Galatians 1–3

CHAPTER 1

Greetings and Grace

¹Paul, ^aan apostle—^bnot sent from men nor through man, but ^cthrough Jesus Christ and God the Father, who ^draised Him from the dead—

²and all ^athe brothers who are with me,

To ^bthe churches of Galatia:

^3aGrace to you and peace from ¹God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

⁴who ^agave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from ^bthis present evil ¹age, according to the will of ^cour God and Father,

^5ato whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Distorting the Gospel

⁶I marvel that you are so quickly deserting ^aHim who called you ¹by the grace of Christ for a ^bdifferent gospel,

⁷which is really not another, only there are some who are ^adisturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

⁸But even if we, or ^aan angel from heaven, should proclaim to you a gospel ¹contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed to you, let him be ^2baccursed!

⁹As we ^ahave said before, so I say again now, ^bif any man is proclaiming to you a gospel ¹contrary to what you received, let him be ^2caccursed!

¹⁰For am I now ^aseeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a ^bslave of Christ.

Paul Called by God

¹¹For ^aI make known to you, brothers, that the gospel which I am proclaiming as good news is ^bnot according to man.

¹²For ^aI neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a ^brevelation of Jesus Christ.

¹³For you have heard of ^amy former conduct in Judaism, how I ^bused to persecute ^cthe church of God beyond measure and ^dtried to destroy it.

¹⁴And I ^awas advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being far more zealous for the traditions of my ^bfathers.

¹⁵But when God, who had set me apart from my mother’s womb and ^acalled me through His grace, was pleased

¹⁶to reveal His Son in me so that I might ^aproclaim Him as good news among the Gentiles, ^bI did not immediately consult with ^1cflesh and blood,

^17anor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to ^bDamascus.

¹⁸Then ^athree years later I went up ^bto Jerusalem to ¹become acquainted with ^cCephas, and stayed with him fifteen days.

¹⁹But I did not see any other of the apostles except ^1aJames, the Lord’s brother.

²⁰(Now in what I am writing to you, ¹I assure you ^abefore God that I am not lying!)

²¹Then ^aI went into the regions of ^bSyria and ^cCilicia.

²²And I was still unknown by ¹sight to ^athe churches of Judea which are ^bin Christ;

²³but only, they kept hearing, “He who once persecuted us is now proclaiming the good news of ^athe faith which he once ^btried to destroy.”

²⁴And they ^awere glorifying God ¹because of me.

CHAPTER 2

Paul Accepted by the Apostles

¹Then after fourteen years I ^awent up again to Jerusalem with ^bBarnabas, taking ^cTitus along also.

²And I went up ¹because of a ^arevelation, and I laid out to them the ^bgospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, lest somehow I might be ^crunning, or had run, in vain.

³But not even ^aTitus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was ^bcompelled to be circumcised.

⁴But this was because of the ^afalse brothers secretly brought in, who ^bhad sneaked in to spy out our ^cfreedom which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to ^denslave us.

⁵But we did not yield in subjection to them for even ¹a moment, so that ^athe truth of the gospel would remain with you.

⁶But from those who ¹were of high ^areputation (what they were makes no difference to me; ^bGod ²shows no partiality)—well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me.

⁷But on the contrary, seeing that I had been ^aentrusted with the ^bgospel ¹to the uncircumcised, just as ^cPeter had been ²to the circumcised

⁸(for He who worked in Peter unto his ^aapostleship ¹to the circumcised worked in me also unto the Gentiles),

⁹and recognizing ^athe grace that had been given to me, ^bJames and ^cCephas and ¹John, who were ^dreputed to be ^epillars, gave to me and ^fBarnabas the ^gright ²hand of fellowship, so that we might ^hgo to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

¹⁰Only they asked us to remember the poor—^athe very thing I also was eager to do.

Paul Opposes Peter (Cephas)

¹¹But when ^aCephas came to ^bAntioch, I opposed him to his face, because he ¹stood condemned.

¹²For prior to the coming of certain men from ^aJames, he used to ^beat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he began to shrink back and separate himself, ^cfearing ¹the party of the circumcision.

¹³And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even ^aBarnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.

¹⁴But when I saw that they ^awere not ¹straightforward about ^bthe truth of the gospel, I said to ^cCephas before everyone, “If you, being a Jew, ^dlive like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?^a

¹⁵“We are ^aJews by nature and not ^bsinners from among the Gentiles;

¹⁶nevertheless ¹knowing that ^aa man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by ^bfaith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since ^cby the works of ²the Law no ³flesh will be justified.

¹⁷“But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found ^asinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? ^bMay it never be!

¹⁸“For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I ^aprove myself to be a transgressor.

¹⁹“For through ¹the Law I ^adied to ²the Law, so that I might live to God.

²⁰“I have been ^acrucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but ^bChrist lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in ^cthe Son of God, who ^dloved me and ^egave Himself up for me.

²¹“I do not set aside the grace of God, for ^aif righteousness comes through ¹the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

CHAPTER 3

The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

¹O foolish ^aGalatians, who bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ ^bwas publicly portrayed as crucified?

²This is the only thing I want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of ¹the Law, or by ^2ahearing with faith?

³Are you so foolish? Having begun ¹by the Spirit, are you now ²being perfected by the flesh?

⁴Did you ¹suffer so many things for nothing—^aif indeed it was for nothing?

⁵So then, does He who ^aprovides you with the Spirit and ^bworks ¹miracles among you, do it by the works of ²the Law, or by ^3chearing with faith?

⁶Just as ^aAbraham ^bbelieved God and it was counted to him as righteousness,

⁷so know that ^athose who are of faith, those are ^bsons of Abraham.

⁸And the Scripture, foreseeing that God ¹would justify the ²Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “^aAll the nations will be blessed in you.”

⁹So then ^athose who are of faith are blessed with ¹Abraham, the believer.

¹⁰For as many as are of the works of ¹the Law are under a curse, for it is written, “^aCursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to do them.”

¹¹Now that ^ano one is justified ¹by ²the Law before God is evident, ³for ^bThe righteous shall live by faith.”

¹²¹However, the Law is not ²of faith; rather, “^aHe who does them shall live ³by them.”

¹³Christ ^aredeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “^bCursed is everyone who hangs on ^ca ¹tree”—

¹⁴in order that ^ain Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might ¹come to the Gentiles, so that we ^bwould receive ^cthe promise of the Spirit through faith.

The Promise by Faith

^15aBrothers, ^bI speak ¹in human terms: ^ceven though it is only a man’s ²covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds ³conditions to it.

¹⁶Now the promises were spoken ^ato Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And ^bto your seed,” that is, Christ.

¹⁷And what I am saying is this: the Law, which came ^a430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to abolish the promise.

¹⁸For ^aif the inheritance is by law, it is no longer by promise, but ^bGod has granted it to Abraham through promise.

^19aWhy the Law then? It was added ¹because of trespasses, having been ^bordained through angels ^cby the hand of a mediator, until ^dthe seed would come to whom the promise had been made.

²⁰Now ^aa mediator is not ¹for one person only, whereas God is one.

²¹Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? ^aMay it never be! For ^bif a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed be by law.

²²But the Scripture has ^ashut up ¹everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

²³But before faith came, we were held in custody under the Law, ^abeing shut up for the coming faith to be revealed.

²⁴Therefore the Law has become our ^atutor unto Christ, so that ^bwe may be justified by faith.

²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a ^1atutor.

²⁶For you are all ^asons of God through faith in ^bChrist Jesus.

²⁷For all of you who were ^abaptized into Christ have ^bclothed yourselves with Christ.

^28aThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is no ^bmale and female, for ^cyou are all one in ^dChrist Jesus.

²⁹And if ^ayou ¹belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s ²seed, heirs according to ^bpromise.