I have said it before, and I now repeat it, if any one is preaching a gospel to you other than that which you have received, let him be accursed.

Think you that I am now trying to conciliate men or God? Or am I "seeking to please men"? If I were still seeking to please men, I should not be a slave of Christ.

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel I preach is not man-made;

I saw no other apostle except James, the Lord's brother.

(In what I am now writing, I call God to witness that I am telling the truth.)

only they used to hear it said, "He who was once persecuting us is now preaching the gospel of the very faith which he once tried to ruin."

But those in authority??hat they once were makes no difference to me; God is no respecter of persons??hose I say who were in authority had no additions to make my message.

"yet because we know that no man is justified by the works of the Law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, we ourselves also have put our faith in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law; for "By the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."

I have been crucified with Christ, so it is no longer I who am living, but it is Christ who is living in me; and the life I am now living in the flesh, I am living in faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

Are you so without sense? After beginning with the Spirit, will you now end with the flesh?

Did you have such experience to no purpose??f indeed it was really to no purpose?

And it is manifest that by the Law no man is justified in the sight of God. because The just shall live by faith,

Let me illustrate, brothers, from every-day life. When once a human testament is made, and formally ratified, no one sets it aside or adds to it.

Now it was to Abraham that the promises were spoken, and to his offspring. God did not say, "offsprings" as if speaking of many, but "and to your offspring," as of one; and this is Christ.

For if the inheritance comes from law, it no longer comes from a promise; but God did give it as a free gift to Abraham by a promise.

(Now a mediator implies more than one person, but God is only one.)

but now that the Faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor-slave.

In him there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

What I mean is this. As long as the heir is a child, he differs in no respect from a slave, though he be the owner of the whole inheritance;

So each one of you is no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir, too, through God's grace.

But once, when you Gentiles had no knowledge of God, you were slaves to gods which have no real being.

Now, however, when you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you are beginning to turn back to those weak and beggarly externalities, eager to be in bondage to them again?

I am alarmed about you for fear lest I may have bestowed labor on you to no purpose.

on the contrary, you know that although it was illness which brought about my preaching the gospel to you at my first visit,

These men are courting your favor to no good purpose. They want to isolate you, so that you will be courting their favor.

How I wish I could be with you now, that I might change my tone; for I am perplexed about you.

Now all this is an allegory, for these women are the two covenants; one from Mount Sinai, which is Hagar bearing children into bondage

but just as in old times the son born by the flesh used to persecute the son born by the power of the Spirit, so also it is now.

So, brothers, we are the children of no slave woman, but of free woman. For freedom did not Christ set us free;

Listen to me! I, Paul, declare to you that if you are to continue to follow the rite of circumcision, Christ will be no profit to you.

As for me, I am fully trusting you in the Lord that you will be no otherwise minded; but he who is trying to unsettle you will have to bear his punishment, whoever he may be.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest; such, for instance, as fornication, impurity, indecency,

against such there is no law.

For in Jesus Christ neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

From this time forth let no one trouble me, for I bear branded in my body the marks of Jesus, my Master.