There Is Only One Good News

I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News

but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.

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

There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.

Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

You are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years.

But you are now being persecuted by those who want you to keep the law, just as Ishmael, the child born by human effort, persecuted Isaac, the child born by the power of the Spirit.

Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you.

I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses.

For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.

But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.

The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.