Dual Panel1Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too.
2I went there because God revealed to me that I should go. While I was there I talked privately with the leaders of the church. I wanted them to understand what I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure they did not disagree, or my ministry would have been useless.
3And they did agree. They did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.
4Even that question wouldn’t have come up except for some so–called Christians there––false ones, really ––who came to spy on us and see our freedom in Christ Jesus. They wanted to force us, like slaves, to follow their Jewish regulations.
5But we refused to listen to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the Good News for you.
6And the leaders of the church who were there 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.)
7They saw that God had given me the responsibility of preaching the Good News to the Gentiles, just as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the Jews.
8For the same God who worked through Peter for the benefit of the Jews worked through me for the benefit of the Gentiles.
9In fact, James, Peter, and John, who were 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.
10The only thing they suggested was that we remember to help the poor, and I have certainly been eager to do that.
11But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him publicly, speaking strongly against what he was doing, for it was very wrong.
12When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians, who don’t bother with circumcision. But afterward, when some Jewish friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore because he was afraid of what these legalists would say.
13Then the other Jewish Christians followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was influenced to join them in their hypocrisy.
14When I saw that they were not following the truth of the Good News, 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 trying to make these Gentiles obey the Jewish laws you abandoned?
15You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles.
16And yet we Jewish Christians know that we become right with God, not by doing what the law commands, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be accepted by God because of our faith in Christ––and not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be saved by obeying the law."
17But what if we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then find out that we are still sinners? Has Christ led us into sin? Of course not!
18Rather, I make myself guilty if I rebuild the old system I already tore down.
19For when I tried to keep the law, I realized I could never earn God’s approval. So I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ.
20I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
21I am not one of those who treats the grace of God as meaningless. For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die.