I marvel that you are so readily leaving Him who called you by the grace of Christ, and are adhering to a different Good News.

But if even we or an angel from Heaven should bring you a Good News different from that which we have already brought you, let him be accursed.

What I have just said I repeat--if any one is preaching to you a Good News other than that which you originally received, let him be accursed.

For is it man's favour or God's that I aspire to? Or am I seeking to please men? If I were still a man-pleaser, I should not be Christ's bondservant.

For I must tell you, brethren, that the Good News which was proclaimed by me is not such as man approves of.

For, in fact, it was not from man that I received or learnt it, but by a revelation from Jesus Christ.

saw fit to reveal His Son within me in order that I might tell among the Gentiles the Good News concerning Him, at once I did not confer with any human being,

But not for an hour did we give way and submit to them; in order that the Good News might continue with you in its integrity.

Indeed, when they saw that I was entrusted with the preaching of the Good News to the Gentiles as Peter had been with that to the Jews--

and when they perceived the mission which was graciously entrusted to me, they (that is to say, James, Peter, and John, who were considered to be the pillars of the Church)

Only they urged that we should remember their poor--a thing which was uppermost in my own mind.

And along with him the other Jews also concealed their real opinions, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their lack of straightforwardness.

As soon as I saw that they were not walking uprightly in the spirit of the Good News, I said to Peter, before them all, "If you, though you are a Jew, live as a Gentile does, and not as a Jew, how can you make the Gentiles follow Jewish customs?

know that it is not through obedience to Law that a man can be declared free from guilt, but only through faith in Jesus Christ. We have therefore believed in Christ Jesus, for the purpose of being declared free from guilt, through faith in Christ and not through obedience to Law. For through obedience to Law no human being shall be declared free from guilt.

Why, if I am now rebuilding that structure of sin which I had demolished, I am thereby constituting myself a transgressor;

for it is by the Law that I have died to the Law, in order that I may live to God.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me; and the life which I now live in the body I live through faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up to death on my behalf.

Answer me this one question, "Is it on the ground of your obedience to the Law that you received the Spirit, or is it because, when you heard, you believed?"

Notice therefore that those who possess faith are true sons of Abraham.

And the Scripture, foreseeing that in consequence of faith God would declare the nations to be free from guilt, sent beforehand the Good News to Abraham, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed."

So we see that it is those who possess faith that are blessed with believing Abraham.

It is evident, too, that no one can find acceptance with God simply by obeying the Law, because "the righteous shall live by faith,"

and the Law has nothing to do with faith. It teaches that "he who does these things shall live by doing them."

Our freedom has been thus purchased in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing belonging to Abraham may come upon the nations, so that through faith we may receive the promised Spirit.

I mean that the Covenant which God had already formally made is not abrogated by the Law which was given four hundred and thirty years later--so as to annul the promise.

But Scripture has shown that all mankind are the prisoners of sin, in order that the promised blessing, which depends on faith in Jesus Christ, may be given to those who believe.

So that the Law has acted the part of a tutor-slave to lead us to Christ, in order that through faith we may be declared to be free from guilt.

But now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor-slave.

Now I say that so long as an heir is a child, he in no respect differs from a slave, although he is the owner of everything,

in order to purchase the freedom of all who were subject to Law, so that we might receive recognition as sons.

I am alarmed about you, and am afraid that I have perhaps bestowed labour upon you to no purpose.

And you know that in those early days it was on account of bodily infirmity that I proclaimed the Good News to you,

I ask you, then, what has become of your self-congratulations? For I bear you witness that had it been possible you would have torn out your own eyes and have given them to me.

Can it be that I have become your enemy through speaking the truth to you?

These men pay court to you, but not with honourable motives. They want to exclude you, so that you may pay court to them.

Would that I were with you and could change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-girl and one by the free woman.

But we see that the child of the slave-girl was born in the common course of nature; but the child of the free woman in fulfilment of the promise.

For it is written, "Rejoice, thou barren woman that bearest not, break forth into a joyful cry, thou that dost not travail with child. For the desolate woman has many children--more indeed than she who has the husband."

Yet just as, at that time, the child born in the common course of nature persecuted the one whose birth was due to the power of the Spirit, so it is now.

Remember that it is I Paul who tell you that if you receive circumcision Christ will avail you nothing.

I once more protest to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to obey the whole Law of Moses.

For my part I have strong confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt my view of the matter. But the man--be he who he may--who is troubling you, will have to bear the full weight of the judgement to be pronounced on him.

As for me, brethren, if I am still a preacher of circumcision, how is it that I am still suffering persecution? In that case the Cross has ceased to be a stumbling-block!

Would to God that those who are unsettling your faith would even mutilate themselves.

For the cravings of the lower nature are opposed to those of the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are opposed to those of the lower nature; because these are antagonistic to each other, so that you cannot do everything to which you are inclined.

hard drinking, riotous feasting, and the like. And as to these I forewarn you, as I have already forewarned you, that those who are guilty of such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God.

Do not deceive yourselves. God is not to be scoffed at. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

He who sows in the field of his lower nature, will from that nature reap destruction; but he who sows to serve the Spirit will from the Spirit reap the Life of the Ages.

For these very men do not really keep the Law of Moses, but they would have you receive circumcision in order that they may glory in *your* bodies.

But as for me, God forbid that I should glory in anything except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, upon which the world is crucified to me, and I am crucified to the world.