Shared Word Translation

Galatians 2

Paul Accepted by the Apostles

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. I went up according to a revelation and set before them the good news that I proclaim among the Gentiles—but privately before those who seemed influential—lest somehow I might be running or had run in vain.

But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us— to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the good news might remain with you.

And from those who seemed to be something—what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the good news to the uncircumcised, just as Peter to the circumcised (for the one who worked through Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked through me for the Gentiles),

and when James and Cephas and John, who were regarded as pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised— only they asked us to remember the poor, which very thing I was eager to do.

Paul Opposes Cephas

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those of the circumcision.

And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not walking straight according to the truth of the good news, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Justification by Faith

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no flesh will be justified.

But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were also found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I build up again the things I once tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.