Fourteen years later: the gospel laid before the pillars
1Then, fourteen years later, I went up to Jerusalem again with Barnabas, taking Titus along as well. 2I went up because of a revelation, and I laid before them the gospel I announce among the Gentiles — privately, before those of repute — in case I was running, or had run, for nothing. 3Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was forced to be circumcised, Greek though he was. 4The matter came up because of the false brothers smuggled in among us, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, meaning to make slaves of us. 5We did not give in to them for a single hour, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you. 6As for those of repute — what they once were means nothing to me; God does not go by appearances — those men added nothing to me. 7On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, as Peter had been for the circumcised. 8For the God who worked in Peter for his apostleship to the circumcised worked in me as well, for the Gentiles. 9And recognizing the grace given to me, James, Cephas and John, reputed to be pillars, gave Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship: we were to go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10Only, we were to remember the poor — the very thing I have been eager to do.
Paul confronts Cephas at Antioch
11But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12Before certain men arrived from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but once they came, he drew back and kept himself apart, afraid of the circumcision party. 13The rest of the Jews played the same false part with him, so that even Barnabas was swept along by their pretense. 14But when I saw that they were not walking straight toward the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?
Justified by faith, not by works of the law
15We are Jews by birth, not sinners out of the Gentiles; 16and yet we know that no one is justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we too put our faith in Christ Jesus, to be justified by faith in the Christ and not by works of the law — since by works of the law no one alive will ever be justified. 17But if, in seeking to be justified in the Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, does that make the Christ a servant of sin? Never! 18For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself a transgressor. 19Through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God. 20I have been crucified with the Christ, and I no longer live — the Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. 21I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then the Christ died for nothing.”
