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.

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.

You heard, no doubt, of my conduct when I was devoted to Judaism--how I persecuted the Church of God to an extent beyond belief, and made havoc of it,

(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.'

Of those who are thought somewhat highly of--what they once were makes no difference to me; God does not recognize human distinctions--those, I say, who are thought highly of added nothing to my Message.

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.

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.

I do not reject the love of God. If righteousness comes through Law, then there was no need for Christ to die!

Can you be so foolish? After beginning with what is spiritual, do you now end with what is external?

Did you go through so much to no purpose?--if indeed it really was to no purpose!

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.'

But the Law is not based on faith; no, its words are--'Those who practice these precepts will find Life through them.'

To take an illustration, Brothers, from daily life--No one sets aside even an agreement between two men, when once it has been confirmed, nor does he add conditions to it.

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.

Now mediation implies more than one person, but God is one only.

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

My point is this--As long as the heir is under age, there is no difference between him and a slave, though he is master of the whole estate.

You, therefore, are no longer a slave, but a son; and, if a son, then an heir also, by God's appointment.

Yet formerly, in your ignorance of God, you became slaves to 'gods' which were no gods.

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?

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.

But I could wish to be with you now and speak in a different tone, for I am perplexed about you.

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.

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.

Against such things there is no law!

For neither is circumcision nor the omission of it anything; but a new nature is everything.

For the future let no one trouble me; for I bear the marks of Jesus branded on my body.