Paul, an apostle sent not from men nor by any man, but by Jesus Christ and by God the Father who raised him from the dead;

Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age in accordance with the will of our God and Father,

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 you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how furiously I used to persecute the church of God, and how I kept seeking to root it out;

But when God who had set me apart from my very birth,

Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter, and spent two weeks with him.

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

And they were giving glory to God on my account.

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.

For it is through law I died to law, in order to live to God.

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.

I do not annul the grace of God; for if righteousness comes by way of the Law, then indeed Christ died Christ for nothing.

Even as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness?

And the Scripture, anticipating God's justification of the Gentiles by faith, announced the gospel to Abraham beforehand in the words, In thee shall all the Gentiles be blessed.

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

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.

I mean to say that the testament which God has already ratified could not be annulled by the Law which came four hundred and thirty years later, so as to make the Promise void.

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.)

Is the Law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would actually have come from law;

You are all sons of God through your faith in Jesus Christ.

But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under law,

And because you are sons, God sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, "Dear, dear Father!"

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?

and although my bodily affliction was a trial to you, you did not scoff at it nor spurn me, but welcomed me like an angel of God, like Christ Jesus himself.

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

If you are being justified by law, you are cut off from Christ; you are fallen away from grace.

Would to God that those who are trying to unsettle you would even have themselves mutilated.

envy, drunkenness, revellings, and things like these. I tell you beforehand, as I have already told you, that those who practise such sins shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

He, however, who is being taught in the message, should always share with his instructor in all the good things which he possesses.

Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.

So then, as we have opportunity, let is do good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of faith.

God forbid that I should glory in anything except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, upon which the world has been crucified to me and I have been crucified to the world.

On all who will govern their lives by this rule and on the Israel of God may peace and mercy rest.