which is really not another [gospel]; but there are [obviously] some [people masquerading as teachers] who are disturbing and confusing you [with a misleading, counterfeit teaching] and want to distort the gospel of Christ [twisting it into something which it absolutely is not].

For do I now obey man, or God? or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I could not have been a servant of Christ.

to reveal His Son in me, so that I could preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.

But if seeking to be justified in Christ, we may also be found sinners, then is Christ the minister of sin? it could not be so.

For it was by means of [this system of] law-keeping that I [realized I] was dead. This was so I could find life through a relationship with God.

I never can nullify the unmerited favor of God. For if right standing with God could come through law, then Christ died for nothing.

The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.

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.

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;

But the scripture imprisoned all under sin, in order that the promise could be given by faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe.

The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.

so that He could buy back [from Satan] those who were [still] under [obligation to] the law of Moses, and that we could become adopted children.

But at that time, when you did not know [the true] God and were unacquainted with Him, you [Gentiles] were slaves to those [pagan] things which by [their very] nature were not and could not be gods at all.

And when you could have been tempted to look down on me [because of the nature of my affliction], instead you welcomed me as [if I were] an angel, or even Christ Jesus Himself!

Why then did you account yourselves so happy? (For I bear you witness that if you could you would have torn out your own eyes and given them to me.)

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

Christ set us free [from condemnation under the law of Moses], so we could stay free! Remain where you are then, and do not get tangled up again in the enslaving harness [of the law of Moses].

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

But it could not be that I should glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has become crucified to me, and I to the world.