I am astonished that you are beginning so soon to turn away from Him who called you by the favor of Christ, to a different good news,

But even if I or an angel from heaven preach a good news that is contrary to the one which I have already preached to you, a curse upon him!

As I have said it before, so now I say it again, if anybody is preaching to you a good news that is contrary to the one which you have already received, a curse upon him!

chose to unveil His Son in me, so that I might preach the good news about Him among the heathen, at once, before I conferred with any human creatures,

After that I went into the districts of Syria and Cilicia.

I went up under the guidance of a divine revelation. Now I laid before them the good news that I was in the habit of preaching among the heathen, but first I did so privately before the leaders, for fear that my course might be or might have been to no purpose.

But we did not for a moment yield them submission, in order that the truth of the good news might prevail for you.

On the contrary, because they saw that I had been entrusted with the good news for the heathen, just as Peter had been entrusted with it for the Jews --

and because they recognized the favor God had shown me, James, Cephas, and John, the so-called pillar apostles, gave Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, with the understanding that we should go to the heathen and they to the Jews.

Only they wanted us to remember the poor; the very thing that I was eager to do.

The rest of the Jewish Christians, too, joined him in this pretense so that even Barnabas was influenced to join them in their pretense.

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

because we know that a man does not come into right standing with God by doing what the law commands, but by simple trust in Christ, we too have trusted in Christ Jesus, in order to come into right standing with God by simple trust in Christ and not by doing what the law commands, because by doing what the law commands no man can come into right standing with God.

Now if, in our efforts to come into right standing with God through union with Christ, we have proved ourselves to be sinners like the heathen themselves, does that make Christ a party to our sin? Of course not.

For through the law I myself have become dead to the law, so that I may live for God.

Now when He supplies you with the Spirit and performs His wonder-works among you, does He do it because you do what the law commands, or because you believe the message that you heard --

Because the Scripture foresaw that God would bring the heathen into right standing with Himself on condition of faith, He beforehand proclaimed the good news to Abraham in the promise, "It is through you that all the heathen will be blessed."

For those who depend on what the law commands are under a curse, for the Scripture says, "Cursed be everyone who does not continue in all the commands that are written in the book of the law, to do them."

Now it is evident that through the law no man is brought into right standing with God, for "The man in right standing with God will live by faith,"

and the law has nothing to do with faith, but it says, "It is the man who does these things that will live by doing them."

that the blessing promised to Abraham might through Jesus Christ come to the heathen, so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

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

For if our inheritance depends on the law, it can no longer depend on the promise. But it was by promise that God so graciously bestowed it upon Abraham.

Though an intermediary implies more than one party, yet God is only one.

Is the law then contrary to God's promises? Of course not. For if a law had been given that was able to impart life, surely, then, right standing would have come through law.

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

So the law has been our attendant to lead us to Christ, so that we might through faith obtain right standing with God.

But now that this faith has come, we are no longer in the charge of the attendant.

I mean this: As long as the heir is under age he is not a whit better off than a slave, although he is heir of all the property,

to ransom those who were subject to law, so that we might be adopted as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, "Abba," that is, "Father."

But at that former time, as you did not know the true God, you were slaves to gods that do not really exist,

I am beginning to fear that I have bestowed my labors on you for nothing.

And yet you know that it was because of an illness of mine that I preached the good news to you the first time,

Where is your self-congratulation? For I can testify that you would have torn out your very eyes, if you could, and have given them to me.

These men are paying you special attention, but not sincerely. They want to shut you off from me, so that you may keep on paying them special attention.

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

This is spoken as an allegory. For these women are two covenants, 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 that is above is free, and she is our mother.

For the Scripture says: "Rejoice, you childless woman, who never bore a child; break forth into shouting, you who feel no birth pangs; for the desolate woman has many children, even more than the married one."

I again insist that if any man lets himself be circumcised, he is under obligation to obey the whole law.

For in union with Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor lack of it counts for anything; but only faith that is spurred on to action by love.

You were running beautifully! Who was it that cut into your way and kept you from obeying the truth?

By our union with the Lord I have confidence in you that you will take no other view of the matter. The man who is unsettling you will certainly pay the penalty for it, no matter who it turns out to be.

I almost wish that these men who are upsetting you would go all the way, and have themselves mutilated.

For the cravings of the lower nature are just the opposite to those of the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are just the opposite of those of the lower nature; these two are opposed to each other, so that you cannot do anything you please.

envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I now warn you, as I have done before, that those who practice such things shall not be heirs of the kingdom of God.

The person who sows to gratify his lower nature will reap destruction from that lower nature, and the person who sows to gratify his higher nature will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

Indeed, the very men who let themselves be circumcised do not themselves observe the law. But they simply want you to let yourselves be circumcised, so that they can boast of you as members of their party.

Now peace and mercy be on all who walk by this rule; that is, on the true Israel of God.

Let nobody trouble me after this, for I carry on my body the scars that mark me as Jesus' slave.