Paul, an apostle not from men nor sent by any man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead??2 and all the brothers who are here with me, to the churches of Galatia;

blessing and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

who to save us from the present wicked world gave himself for our sins at the will of our God and Father.

I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the mercy of Christ, to some different good news??7 not that there is any other, only that there are some people who are trying to unsettle you and want to turn the good news of the Christ around.

But even if we or an angel from heaven preach to you good news that contradicts the good news we have preached to you, a curse upon him!

We have said it before, and I repeat it now??f anyone is preaching to you good news that contradicts the good news you have already received, a curse upon him!

Is that appealing to men's weaknesses, or to God? Is that trying to suit men? If I were still doing that, I would be no slave of Christ.

For I tell you plainly, brothers, that the good news that I preached is not a human affair.

You have heard of my former conduct when I was attached to the Jewish religion??ow furiously I used to persecute the church of God and ravage it,

And when God, who had set me apart from my birth and had called me in his mercy, saw fit

to reveal his Son to me, so that I might preach the good news about him to the heathen, immediately, instead of consulting with any human being,

(In writing you this, I call God to witness that I am telling the truth!)

they only heard people say, "The man who once persecuted us is now preaching the good news of the faith he tried to destroy,"

and they praised God for me.

It was in obedience to a revelation that I went. I laid before them the good news that I preach to the heathen, presenting it privately to the leaders, for fear my efforts might be or might have been futile.

But we did not submit to them for a moment, in order that the truth of the good news might remain yours.

Those who were regarded as the leaders??hat they once were makes no difference to me; God takes no account of external differences??he leaders contributed nothing new to me.

On the contrary, when they saw that I had been intrusted with the good news for the heathen, just as Peter had been intrusted with it for the Jews??8 for he who actuated Peter to be an apostle to the Jews also actuated me to be one to the heathen??9 and when they recognized the favor God had shown me, James, Cephas, and John, who were regarded as pillars of the church, pledged Barnabas and me their co-operation, with the understanding that we should work among the heathen and they among the Jews.

But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the good news, I said to Cephas, right before them all, "If you live like a heathen, and not like a Jew, though you are a Jew yourself, why should you try to make the heathen live like Jews?"

For it is through the Law that I have become dead to the Law, so that I may live for God.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me. The life I am now living in the body I am living by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

I refuse to nullify the mercy of God. For if uprightness could be secured through law, then Christ died for nothing!

Just as Abraham had faith in God and it was credited to him as uprightness.

The Scripture foresaw that God would accept the heathen as upright in consequence of their faith, and preached the good news in advance to Abraham in the words, "All the heathen will be blessed through you."

That no one is accepted as upright by God for obeying the Law is evident because the upright will have life because of his faith,

My point is this: An agreement already ratified by God cannot be annulled and its promise canceled by the Law, which arose four hundred and thirty years later.

If our inheritance rests on the Law, it has nothing to do with the promise. Yet it was as a promise that God bestowed it upon Abraham.

though an intermediary implies more than one party, while God is but one.

Is the Law then contrary to God's promises? By no means. For if a law had been given that could have brought life, uprightness would really have come through law.

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

but when the proper time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, and made subject to law,

And because you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the spirit of his Son, with the cry, "Abba!" that is, Father.

So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir, made so by God.

But formerly, in your ignorance of God, you were slaves to gods that really did not exist,

but now that you know God, or rather have come to be known by him, how can you turn back to the old, crude notions, so poor and weak, and wish to become slaves to them again?

though you know that it was because of an illness that I preached the good news to you that first time;

and yet what must have tried you in my physical condition, you did not scorn and despise, but you welcomed me like an angel of God, like Christ Jesus himself.

This is the freedom with which Christ has freed us. So stand firm in it, and do not get under a yoke of slavery again.

You people who propose to be made upright by law have finished with Christ; you have lost your hold upon God's favor.

envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you as I did before that people who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God.

Do not be deceived. God is not to be sneered at. A man will reap just what he sows.

Let us not get tired of doing right, for at the proper time we shall reap, if we do not give out.

So then whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially to those who belong to the family of the faith.

These men who are trying to force you to let yourselves be circumcised want to present a good appearance externally, to save themselves from having to stand persecution for the cross of Jesus the Christ.

Peace and mercy be on all who will follow this rule, and on the true Israel of God.