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.

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.

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.

but I did not see any other apostle, except James, the Lord's brother.

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

to gratify the false brothers who had been smuggled in, who sneaked in to spy upon the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus, so as to reduce us to slavery again.

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.

The other Jewish Christians followed his example in concealing their real views, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their pose.

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?"

but who know that a man is not made upright by doing what the Law commands, but by faith in Christ Jesus??ven we believed in Christ Jesus, so as to be made upright by faith in Christ and not by doing what the Law commands??or by doing what the Law commands no one can be made upright.

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

Are you so senseless? Did you begin with the Spirit only to end now with the flesh?

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

So you see, the real descendants of Abraham are the men of faith.

So the men of faith share the blessing of Abraham and 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")

in order that the blessing given to Abraham might through Jesus Christ reach the heathen, so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

Now the promises were made to Abraham and his line. It does not say, "and to your lines," in the plural, but in the singular, "and to your line," that is, Christ.

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.

But the Scripture describes all mankind as the prisoners of sin, so that the promised blessing might on the ground of faith in Jesus Christ be given to those who have faith.

So the Law has been our attendant on our way to Christ, so that we might be made upright through faith.

So when we were minors, we were slaves to material ways of looking at things,

to ransom those who were subject to law, so that we might receive adoption.

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

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?

These men are making much of you, but not with honorable intentions. They want to shut you out, so that you will have to make much of them.

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

But just as then the child born in the ordinary course of nature persecuted the one born through the influence of the Spirit, so it is today.

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.

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.

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.

Bear one another's burdens, and in that way carry out the law of the Christ.

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.

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

Why, even those who let themselves be circumcised do not observe the Law themselves! But they want you to let yourselves be circumcised so that they can boast of that physical fact about you!