Paul,

An Apostle

Not from men, nor through men,

But through Jesus Christ, and God the Father,

Who raised him from the dead,—

And those with me, all the brothers,

To the Churches of Galatia :

May favor be yours and peace,

From God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins

So that he might rescue us

From the present wicked world According to the will of God our Father: To whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

It is a wonder to me that you have so quickly turned from him who called you through Christ's favor, to another kind of good news, which is not really good news at all. It is only a method by which some people keep troubling you, and desiring to reverse the Good News of the Christ. Yet, even if we, or an angel from heaven, should tell you good news contrary to what we have told you, let him be cursed. Yes, as we have just said, so

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now again I say: If any one tells you good news contrary to what you have received, let him be cursed. For in speaking in this way am I seeking the favor of men or of God? Or, am I striving to please men? If I were still pleasing men I should not be Christ's slave.

For

For I want you to know, brothers, that the Good News which was told by me is not human. For I myself did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it by him, but, on the contrary, I received it by means of a revelation from Jesus Christ. you have heard how I used to behave when I was a Jew, how incessantly I used to persecute the Church of God and kept destroying it; and I kept surpassing, in my Judaism, many of my own age among my countrymen, for I was more thoroughly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who set me apart from my birth, and called me by means of his favor, to reveal his son in me so that I might tell the Good News about him among the heathen, I did not at once consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. On the contrary, I went away into Arabia, and again returned to Damascus. Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to become personally acquainted with

GAL.

S. PAUL'S PERSONAL HISTORY.

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But

Cephas, and staid with him fifteen days. another of the Apostles I did not see, except James the brother of the Lord. And what I am writing to you, before God I say it, I am not falsifying. Then I came into Syria and Cilicia. And I continued to be unknown by sight to the Churches of Judæa which were in Christ: and they were only hearing that "He who used to persecute the Church is now telling the Good News about the faith which he used to destroy." And they kept praising God on account of me.

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus also with me. And I went up on account of a revelation. And I laid before them the Good News which I proclaim among the heathen. But I did it in private before those whose reputation is high, for fear I might possibly be doing my work, or had already done it to no purpose. Yet not even Titus who was with me, and was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And that, too, even though false brothers were secretly brought in, men who crept in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery. And to these we submitted,—no, not for an hour. And we took such a stand so that the truth of the Good News might continue with you. But from those whose reputations are somewhat high-what

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ever they were, it makes no difference to me-God accepts no man's person-they, I say, whose reputations are high communicated nothing to me: but, on the contrary, when they saw that I was entrusted with the Good News for the uncircumcised, just as Peter was for the circumcised-for he who worked for Peter for the accomplishment of his apostleship to the circumcised, worked for me also, for the accomplishment of my duty to the heathen-and when they became aware of the divine favor which had been given to me, James, and Cephas, and John, those who are considered as pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we should go to the heathen, and they to the circumcised: only they desired that we should remember the poor; the very thing which I was also zealous to do.

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I resisted him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before some men came from James he made a practice of eating with the heathen. But when they came he gradually withdrew and separated himself, because he was afraid of those who belonged to the party of the circumcised. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him; so that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw they were not acting properly towards the truth as set forth in the Good News, I said to Cephas before them all :

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SET RIGHT BY FAITH.

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"If you, a Jew, are living as a heathen and not as a Jew, how is it you are compelling the heathen to live as Jews? We are by nature Jews, and not wrong-doers from among the heathen. But we

know that a man is not set right in God's sight by doing what the law requires, but only by faith in Christ Jesus, and we ourselves believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be set right in God's sight by faith in Christ, and not by doing what the law requires because by doing what the law requires shall no one be set right. But if, while we were seeking to be set right in Christ, we ourselves also were found to be sinners, is then Christ sin's servant?

By no means.

For if I build up again those things which I pulled down, I prove myself a wrong-doer. For I myself, by means of the law, died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. But I am living. And yet it is no longer I who am living. It is Christ living in me. Yes, the life which I am now living in the flesh, I am living by means of faith, the faith which has for its object the Son of God, him who loved me and handed himself over for me.

I am not doing away with the favor of God. For if to be set right in his sight is ours by means of the law, then Christ died to no purpose.