Paul, an apostle sent not from men or by any man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead --

spiritual blessing and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

who gave Himself for our sins, to save us from the present wicked world in accordance with the will of our God and Father;

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,

which is not really another one; only there are certain people who are trying to unsettle you and want to turn the good news of Christ upside down.

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!

Am I now trying to win men's favor, or God's? Or, am I trying to be pleasing to men? If I were still trying to be pleasing to men, I would not be a slave of Christ at all.

For I tell you, brothers, the good news which was preached by me is not a human message,

for I did not get it from any man; I was not taught it, but I got it through a revelation given by Jesus Christ.

You have heard, indeed, of my former conduct as an adherent of the Jewish religion, how I kept on furiously persecuting the church of God, and tried to destroy it,

But when God, who had already set me apart from my birth, and had called me by His unmerited favor,

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,

Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas, but I spent only two weeks with him;

In writing you this, I swear before God, I am telling you the solemn truth.

only they kept hearing people say, "Our former persecutor is now preaching as good news the faith which once he tried to destroy,"

and they kept on praising God for me.

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.

Those who were looked upon as leaders -- what they were makes no difference to me -- God pays no attention to outward appearances these leaders added nothing new to me.

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.

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.

I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live, but Christ is living in me; the life I now live as a mortal man I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

I never can nullify the unmerited favor of God. For if right standing with God could come through law, then Christ died for nothing.

just as "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him as right standing with God"?

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."

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,"

I mean this: The law which was given four hundred and thirty years later could not annul the contract which had already been ratified by God, so as to cancel the promise.

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.

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

For all of you are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

but when the proper time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born subject to law,

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

So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir by God's own act.

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

but now, since you have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by Him, how can you turn back to your own crude notions, so weak and worthless, and wish to become slaves to them again?

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

but still you did not scorn the test my illness made of you, nor did you spurn me for it; on the contrary, you welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself.

Here is what I am saying to you: If you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ can do you no good.

You people, whoever you are among you, who try to get into right standing with God, through law have cut yourselves off from Christ, you have missed the way of God's favor.

For we, by the Spirit, are awaiting the hoped-for blessing which our right standing with God will bring us.

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

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.

Do not be deceived anymore; God is not to be scoffed at. A person will reap just what he sows, whatever it is.

Let us stop getting tired of doing good, for at the proper time we shall reap if we do not give up.

So then whenever we have an opportunity, let us practice doing good to everybody, but especially to the members of the family of faith.

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