Galatians:2

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* Later still , after an interval of fourteen years , I again went up to Jerusalem in company with Barnabas , taking Titus also with me . * I went up in obedience to a revelation of God 's will ; and I explained to them the Good News which I proclaim among the Gentiles . To the leaders of the Church this explanation was made in private , lest by any means I should be running , or should already have run , in vain . * But although my companion Titus was a Greek they did not insist upon even his being circumcised . * Yet there was danger of this through the false brethren secretly introduced into the Church , who had stolen in to spy out the freedom which is ours in Christ Jesus , in order to rob us of it . * But not for an hour did we give way and submit to them ; in order that the Good News might continue with you in its integrity . * From those leaders I gained nothing new . Whether they were men of importance or not , matters nothing to me –God recognizes no external distinctions . To me , at any rate , the leaders imparted nothing new . * Indeed , when they saw that I was entrusted with the preaching of the Good News to the Gentiles as Peter had been with that to the Jews – * for He who had been at work within Peter with a view to his Apostleship to the Jews had also been at work within me with a view to my Apostleship to the Gentiles – * and when they perceived the mission which was graciously entrusted to me , they (that is to say , James , Peter , and John , who were considered to be the pillars of the Church ) welcomed Barnabas and me to their fellowship on the understanding that we were to go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews . * Only they urged that we should remember their poor –a thing which was uppermost in my own mind . * Now when Peter visited Antioch , I remonstrated with him to his face , because he had incurred just censure . * For until certain persons came from James he had been accustomed to eat with Gentiles ; but as soon as these persons came , he withdrew and separated himself for fear of the Circumcision party . * And along with him the other Jews also concealed their real opinions , so that even Barnabas was carried away by their lack of straightforwardness . * As soon as I saw that they were not walking uprightly in the spirit of the Good News , I said to Peter , before them all , »If you , though you are a Jew , live as a Gentile does , and not as a Jew , how can you make the Gentiles follow Jewish customs ? * You and I , though we are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners , * know that it is not through obedience to Law that a man can be declared free from guilt , but only through faith in Jesus Christ . We have therefore believed in Christ Jesus , for the purpose of being declared free from guilt , through faith in Christ and not through obedience to Law . For through obedience to Law no human being shall be declared free from guilt . * But if while we are seeking in Christ acquittal from guilt we ourselves are convicted of sin , Christ then encourages us to sin ! No , indeed . * Why , if I am now rebuilding that structure of sin which I had demolished , I am thereby constituting myself a transgressor ; * for it is by the Law that I have died to the Law , in order that I may live to God . * I have been crucified with Christ , and it is no longer I that live , but Christ that lives in me ; and the life which I now live in the body I live through faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up to death on my behalf . * I do not nullify the grace of God ; for if acquittal from guilt is obtainable through the Law , then Christ has died in vain .«

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