HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1429
G AL ATIANS 2
page 1059
15 But even before I was born, God chose me and
called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased
him 16 to reveal his Son to me* so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles.
When this happened, I did not rush out to
consult with any human being.* 17 Nor did I
go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who
were apostles before I was. Instead, I went away
into Arabia, and later I returned to the city of
Damascus.
18 Then three years later I went to Jerusalem
to get to know Peter,* and I stayed with him for
fifteen days. 19 The only other apostle I met at that
time was James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I declare before God that what I am writing to you is not a lie.
21 After that visit I went north into the provinces
of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And still the churches in
Christ that are in Judea didn’t know me personally. 23 All they knew was that people were saying, “The one who used to persecute us is now
preaching the very faith he tried to destroy!”
24 And they praised God because of me.
The Apostles Accept Paul
Then fourteen years later I went back to
Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too. 2 I went there
because God revealed to me that I should go.
While I was there I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared
with them the message I had been preaching
to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we
were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts
had been wasted and I was running the race for
nothing. 3 And they supported me and did not
even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.*
4 Even that question came up only because
of some so-called believers there—false ones,
really*—who were secretly brought in. They
sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to
enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish
regulations. 5 But we refused to give in to them
for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the
truth of the gospel message for you.
6 And the leaders of the church had nothing to
add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their
reputation as great leaders made no difference
to me, for God has no favorites.) 7 Instead, they
saw that God had given me the responsibility
of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as
he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the Jews. 8 For the same God who worked
through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also
worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles.
9 In fact, James, Peter,* and John, who were
2
1:16a Or in me. 1:16b Greek with flesh and blood.
1:18 Greek Cephas. 2:3 Greek a Greek. 2:4 Greek some false
brothers. 2:9 Greek Cephas; also in 2:11, 14. 2:16 Some
translators hold that the quotation extends through verse 14;
others through verse 16; and still others through verse 21.
known as pillars of the church, recognized the
gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers. They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles, while
they continued their work with the Jews. 10 Their
only suggestion was that we keep on helping
the poor, which I have always been eager to do.
Paul Confronts Peter
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very
wrong. 12 When he first arrived, he ate with the
Gentile believers, who were not circumcised.
But afterward, when some friends of James
came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles
anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these
people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. 13 As a result, other Jewish believers
followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas
was led astray by their hypocrisy.
14 When I saw that they were not following the
truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in
front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth,
have discarded the Jewish laws and are living
like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make
these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?
15 “You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’
like the Gentiles. 16 Yet we know that a person
is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ,
not by obeying the law. And we have believed in
Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with
God because of our faith in Christ, not because
we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be
made right with God by obeying the law.”*
17 But suppose we seek to be made right with
God through faith in Christ and then we are
• Obedience
G A LATI A N S 2:15-16
Imagine having invested money month
after month, trusting that at retirement
your savings would offer financial security.
Imagine on the first day of your retirement
finding the account empty. All his life, Paul,
who wrote this letter to the Galatians, had
trusted that his knowledge of and adherence to the Jewish law would make him
acceptable to God. Yet he discovered
that the law, although helpful as a guide
to behavior, could not save him. The law
cannot save because it cannot forgive sin;
it can only condemn us for sinning. After
his encounter with the risen Lord, Paul
transferred his trust and obedience to his
own efforts at righteousness over to the
saving work of Christ on his behalf. Where
have you placed your trust?