Galatians 2

¹ Then, after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me as well.

² I went up in response to a revelation and laid before them the gospel I proclaim among the Gentiles—privately, though, to those held in high regard—to make sure I was not running, or had not run, in vain.

³ Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.

⁴ This issue arose because of the false brothers who had slipped in—those who infiltrated to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, intending to enslave us.

⁵ We did not yield to them in submission for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.

⁶ As for those held to be somebody—whatever they once were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality—those of high regard added nothing to me.

⁷ On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been for the circumcised.

⁸ For the one who worked through Peter for his mission to the circumcised also worked through me for mine to the Gentiles.

⁹ And recognizing the grace given to me, James, Cephas, and John—those reputed to be pillars—gave Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

¹⁰ They asked only that we remember the poor—the very thing I had been eager to do.

¹¹ But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

¹² For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself, because he was afraid of those from the circumcision group.

¹³ The rest of the Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their pretense.

¹⁴ But 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, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

¹⁵ We who are Jews by birth and not "Gentile sinners"

¹⁶ yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

¹⁷ But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, does that make Christ a servant of sin? Absolutely not!

¹⁸ For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a lawbreaker.

¹⁹ For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ.

²⁰ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

²¹ I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing.