BibleWare/BibWare.bin/bibtrans/weymouth.exe/GA.WNT

Text File | 1993-06-07 | 21KB | 409 lines

1:1 Paul, an Apostle sent not from men nor by any man, but by
 Jesus Christ and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from among
 the dead--
1:2 and all the brethren who are with me: To the Churches of
 Galatia.
1:3 May grace and peace be granted to you from God the Father,
 and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
1:4 who gave Himself to suffer for our sins in order to rescue
 us from the present wicked age in accordance with the will of
 our God and Father.
1:5 To Him be the glory to the Ages of the Ages! Amen.
1:6 I marvel that you are so readily leaving Him who called you
 by the grace of Christ, and are adhering to a different Good
 News.
1:7 For other "Good News" there is none; but there are some
 persons who are troubling you, and are seeking to distort the
 Good News concerning Christ.
1:8 But if even we or an angel from Heaven should bring you a
 Good News different from that which we have already brought
 you, let him be accursed.
1:9 What I have just said I repeat--if any one is preaching to
 you a Good News other than that which you originally received,
 let him be accursed.
1:10 For is it man's favour or God's that I aspire to? Or am I
 seeking to please men? If I were still a man-pleaser, I should
 not be Christ's bondservant.
1:11 For I must tell you, brethren, that the Good News which was
 proclaimed by me is not such as man approves of.
1:12 For, in fact, it was not from man that I received or learnt
 it, but by a revelation from Jesus Christ.
1:13 For you have heard of my early career in Judaism--how I
 furiously persecuted the Church of God, and made havoc of it;

1:14 and how in devotion to Judaism I outstripped many men of my
 own age among my people, being far more zealous than they on
 behalf of the traditions of my forefathers.
1:15 But when He who set me apart even from my birth, and called
 me by His grace,
1:16 saw fit to reveal His Son within me in order that I might
 tell among the Gentiles the Good News concerning Him, at once I
 did not confer with any human being,
1:17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were my seniors
 in the Apostleship, but I went away into Arabia, and afterwards
 came back to Damascus.
1:18 Then, three years later, I went up to Jerusalem to inquire
 for /1 Peter, and I spent a fortnight with him.
1:19 I saw none of the other Apostles, except James, the Lord's
 brother.
1:20 In making these assertions I am speaking the truth, as in
 the sight of God.
1:21 Afterwards I visited Syria and Cilicia.
1:22 But to the Christian Churches in Judaea I was personally
 unknown.
1:23 They only heard it said, "He who was once our persecutor is
 now telling the Good News of the faith of which he formerly
 made havoc."
1:24 And they gave glory to God on my account.
2:1 Later still, after an interval of fourteen years, I again
 went up to Jerusalem in company with Barnabas, taking Titus
 also with me.
2:2 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.
2:3 /2 But although my companion Titus was a Greek they did not
 insist upon even his being circumcised.
2:4 Yet there was danger of this through the false brethren
 secretly introduced into the Church, who had stolen in to spy
 out the /3 freedom which is ours in Christ Jesus, in order to
 rob us of it.
2:5 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.
2:6 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.

2:7 /1 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--
2:8 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--
2:9 and when they perceived the /2 mission which was graciously
 entrusted to me, they (that is to say, James, /3 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.
2:10 Only they urged that we should remember their poor--a thing
 which was uppermost in my own mind.
2:11 Now when /3 Peter visited Antioch, I remonstrated with him
 to his face, because he had incurred just censure.
2:12 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.
2:13 And along with him the other Jews also concealed their real
 opinions, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their lack
 of straightforwardness.
2:14 As soon as I saw that they were not walking uprightly in
 the spirit of the Good News, I said to /3 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?
2:15 You and I, though we are Jews by birth and not Gentile
 sinners,
2:16 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.
2:17 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.

2:18 Why, if I am now rebuilding that structure of sin which I
 had demolished, I am thereby constituting myself a
 transgressor;
2:19 for it is by the Law that I have died to the Law, in order
 that I may live to God.
2:20 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.
2:21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if acquittal from
 guilt is obtainable through the Law, then Christ has died in
 vain."
3:1 You foolish Galatians! Whose sophistry has bewitched
 you--you to whom Jesus Christ has been vividly portrayed /1 as
 on the Cross?
3:2 Answer me this one question, "Is it on the ground of your
 obedience to the Law that you received the Spirit, or is it
 because, when you heard, you believed?"
3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now
 going to reach perfection through what is external?
3:4 Have you /2 endured such sufferings to no purpose--if indeed
 it has been to no purpose?
3:5 He who gives you His Spirit and works miracles among
 you--does He do so on the ground of your obedience to the Law,
 or is it the result of your having heard and believed:
3:6 even as <Abraham believed God, and his faith was placed to
 his account as righteousness?>
3:7 Notice therefore that those who possess faith are true sons
 of Abraham.
3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that in consequence of faith
 God would declare the nations to be free from guilt, sent
 beforehand the Good News to Abraham, saying, <"In you all the
 nations shall be blessed.">
3:9 So we see that it is those who possess faith that are
 blessed with believing Abraham.
3:10 All who are depending upon their own obedience to the Law
 are under a curse, for it is written, <"Cursed is every one who
 does not remain faithful to all the precepts of the Law, and
 practise them.">

3:11 It is evident, too, that no one can find acceptance with
 God simply by obeying the Law, because <"the righteous shall
 live by faith,">
3:12 and the Law has nothing to do with faith. It teaches th