, while seeking to be pronounced righteous through union with Christ, we were ourselves seen to be outcasts, would that make Christ an agent of sin? Heaven forbid!

For, if I rebuild the very things that I pulled down, I prove myself to have done wrong.

I have been crucified with Christ. So it is no longer I that live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and, as for my present earthly life, I am living it by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Here is the one thing that I want to find out from you--Did you receive the Spirit as the result of obedience to Law, or of your having listened with faith?

You see, then, that those whose lives are based on faith are the Sons of Abraham.

And Scripture, foreseeing that God would pronounce the Gentiles righteous as the result of faith, foretold the Good News to Abraham in the words--'Through thee all the Gentiles shall be blessed.'

All who rely upon obedience to Law are under a curse, for Scripture says--'Cursed is every one who does not abide by all that is written in the Book of the Law, and do it.'

Again, it is evident that no one is pronounced righteous before God through Law, for we read--'Through faith the righteous man shall find Life.'

And this he did that the blessing given to Abraham might be extended to the Gentiles through their union with Jesus Christ; that so, through our faith, we also might receive the promised gift of the Spirit.

Now it was to Abraham that the promises were made, 'and to his offspring.' It was not said 'to his offsprings,' as if many persons were meant, but the words were 'to thy offspring,' showing that one person was meant--and that was Christ.

What, then, you ask, was the use of the Law? It was a later addition, to make men conscious of their wrong-doings, and intended to last only till the coming of that 'offspring' to whom the promise had been made; and it was delivered through angels by a mediator.

Does that set the Law in opposition to God's promises? Heaven forbid! For, if a Law had been given capable of bestowing Life, then righteousness would have actually owed its existence to Law.

But the words of Scripture represent the whole world as being in bondage to sin, so that the promised blessing, dependent, as it is, upon faith in Jesus Christ, may be given to those who have faith in him.

Before the coming of faith, we were kept under the guard of the Law, in bondage, awaiting the Faith that was destined to be revealed.

Thus the Law has proved a guide to lead us to Christ, in order that we may be pronounced righteous as the result of faith.

But now that faith has come we no longer need a guide.

And, since you belong to Christ, it follows that you are Abraham's offspring and, under the promise, sharers in the inheritance.

To ransom those who were subject to Law, so that we might take our position as sons.

And it is because you are sons that God sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, with the cry--'Abba, our Father.'

But now that you have found God--or, rather, have been found by him--how is it that you are turning back to that poor and feeble puerile teaching, to which yet once again you are wanting to become slaves?

You make me fear that the labor which I have spent on you may have been wasted.

You remember that it was owing to bodily infirmity that on the first occasion I told you the Good News.

What has become then, of your blessings? For I can bear witness that, had it been possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me!

Am I to think, then, that I have become your enemy by telling you the truth?

Certain people are seeking your favor, but with no honorable object. No, indeed, they want to isolate you, so that you will have to seek their favor.

Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one the child of the slave-woman and the other the child of the free woman.

Yet at that time the child born in the course of nature persecuted the child born by the power of the Spirit; and it is the same now.

It is for freedom that Christ set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not again be held under the yoke of slavery.

Understand that I, Paul, myself tell you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, Christ will avail you nothing.

I again declare to every one who receives circumcision, that he binds himself to obey the whole Law.

For we, by the help of the Spirit, are eagerly waiting for the fulfillment of our hope--that we may be pronounced righteous as the result of faith.

I, through my union with the Lord, am persuaded that you will learn to think with me. But the man who is disturbing your minds will have to bear his punishment, whoever he may be.

If I, Brothers, am still proclaiming circumcision, why am I still persecuted? It seems that the Cross has ceased to be an obstacle!

I could even wish that the people who are unsettling you would go further still and mutilate themselves.

But, if you are continually wounding and preying upon one another, take care that you are not destroyed by one another.

For these cravings of our earthly nature conflict with the Spirit, and the Spirit with our earthly nature--they are two contrary principles--so that you cannot do what you wish.

Feelings of envy, drunkenness, revelry, and the like. And I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who indulge in such things will have no place in the Kingdom of God.

Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. What a man sows that he will reap.

For he who sows the field of his earthly nature will from that earthly nature reap corruption; while he who sows the field of the spirit will from that spirit reap Immortal Life.

Even these men who are circumcised do not themselves keep the Law; yet they want you to be circumcised, so that they may boast of your observance of the rite.