Galatians 2
The Jerusalem Council and Its Decision (2:1–10)
1 Then I again went up to Jerusalem after fourteen years with Barnabas, taking Titus with me. 2 And I went up according to revelation, and I put before them the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, but privately to those who are respected, for fear that I should be running, or had run, in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he is Greek. 4 And because of false brethren brought in secretly, who slipped in to spy on our freedom, which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us, 5 to whom we did not yield to their subjugation for a moment that the truth of the gospel might come to you. 6 Now concerning those who were respected (whoever they were, it makes no difference to me; God is impartial to people), indeed, the ones who were respected made no new suggestions to me, 7 but on the contrary, having seen that I was entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised even as Peter was with the circumcised. 8 For the one who was at work for Peter in the apostleship of the circumcised was also for me to the Gentiles. 9 Jacob [James] and Cephas [Peter] and John, who were respected as pillars, recognizing the grace given to me, gave their right hands of fellowship to me and Barnabas that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised, 10 requesting only that we should remember the poor, and that same thing I was already eager to do.
Paul Rebukes Peter at Antioch (2:11–14)
11 Now when Cephas [Peter] came to Antioch, I opposed him face to face because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain people came from Jacob [James], he [Peter] ate with the non-Jews, but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing the circumcised. 13 And the rest of the Jews joined in the hypocrisy along with him: and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they did not walk correctly according to the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas [Peter] in front of them all, “If you, being a Jew, live like a non-Jew, why do you compel non-Jews to live like Jews?”
Jews, Like Gentiles, Are Saved by the Faithfulness of Christ Coupled with Their Trust in Him (2:15–21)
15 We are Jews by nature and not gentile sinners, 16 and knowing that a person is not justified through the deeds of law but only through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, we therefore trusted in Christ Jesus so that we might become justified through the faithfulness of Christ and not through deeds of the law. For no mortal will become justified through deeds of Mosaic law. 17 But if, while seeking to become justified with Christ, we ourselves were also found sinners, is Christ then the servant of sin? Let it not be so! 18 For if I build again the things which I tore down, I show myself to be a transgressor. 19 For I, through the law, died to the law so that I might live in conformity with God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ: now I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. That life that I now live in mortality, I live through the Son of God’s faithfulness, who loved me and gave himself on my behalf. 21 I do not reject the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.
