1Then, after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.
2And I went up in accordance with a revelation; and I laid before them the gospel that I proclaim among the nations—but privately to those held in esteem—lest somehow I should be running, or had run, in vain.
3But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.
4Now this was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us.
5To them we did not yield in submission, not even for an hour, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.
6But from those reputed to be something—whatever they once were makes no difference to me; God does not show partiality to a person’s face—for those of repute added nothing to me,
7but on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter to the circumcised—
8for the one who worked in Peter for apostleship to the circumcised worked also in me for the nations—
9and recognizing the grace given to me, James and Cephas and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnabas, that we should go to the nations, and they to the circumcised.
10Only they asked that we remember the poor—the very thing I was also eager to do.
11But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
12For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the nations; but when they came, he began to draw back and separate himself, fearing those of the circumcision.
13And the rest of the Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was carried away with them by their hypocrisy.
14But when I saw that they were not walking straight toward the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all: “If you, being a Jew, live like the nations and not like a Jew, how can you compel the nations to live as Jews?”
15We ourselves are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the nations,
16yet knowing that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, we also believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no flesh will be justified.
17But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were also found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? May it never be!
18For if I build again the very things I tore down, I demonstrate myself to be a transgressor.
19For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ.
20It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and 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 Christ died for nothing.
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