What we have told you in the past I am now telling you again: If anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that person be condemned!

Am I now trying to win the approval of people or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be the Messiah's servant.

For I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin.

But the churches of the Messiah that are in Judea did not yet know me personally.

The only thing they kept hearing was this: "The man who used to persecute us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy!"

Now those who were reputed to be important added nothing to my message. (What sort of people they were makes no difference to me, since God pays no attention to outward appearances.)

yet we know that a person is not justified by doing what the Law requires, but rather by the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah. We, too, have believed in the Messiah Jesus so that we might be justified by the faithfulness of the Messiah and not by doing what the Law requires, for no human being will be justified by doing what the Law requires.

Now if we, while trying to be justified by the Messiah, have been found to be sinners, does that mean that the Messiah is serving the interests of sin? Of course not!

I no longer live, but the Messiah lives in me, and the life that I am now living in this body I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Are you so foolish? Having started out with the Spirit, are you now ending up with the flesh?

Now it is obvious that no one is justified in the sight of God by the Law, because "The righteous will live by faith."

Brothers, let me use an example from everyday life. Once an agreement has been ratified, no one can cancel it or add conditions to it.

Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant. It doesn't say "descendants," referring to many, but "your descendant," referring to one person, who is the Messiah.

For if the inheritance comes about through the Law, it no longer comes about through the promise. But it was through a promise that God so graciously gave it to Abraham.

Now a mediator involves more than one party, but God is one.

Now before faith came about, we were held in custody and confined under the Law in preparation for the faith that was to be revealed.

But now that faith has come about, we are no longer under a guardian.

Because all of you are one in the Messiah Jesus, a person is no longer a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a male or a female.

Now what I am saying is this: As long as an heir is a child, he is no better off than a slave, even though he owns everything.

Now because you are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to cry out, "Abba! Father!"

So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if you are a child, then you are also an heir because of what God did.

However, in the past, when you did not know God, you were slaves to things that are not really gods at all.

But now that you know God, or rather have been known by God, how can you turn back again to those powerless and bankrupt basic principles? Why do you want to become their slaves all over again?

You know that it was because I was ill that I brought you the gospel the first time.

So have I now become your enemy for telling you the truth?

(Now it is always good to be devoted to a good cause, even when I am not with you.)

Indeed, I wish I were with you right now so that I could change the tone of my voice, because I am completely baffled by you!

Now the slave woman's son was conceived through human means, while the free woman's son was conceived through divine promise.

Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to present-day Jerusalem, because she is in slavery along with her children.

For it is written, "Rejoice, you childless woman, who cannot give birth to any children! Break into song and shout, you who feel no pains of childbirth! For the children of the deserted woman are more numerous than the children of the woman who has a husband."

But just as then the son who was conceived according to the flesh persecuted the son who was conceived according to the Spirit, so it is now.

Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, the Messiah will be of no benefit to you.

I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view of this. However, the one who is troubling you will suffer God's judgment, whoever he is.

Now the actions of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, promiscuity,

envy, murder, drunkenness, wild partying, and things like that. I am telling you now, as I have told you in the past, that people who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

Now those who belong to the Messiah Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires.

For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters. Rather, what matters is being a new creation.

Now may peace be on all those who live by this principle, and may mercy be on the Israel of God.

Let no one make any more trouble for me, because I carry the scars of Jesus on my own body.