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;

I did not receive it from any man, and I was not taught it, but it came to me through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

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 how I surpassed many of my own age among my people in my devotion to Judaism, I was so fanatically devoted to what my forefathers had handed down.

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,

or going up to Jerusalem to see those who had been apostles before me, I went off to Arabia, and on my return came back to Damascus.

and they praised God for me.

Then, fourteen years later, I went up to Jerusalem again, with Barnabas, and took Titus also with 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 they did not insist that even my companion Titus, although he was a Greek, should be circumcised,

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.

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.

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.

Take my position, I beg you, brothers, just as I once took yours! You took no advantage of me then;

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.

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.

Tell me this, you who want to be subject to law: Will you not listen to the Law?

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.

See what large letters I make, when I write to you with my own hand!

But I never want to boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, on which the world has been crucified to me and I have been to the world.

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