Galatians 1 - 3 — Legacy Standard Bible

Greetings and Grace

1Paul, ^aan apostle—^bnot sent from men nor through man, but ^cthrough Jesus Christ and God the Father, who ^draised Him from the dead— ²and all ^athe brothers who are with me, To ^bthe churches of Galatia:

³^aGrace to you and peace from ¹God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴who ^agave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from ^bthis present evil ¹age, according to the will of ^cour God and Father, ⁵^ato whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Distorting the Gospel

⁶I marvel that you are so quickly deserting ^aHim who called you ¹by the grace of Christ for a ^bdifferent gospel, ⁷which is really not another, only there are some who are ^adisturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we, or ^aan angel from heaven, should proclaim to you a gospel ¹contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed to you, let him be ²^,^baccursed! ⁹As we ^ahave said before, so I say again now, ^bif any man is proclaiming to you a gospel ¹contrary to what you received, let him be ²^,^caccursed!

¹⁰For am I now ^aseeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a ^bslave of Christ.

Paul Called by God

¹¹For ^aI make known to you, brothers, that the gospel which I am proclaiming as good news is ^bnot according to man. ¹²For ^aI neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a ^brevelation of Jesus Christ.

¹³For you have heard of ^amy former conduct in Judaism, how I ^bused to persecute ^cthe church of God beyond measure and ^dtried to destroy it. ¹⁴And I ^awas advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being far more zealous for the traditions of my ^bfathers. ¹⁵But when God, who had set me apart from my mother’s womb and ^acalled me through His grace, was pleased ¹⁶to reveal His Son in me so that I might ^aproclaim Him as good news among the Gentiles, ^bI did not immediately consult with ¹^,^cflesh and blood, ¹⁷^anor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to ^bDamascus.

¹⁸Then ^athree years later I went up ^bto Jerusalem to ¹become acquainted with ^cCephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. ¹⁹But I did not see any other of the apostles except ¹^,^aJames, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰(Now in what I am writing to you, ¹I assure you ^abefore God that I am not lying!) ²¹Then ^aI went into the regions of ^bSyria and ^cCilicia. ²²And I was still unknown by ¹sight to ^athe churches of Judea which are ^bin Christ; ²³but only, they kept hearing, “He who once persecuted us is now proclaiming the good news of ^athe faith which he once ^btried to destroy.” ²⁴And they ^awere glorifying God ¹because of me.

Paul Accepted by the Apostles

2Then after fourteen years I ^awent up again to Jerusalem with ^bBarnabas, taking ^cTitus along also. ²And I went up ¹because of a ^arevelation, and I laid out to them the ^bgospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, lest somehow I might be ^crunning, or had run, in vain. ³But not even ^aTitus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was ^bcompelled to be circumcised. ⁴But this was because of the ^afalse brothers secretly brought in, who ^bhad sneaked in to spy out our ^cfreedom which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to ^denslave us. ⁵But we did not yield in subjection to them for even ¹a moment, so that ^athe truth of the gospel would remain with you. ⁶But from those who ¹were of high ^areputation (what they were makes no difference to me; ^bGod ²shows no partiality)—well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me. ⁷But on the contrary, seeing that I had been ^aentrusted with the ^bgospel ¹to the uncircumcised, just as ^cPeter had been ²to the circumcised ⁸(for He who worked in Peter unto his ^aapostleship ¹to the circumcised worked in me also unto the Gentiles), ⁹and recognizing ^athe grace that had been given to me, ^bJames and ^cCephas and ¹John, who were ^dreputed to be ^epillars, gave to me and ^fBarnabas the right ²hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. ¹⁰Only they asked us to remember the poor—^athe very thing I also was eager to do.

Paul Opposes Peter (Cephas)

¹¹But when ^aCephas came to ^bAntioch, I opposed him to his face, because he ¹stood condemned. ¹²For prior to the coming of certain men from ^aJames, he used to ^beat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he began to shrink back and separate himself, ^cfearing ¹the party of the circumcision. ¹³And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even ^aBarnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. ¹⁴But when I saw that they ^awere not ¹straightforward about ^bthe truth of the gospel, I said to ^cCephas before everyone, “If you, being a Jew, ^dlive like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?²

¹⁵“We are ^aJews by nature and not ^bsinners from among the Gentiles; ¹⁶nevertheless ¹knowing that ^aa man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by ^bfaith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since ^cby the works of ²the Law no ³flesh will be justified. ¹⁷“But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found ^asinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? ^bMay it never be! ¹⁸“For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I ^aprove myself to be a transgressor. ¹⁹“For through ¹the Law I ^adied to ²the Law, so that I might live to God. ²⁰“I have been ^acrucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but ^bChrist lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in ^cthe Son of God, who ^dloved me and ^egave Himself up for me. ²¹“I do not set aside the grace of God, for ^aif righteousness comes through ¹the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

3O foolish ^aGalatians, who bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ ^bwas publicly portrayed as crucified? ²This is the only thing I want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of ¹the Law, or by ²^,^ahearing with faith? ³Are you so foolish? Having begun ¹by the Spirit, are you now ²being perfected by the flesh? ⁴Did you ¹suffer so many things for nothing—^aif indeed it was for nothing? ⁵So then, does He who ^aprovides you with the Spirit and ^bworks ¹miracles among you, do it by the works of ²the Law, or by ³^,^chearing with faith?

⁶Just as ^aAbraham ^bbelieved God and it was counted to him as righteousness, ⁷so know that ^athose who are of faith, those are ^bsons of Abraham. ⁸And the Scripture, foreseeing that God ¹would justify the ²Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “^aAll the nations will be blessed in you.” ⁹So then ^athose who are of faith are blessed with ¹Abraham, the believer.

¹⁰For as many as are of the works of ¹the Law are under a curse, for it is written, “^aCursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to do them.” ¹¹Now that ^ano one is justified ¹by ²the Law before God is evident, ³for “^bThe righteous shall live by faith.” ¹²¹However, the Law is not ²of faith; rather, “^aHe who does them shall live ³by them.” ¹³Christ ^aredeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “^bCursed is everyone who hangs on ^ca ¹tree”— ¹⁴in order that ^ain Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might ¹come to the Gentiles, so that we ^bwould receive ^cthe promise of the Spirit through faith.

The Promise by Faith

¹⁵^aBrothers, ^bI speak ¹in human terms: ^ceven though it is only a man’s ²covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds ³conditions to it. ¹⁶Now the promises were spoken ^ato Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And ^bto your seed,” that is, Christ. ¹⁷And what I am saying is this: the Law, which came ^a430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to abolish the promise. ¹⁸For ^aif the inheritance is by law, it is no longer by promise, but ^bGod has granted it to Abraham through promise.

¹⁹^aWhy the Law then? It was added ¹because of trespasses, having been ^bordained through angels ^cby the hand of a mediator, until ^dthe seed would come to whom the promise had been made. ²⁰Now ^aa mediator is not ¹for one person only, whereas God is one. ²¹Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? ^aMay it never be! For ^bif a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed be by law. ²²But the Scripture has ^ashut up ¹everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

²³But before faith came, we were held in custody under the Law, ^abeing shut up for the coming faith to be revealed. ²⁴Therefore the Law has become our ^atutor unto Christ, so that ^bwe may be justified by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a ¹^,^atutor. ²⁶For you are all ^asons of God through faith in ^bChrist Jesus. ²⁷For all of you who were ^abaptized into Christ have ^bclothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸^aThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is no ^bmale and female, for ^cyou are all one in ^dChrist Jesus. ²⁹And if ^ayou ¹belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s ²seed, heirs according to ^bpromise.