1   From Paul, an apostle, not by human appointment or human commission, but by commission from Jesus Christ and from God the Father who raised him from the dead. 2   I and the group of friends now with me send greetings to the Christian congregations of Galatia.

3   Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, ^note 4   who sacrificed himself for our sins, to rescue us out of this present age of wickedness, as our God and Father willed; 5   to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

6   I am astonished to find you turning so quickly away from him who called you by grace, ^note and following a different gospel. 7   Not that it is in fact another gospel; only there are persons who unsettle your minds by trying to distort the gospel of Christ. 8   But if anyone, if we ourselves or an angel from heaven, should preach a gospel at variance with the gospel we preached to you, he shall be held outcast. 9   I now repeat what I have said before: if anyone preaches a gospel at variance with the gospel which you received, let him be outcast!

10   Does my language now sound as if I were canvassing for men's support? Whose support do I want but God's alone? Do you think I am currying favour with men? If I still sought men's favour, I should be no servant of Christ.

11   I must make it clear to you, my friends, that the gospel you heard me preach is no human invention. 12   I did not take it over from any man; no man taught it me; I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

13   You have heard what my manner of life was when I was still a practising Jew: how savagely I persecuted the church of God, and

Faith and freedom tried to destroy it; 14   and how in the practice of our national religion I was outstripping many of my Jewish contemporaries in my boundless devotion to the traditions of my ancestors. 15   But then in his good pleasure God, who had set me apart from birth and called me through his grace, 16   chose to reveal his Son to me and through me, in order that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles. When that happened, 17   without consulting any human being, without going up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before me, I went off at once to Arabia, and afterwards returned to Damascus.

18   Three years later I did go up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas. 19   I stayed with him for a fortnight, without seeing any other of the apostles, except ^note James the Lord's brother. 20   What I write is plain truth; before God I am not lying.

21    22   Next I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and remained unknown by sight ^note to Christ's congregations in Judaea. 23   They only heard it said, ‘Our former persecutor is preaching the good news of the faith which once he tried to destroy’; 24   and they praised God for me.

1   Next, fourteen years later, I went again ^note to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus with us. 2   I went up because it had been revealed by God that I should do so. I laid before them—but at a private interview with the men of repute—the gospel which I am accustomed to preach to the Gentiles, to make sure that the race I had run, and was running, should not be run in vain. 3   Yet even my companion Titus, Greek though he is, was not compelled to be circumcised. 4   That course was urged only as a concession to certain ^note sham-Christians, interlopers who had stolen in to spy upon the liberty we enjoy in the fellowship of Christ Jesus. These men wanted to bring us into bondage, 5   but not for one moment did I yield to their dictation; I was determined that the full truth of the Gospel should be maintained for you. ^note

6   But as for the men of high reputation (not that their importance matters to me: God does not recognize these personal distinctions) —these men of repute, I say, did not prolong the consultation, ^note

Faith and freedom 7   but on the contrary acknowledged that I had been entrusted with the Gospel for Gentiles as surely as Peter had been entrusted with the Gospel for Jews. 8   For God whose action made Peter an apostle to the Jews, also made me an apostle to the Gentiles.

9   Recognizing, then, the favour thus bestowed upon me, those reputed pillars of our society, James, Cephas, and John, accepted Barnabas and myself as partners, and shook hands upon it, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles while they went to the Jews. 10   All they asked was that we should keep their poor in mind, which was the very thing I made ^note it my business to do.

11   But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12   For until certain persons ^note came from James he was taking his meals with gentile Christians; but when they ^note came he drew back and began to hold aloof, because he was afraid of the advocates of circumcision. 13   The other Jewish Christians showed the same lack of principle; even Barnabas was carried away and played false like the rest. 14   But when I saw that their conduct did not square with ^note the truth of the Gospel, I said to Cephas, before the whole congregation, ‘If you, a Jew born and bred, live like a Gentile, and not like a Jew, how can you insist that Gentiles must live like Jews?’

15    16    16   We ourselves are Jews by birth, not Gentiles and sinners. But we know that no man is ever justified by doing what the law demands, but only through faith in Christ Jesus; so we too have put our faith in Jesus Christ, in order that we might be justified through this faith, and not through deeds dictated by law; for by such deeds, Scripture says, no mortal man shall be justified.

17   If now, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves no less than the Gentiles turn out to be sinners against the law, ^note does that mean that Christ is an abettor of sin? 18   No, never! No, if I start building up again a system which I have pulled down, then it is that I show myself up as a transgressor of the law. 19   For through the law I died to law—to live for God. 20   I have been crucified with Christ: the life I now live is not my life, but the life which Christ lives in me; and my present bodily life is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. 21   I will not

Faith and freedom nullify the grace of God; if righteousness comes by law, then Christ died for nothing.

1   You stupid Galatians! You must have been bewitched—you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly displayed upon his cross! 2   Answer me one question: did you receive the Spirit by keeping the law or by believing the gospel message ^note? 3   Can it be that you are so stupid? You started with the spiritual; do you now look to the material to make you perfect? 4   Have all your great experiences been in vain—if vain indeed they should be? 5   I ask then: when God gives you the Spirit and works miracles among you, why is this? Is it because you keep the law, or is it because you have faith in the gospel message? 6   Look at Abraham: he put his faith in God, and that faith was counted to him as righteousness.

7   You may take it, then, that it is the men of faith who are Abraham's sons. 8   And Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles through faith, declared the Gospel to Abraham beforehand: ‘In you all nations shall find blessing.’ 9   Thus it is the men of faith who share the blessing with faithful Abraham.

10   On the other hand those who rely on obedience to the law are under a curse; for Scripture says, ‘A curse is on all who do not persevere in doing everything that is written in the Book of the Law.’ 11   It is evident that no one is ever justified before God in terms of law; because we read, ‘he shall gain life who is justified through faith’. 12   Now law is not at all a matter of having faith: we read, ‘he who does this shall gain life by what he does’.

13   Christ bought us freedom from the curse of the law by becoming for our sake an accursed thing; for Scripture says, ‘A curse is on everyone who is hanged on a gibbet.’ 14   And the purpose of it all was that the blessing of Abraham should in Jesus Christ be extended to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

15   My brothers, let me give you an illustration. Even in ordinary life, when a man's will and testament has been duly executed, no one else can set it aside or add a codicil. 16   Now the promises were pronounced to Abraham and to his ‘issue’. It does not say ‘issues’ in the plural, but in the singular, ‘and to your issue’; and the ‘issue’ intended is Christ. 17   What I am saying is this: a testament, or covenant, had already been validated by God; it cannot be invalidated, and its

Faith and freedom promises rendered ineffective, by a law made four hundred and thirty years later. 18   If the inheritance is by legal right, then it is not by promise; but it was by promise that God bestowed it as a free gift on Abraham.

19   Then what of the law? It was added to make wrongdoing a legal offence. ^noteIt was a temporary measure pending the arrival of the ‘issue’ to whom the promise was made. It was promulgated through angels, and there was an intermediary; 20   but an intermediary is not needed for one party acting alone, and God is one.

21   Does the law, then, contradict the promises? No, never! If a law had been given which had power to bestow life, then indeed righteousness would have come from keeping the law. 22   But Scripture has declared the whole world to be prisoners in subjection to sin, so that faith in Jesus Christ may be the ground on which the promised blessing is given, and given to those who have such faith.

23   Before this faith came, we were close prisoners in the custody of law, pending the revelation of faith. 24   Thus the law was a kind of tutor in charge of us until Christ should come, ^note when we should be justified through faith; 25   and now that faith has come, the tutor's charge is at an end.

26   For through faith you are all sons of God in union with Christ Jesus. 27   Baptized into union with him, you have all put on Christ as a garment. 28   There is no such thing as Jew and Greek, slave and freeman, male and female; for you are all one person in Christ Jesus. 29   But if you thus belong to Christ, you are the ‘issue’ of Abraham, and so heirs by promise.

1   This is what I mean: so long as the heir is a minor, he is no better off than a slave, even though the whole estate is his; 2   he is under guardians and trustees until the date fixed by his father. 3   And so it was with us. During our minority we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe, ^note 4   but when the term was completed, God sent his own Son, 5   born of a woman, born under the law, to purchase freedom for the subjects of the law, in order that we might attain the status of sons.

6   To prove that you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, crying ‘Abba! 7   Father!’ You are therefore no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then also by God's own act an heir.

Faith and freedom

8   Formerly, when you did not acknowledge God, you were the slaves of beings which in their nature are no gods. ^note 9   But now that you do acknowledge God—or rather, now that he has acknowledged you—how can you turn back to the mean and beggarly spirits of the elements? ^noteWhy do you propose to enter their service all over again? 10   You keep special days and months and seasons and years. 11   You make me fear that all the pains I spent on you may prove to be labour lost.

12   Put yourselves in my place, my brothers, I beg you, for I have put myself in yours. 13   It is not that you did me any wrong. As you know, it was bodily illness that originally ^note led to my bringing you the Gospel, 14   and you resisted any temptation to show scorn or disgust at the state of my poor body; ^note you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as you might have welcomed Christ Jesus himself. 15   Have you forgotten how happy you thought yourselves in having me with you? I can say this for you: you would have torn out your very eyes, and given them to me, had that been possible! 16   And have I now made myself your enemy by being frank with you?

17   The persons I have referred to are envious of you, but not with an honest envy: ^note what they really want is to bar the door to you so that you may come to envy ^note them. 18   It is always a fine thing to deserve an honest envy ^note—always, and not only when I am present with you, dear children. 19   For my children you are, and I am in travail with you over again until you take the shape of Christ. 20   I wish I could be with you now; then I could modify my tone; ^note as it is, I am at my wits' end about you.

21   Tell me now, you who are so anxious to be under law, will you not listen to what the Law says? 22   It is written there that Abraham had two sons, one by his slave and the other by his free-born wife. 23   The slave-woman's son was born in the course of nature, the free woman's through God's promise. 24   This is an allegory. The two women stand for two covenants. The one bearing children into slavery is the covenant that comes from Mount Sinai: that is Hagar. 25   Sinai is

Faith and freedom a mountain in Arabia and it represents the Jerusalem of today, for she and her children are in slavery. 26   But the heavenly Jerusalem is the free woman; she is our mother. 27   For Scripture says, ‘Rejoice, O barren woman who never bore child; break into a shout of joy, you who never knew a mother's pangs; for the deserted wife shall have more children than she who lives with the husband.’

28   And you, my brothers, like Isaac, are children of God's promise. 29   But just as in those days the natural-born son persecuted the spiritual son, so it is today. 30   But what does Scripture say? ‘Drive out the slave-woman and her son, for the son of the slave shall not share the inheritance with the free woman's son.’ 31   You see, then, my brothers, we are no slave-woman's children; our mother is the free woman. Christ set us free, to be free men. ^note

1   Stand firm, then, and refuse to be tied to the yoke of slavery again.

2   Mark my words: I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision Christ will do you no good at all. 3   Once again, you can take it from me that every man who receives circumcision is under obligation to keep the entire law. 4   When you seek to be justified by way of law, your relation with Christ is completely severed: you have fallen out of the domain of God's grace. 5   For to us, our hope of attaining that righteousness which we eagerly await is the work of the Spirit through faith. 6   If we are in union with Christ Jesus circumcision makes no difference at all, nor does the want of it; the only thing that counts is faith active in love. ^note

7   You were running well; who was it hindered you from following the truth? 8   Whatever persuasion he used, it did not come from God who is calling you; 9   ‘a little leaven’, remember, ‘leavens all the dough’. 10   United with you in the Lord, I am confident that you will not take the wrong view; but the man who is unsettling your minds, whoever he may be, must bear God's judgement. 11   And I, my friends, if I am still advocating circumcision, why is it I am still persecuted? In that case, my preaching of the cross is a stumbling-block no more. 12   As for these agitators, they had better go the whole way and make eunuchs of themselves!

13   You, my friends, were called to be free men; only do not turn your freedom into licence for your lower nature, but be servants to one another in love. 14   For the whole law can be summed up in

Faith and freedom a single commandment: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ 15   But if you go on fighting one another, tooth and nail, all you can expect is mutual destruction.

16   I mean this: if you are guided by the Spirit you will not fulfil the desires of your lower nature. 17   That nature sets its desires against the Spirit, while the Spirit fights against it. They are in conflict with one another so that what you will to do you cannot do. 18   But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

19   Anyone can see the kind of behaviour that belongs to the lower nature: 20   fornication, impurity, and indecency; idolatry and sorcery; quarrels, a contentious temper, envy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, party intrigues, and jealousies; 21   drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who behave in such ways will never inherit the kingdom of God.

22   But the harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control. 23   There is no law dealing with such things as these. 24   And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the lower nature with its passions and desires. 25   If the Spirit is the source of our life, let the Spirit also direct our course.

26   We must not be conceited, challenging one another to rivalry, jealous of one another.

1   If a man should do something wrong, my brothers, on a sudden impulse, ^note you who are endowed with the Spirit must set him right again very gently. Look to yourself, each one of you: you may be tempted too. 2   Help one another to carry these heavy loads, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.

3   For if a man imagines himself to be somebody, when he is nothing, he is deluding himself. 4   Each man should examine his own conduct for himself; then he can measure his achievement by comparing himself with himself and not with anyone else. 5   For everyone has his own proper burden to bear.

6   When anyone is under instruction in the faith, he should give his teacher a share of all good things he has.

7   Make no mistake about this: God is not to be fooled; a man reaps what he sows. 8   If he sows seed in the field of his lower nature, he will reap from it a harvest of corruption, but if he sows in the field of the Spirit, the Spirit will bring him a harvest of eternal life. 9   So let us never tire of doing good, for if we do not slacken our efforts

Faith and freedom we shall in due time reap our harvest. 10   Therefore, as opportunity offers, let us work for the good of all, especially members of the household of the faith.

11   You see these big letters? I am now writing to you in my own hand. 12   It is all those who want to make a fair outward and bodily show who are trying to force circumcision upon you; their sole object is to escape persecution for the cross of Christ. 13   For even those who do receive circumcision are not thoroughgoing observers of the law; they only want you to be circumcised in order to boast of your having submitted to that outward rite. 14   But God forbid that I should boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which ^note the world is crucified to me and I to the world! 15   Circumcision is nothing; uncircumcision is nothing; the only thing that counts is new creation! 16   Whoever they are who take this principle for their guide, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the whole Israel of God!

17   In future let no one make trouble for me, for I bear the marks of Jesus branded on my body.

18   The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, my brothers. Amen.

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