Galatians 2:7–21

⁷On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task^k of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised,^al just as Peter^m had been to the circumcised.^{b 8}For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostleⁿ to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle^o to the Gentiles. ⁹James,^p Cephas^cq and John, those esteemed as pillars,^r gave me and Barnabas^s the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me.^t They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles,^u and they to the circumcised. ¹⁰All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor,^v the very thing I had been eager to do all along.

Paul Opposes Cephas

¹¹When Cephas^w came to Antioch,^x I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. ¹²For before certain men came from James,^y he used to eat with the Gentiles.^z But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.^{a 13}The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas^b was led astray.

¹⁴When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel,^c I said to Cephas^d in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew.^e How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?^f

¹⁵“We who are Jews by birth^g and not sinful Gentiles^{h 16}know that a person is not justified by the works of the law,ⁱ but by faith in Jesus Christ.^j So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in^d Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.^k

¹⁷“But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners,^l doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!^{m 18}If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.

¹⁹“For through the law I died to the lawⁿ so that I might live for God.^{o 20}I have been crucified with Christ^p and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.^q The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,^r who loved me^s and gave himself for me.^{t 21}I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law,^u Christ died for nothing!”^e