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after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and I took Titus along also. 2 I went up in response to a revelation and presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately before those who were recognized as leaders, so as to make sure that I was not running or had not run in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. 4 This issue arose because of some false brothers, who had infiltrated our numbers to secretly spy on the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us. 5 But we did not submit to these people even for an hour, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.
6 But from those who appeared to be important—whatever they actually were makes no difference to me; God does not show favouritism to any man—those men did not contribute anything to me. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised. 8 For He who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 When James, Cephas, and John, who were acknowledged as pillars, recognized the grace given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10 All they asked was that we should remember the poor, which I was also eager to do.
11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to the face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he drew back and separated himself, because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision faction. 13 And the other Jews also joined him in his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that they were not acting consistently in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?
15 “We are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’, 16 yet we know that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by doing the works of the law, because by the works of the law know one will be justified.
17 “But if while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are also found to be sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 For if I rebuild those very things that I tore down, I show myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I have died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; 20 and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”