Galatians 1–3 | Day 4

Galatians 1 (NIV 1984)

¹Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—
²and all the brothers with me,

To the churches in Galatia:

³Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
⁴who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
⁵to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

⁶I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—
⁷which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
⁹As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

¹⁰Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

¹¹I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.
¹²I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

¹³For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.
¹⁴I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
¹⁵But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased
¹⁶to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man,
¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

¹⁸Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days.
¹⁹I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother.
²⁰I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie.

²¹Later I went to Syria and Cilicia.
²²I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.
²³They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”
²⁴And they praised God because of me.

Galatians 2 (NIV 1984)

¹Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also.
²I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.
³Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.
⁴This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.
⁵We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.

⁶As for those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance—those men added nothing to my message.
⁷On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews.
⁸For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.
⁹James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews.
¹⁰All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

¹¹When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.
¹²Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.
¹³The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

¹⁴When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

¹⁵“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’
¹⁶know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

¹⁷“If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!
¹⁸If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.
¹⁹For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.
²⁰I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
²¹I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Galatians 3 (NIV 1984)

¹You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
²I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?
³Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
⁴Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing?
⁵Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?

⁶Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
⁷Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.
⁸The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
⁹So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

¹⁰All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
¹¹Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”
¹²The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”
¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
¹⁴He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

¹⁵Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.
¹⁶The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.
¹⁷What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.
¹⁸For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

¹⁹What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.
²⁰A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.

²¹Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.
²²But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

²³Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.
²⁴So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
²⁵Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

²⁶You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,
²⁷for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
²⁹If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.