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

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

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.

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 Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, for his own conduct condemned him.

For until some people came from James, he used to eat with the heathen, but after they came, he began to draw back and hold aloof, for fear of the party of circumcision.

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!

Have you gone through so much, all for nothing???f it really is for nothing!

For there is a curse upon all who rely on obedience to the Law, for the Scripture says, "Cursed be anyone who does not stand by everything that is written in the Book of the Law and obey it."

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,

Christ ransomed us from the Law's curse by taking our curse upon himself (for the Scripture says, "Cursed be anyone who is hung on a tree")

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.

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.

For all of you who have been baptized into union with Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

There is no room for "Jew" and "Greek"; there is no room for "slave" and "freeman"; there is no room for "male" and "female"; for in union with Christ Jesus you are all one.

What has become of that satisfaction of yours? For I can bear witness that you would have torn out your very eyes, if you could, and given them to me!

my children??ou for whom I am enduring a mother's pains again, until Christ is formed in you.

I wish I could be with you now, and use a different tone with you, for I do not know which way to turn about you.

For the Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-girl, and one by the free woman.

But the child of the slave-girl was born in the ordinary course of nature, while the child of the free woman was born in fulfilment of the promise.

This is an allegorical utterance. For the women are two agreements, one coming from Mount Sinai, bearing children that are to be slaves; that is, Hagar

(and Hagar means Mount Sinai, in Arabia), and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is in slavery with her children.

But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

For the Scripture says, "Rejoice, childless woman, who bear no children, Break into shouting, you who have no birth pains! For the desolate woman has more children than the married one!"

Yet what does the Scripture say? "Drive the slave-girl and her son away, for the slave-girl's son shall not share the inheritance with the son of the free woman."

So, brothers, we are children not of a slave but of one who is free.

Why, I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ can do nothing for you.

But we, by the Spirit, through faith wait for the uprightness we hope for.

For in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor the want of it counts for anything, but only faith acting through love.

I am confident in the Lord that you will not take a different view. The man who is unsettling you will have to pay the penalty for it, no matter who he is.

For you, brothers, have been called to freedom; only do not make your freedom an excuse for the physical, but in love be slaves to one another.

For the whole Law is summed up in one saying: "You must love your neighbor as you do yourself."

For the physical cravings are against the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are against the physical; the two are in opposition, so that you cannot do anything you please.

But if a man is caught doing something wrong, brothers, you are spiritual, and you must set him right, in a spirit of gentleness. Think of yourself, for you may be tempted too.

For if anyone thinks he is somebody when he is really nobody, he is deceiving himself.

For everyone will have to carry his own load.

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

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.

For neither circumcision nor the want of it is of any importance, but only a new creation.

Let nobody interfere with me after this, for I bear on my body the scars that mark me as a slave of Jesus.