Beginning

Paul’s distress over the Galatians

1 Paul, an apostle . . . (my apostleship doesn’t derive from human sources, nor did it come through a human being; it came through Jesus the Messiah, and God the father who raised him from the dead) . . . ² and the family who are with me; to the churches of Galatia. ³ Grace to you and peace from God our father and Jesus the Messiah, our Lord, ⁴ who gave himself for our sins, to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of God our father, ⁵ to whom be glory to the ages of ages. Amen.

⁶ I’m astonished that you are turning away so quickly from the one who called you by grace, and going after another gospel— ⁷ not that it is another gospel, it’s just that there are some people stirring up trouble for you and wanting to pervert the gospel of the Messiah. ⁸ But even if we—or an angel from heaven!—should announce a gospel other than the one we announced to you, let such a person be accursed. ⁹ I said it before and I now say it again: if anyone offers you a gospel other than the one you received, let that person be accursed.

Paul’s conversion and call

¹⁰ Well now . . . does that sound as though I’m trying to make up to people—or to God? Or that I’m trying to curry favor with people? If I were still pleasing people, I wouldn’t be a slave of the Messiah.

¹¹ You see, brothers and sisters, let me make it clear to you: the gospel announced by me is not a mere human invention. ¹² I didn’t receive it from human beings, nor was I taught it; it came through an unveiling of Jesus the Messiah.

¹³ You heard, didn’t you, the way I behaved when I was still within “Judaism.” I persecuted the church of God violently, and ravaged it. ¹⁴ I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age and people; I was extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. ¹⁵ But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, was pleased ¹⁶ to unveil his son in me, so that I might announce the good news about him among the nations—immediately I did not confer with flesh and blood. ¹⁷ Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. No; I went away to Arabia, and afterwards returned to Damascus.

Paul’s first visit to Peter

¹⁸ Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to speak with Cephas. I stayed with him for two weeks. ¹⁹ I didn’t see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰ (Look, I’m not lying! The things I’m writing to you are written in God’s presence.) ²¹ Then I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²² I remained unknown by sight to the messianic assemblies in Judaea. ²³ They simply heard that the one who had been persecuting them was now announcing the good news of the faith which he once tried to destroy. ²⁴ And they glorified God because of me.

Standing firm against opposition

2 Then, after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem. I took Barnabas with me, and Titus. ² I went up because of a revelation. I laid before them the gospel which I announce among the Gentiles (I did this privately, in the presence of the key people), in case somehow I might be running, or might have run, to no good effect. ³ But even the Greek, Titus, who was with me, was not forced to get circumcised . . . ⁴ but because of some pseudo-family members who had been secretly smuggled in, who came in on the side to spy on the freedom which we have in the Messiah, Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery . . . ⁵ I didn’t yield authority to them, no, not for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be maintained for you.

Paul’s agreement with Peter and James

⁶ However, those who appeared to be Something—what sort of “thing” they were makes no difference to me, God shows no partiality—those of reputation added nothing extra to me. ⁷ On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcision, just as Peter had been with the gospel for the circumcision ⁸ (for the one who gave Peter the power to be an apostle to the circumcision gave me the power to go to the Gentiles). They knew, moreover, the grace that had been given to me. ⁹ So James, Cephas and John, who were reputed to be “pillars,” gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. ¹⁰ The only extra thing they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor—the very thing I was eager to do.

Paul confronts Peter in Antioch

¹¹ But when Cephas came to Antioch, I stood up to him face to face. He was in the wrong. ¹² Before certain persons came from James, Peter was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, because he was afraid of the circumcision-people. ¹³ The rest of the Jews did the same, joining him in this play-acting. Even Barnabas was carried along by their sham. ¹⁴ But when I saw that they weren’t walking straight down the line of gospel truth, I said to Cephas in front of them all: “Look here: you’re a Jew, but you’ve been living like a Gentile. How can you force Gentiles to become Jews?”

Justified by faith, not works of law

¹⁵ We are Jews by birth, not “Gentile sinners.” ¹⁶ But we know that a person is not declared “righteous” by works of the Jewish law, but through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah.

That is why we too believed in the Messiah, Jesus: so that we might be declared “righteous” on the basis of the Messiah’s faithfulness, and not on the basis of works of the Jewish law. On that basis, you see, no creature will be declared “righteous.”

¹⁷ Well, then; if, in seeking to be declared “righteous” in the Messiah, we ourselves are found to be “sinners,” does that make the Messiah an agent of “sin”? Certainly not! ¹⁸ If I build up once more the things which I tore down, I demonstrate that I am a lawbreaker.

¹⁹ Let me explain it like this. Through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with the Messiah. ²⁰ I am, however, alive—but it isn’t me any longer, it’s the Messiah who lives in me. And the life I do still live in the flesh, I live within the faithfulness of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

²¹ I don’t set aside God’s grace. If “righteousness” comes through the law, then the Messiah died for nothing.

God’s promise and Abraham’s faith

3 You witless Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Messiah Jesus was portrayed on the cross before your very eyes! ² There’s just one thing I want to know from you. Did you receive the spirit by doing the works of Torah, or by hearing and believing? ³ You are so witless: you began with the spirit, and now you’re ending with the flesh? ⁴ Did you really suffer so much for nothing—if indeed it is going to be for nothing? ⁵ The one who gives you the spirit and performs powerful deeds among you—does he do this through your performance of Torah, or through hearing and believing?

⁶ It’s like Abraham. “He believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” ⁷ So you know that it’s people of faith who are children of Abraham. ⁸ The Bible foresaw that God would justify the nations by faith, so it announced the gospel to Abraham in advance, when it declared that “the nations will be blessed in you.” ⁹ So you see: the people of faith are blessed along with faithful Abraham.

Redeemed from the law’s curse

¹⁰ Because, you see, those who belong to the “works-of-the-law” camp are under a curse! Yes, that’s what the Bible says: “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t stick fast by everything written in the book of the law, to perform it.” ¹¹ But, because nobody is justified before God in the law, it’s clear that “the righteous shall live by faith.” ¹² The law, however, is not by faith: rather, “the one who does them shall live in them.”

¹³ The Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse on our behalf, as the Bible says: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” ¹⁴ This was so that the blessing of Abraham could flow through to the nations in Messiah Jesus—and so that we might receive the promise of the spirit, through faith.

Christ the seed, Christ the mediator

¹⁵ My brothers and sisters, let me use a human illustration. When someone makes a covenanted will, nobody sets it aside or adds to it. ¹⁶ Well, the promises were made “to Abraham and his seed,” that is, his family. It doesn’t say “his seeds,” as though referring to several families, but indicates a single family by saying “and to your seed,” meaning the Messiah.

¹⁷ This is what I mean. God made this covenanted will; the law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, can’t undermine it and make the promise null and void. ¹⁸ If the inheritance came through the law, it would no longer be by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

¹⁹ Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the family should come to whom it had been promised. It was laid down by angels, at the hand of a mediator. ²⁰ He, however, is not the mediator of the “one”—but God is one!

²¹ Is the law then against God’s promises? Of course not! No, if a law had been given that could have given life, then covenant membership really would have been by the law. ²² But the Bible shut up everything together under the power of sin, so that the promise—which comes by the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah—might be given to those who believe.

The coming of faith

²³ Before this faithfulness arrived, we were kept under guard by the law, in close confinement until the coming faithfulness should be revealed. ²⁴ Thus the law was like a babysitter for us, looking after us until the coming of the Messiah, so that we might be given covenant membership on the basis of faithfulness.

²⁵ But now that faithfulness has come, we are no longer under the rule of the babysitter. ²⁶ For you are all children of God, through faith, in the Messiah, Jesus.

²⁷ You see, every one of you who has been baptized into the Messiah has put on the Messiah. ²⁸ There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no “male and female”; you are all one in the Messiah, Jesus.

²⁹ And, if you belong to the Messiah, you are Abraham’s family. You stand to inherit the promise.