Dual Panel1FOURTEEN years later, I went up to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas, and we took Titus with us.
2My visit on this occasion was by divine command, and I gave a full exposition of the gospel which I preach among the gentiles. I did this in private conference with the Church leaders, to make sure that what I had done and proposed doing was sound.
3But no one insisted that my companion Titus, though he was a Greek, should be circumcised.
4In fact, the suggestion would never have arisen but for the presence of some pseudoChristians, who wormed their way into our meeting to spy on the liberty we enjoy in Christ Jesus, and then attempted to tie us up with rules and regulations.
5We did not give in to those men for a moment, for the truth of the gospel for you and all gentiles was at stake.
6And as far as their reputed leaders were concerned (I neither know nor care what their exact position was: God is not impressed with a man's office), they had nothing to add to my gospel.
7In fact they recognised that the gospel for the uncircumcised was as much my commission as the gospel for the circumcised was Peter's.
8For the God who had done such great work in Peter's ministry for the Jews was plainly doing the same in my ministry for the gentiles.
9When, therefore, James, Cephas and John (who were the recognised "pillars" of the Church there) saw how God had given me his grace, they held out to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, in full agreement that our mission was to the gentiles and theirs to the Jews.
10The only suggestion they made was that we should not forget the poorand with this I was, of course, only too ready to agree.
11Later, however, when Cephas came to Antioch I had to oppose him publicly, for he was then plainly in the wrong.
12It happened like this. Until the arrival of some of James' men, he, Cephas was in the habit of eating his meals with the gentiles. After they came, however, he withdrew and began to separate himself from themout of sheer fear of the Jews.
13The other Jewish Christians carried out a similar piece of discrimination, and the force of their bad example was so great that even Barnabas was infected by it.
14gospel, I said to Cephas so that everyone could hear, "If you, who are a Jew, do not live like a Jew but like a gentile, why do you try to make gentiles live like Jews?"
15And then I went on to explain that we, who are Jews by birth and not gentile sinners,
16know that a man is justified not by performing what the Law commands but only by faith in Jesus Christ. We ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be made right with God by faith in Christ and not by obeying the Law's commands. For we have recognised that no one can achieve justification by doing the "works of Law".
17Now if, as we seek justification in Christ, we find that we me ourselves as much sinners as the gentiles, does that mean that Christ is a producer of sin? Of course not!
18But if I attempt to build again the whole structure of justification by the Law which I have demolished then I do, in earnest, prove myself a sinner.
19For under the Law I "died", and I am dead to the Law's demands so that I may live for God.
20I died on the cross with Christ. And my present life is not that of the old "I", but the living Christ within me. The bodily life I now live, I live believing in the Son of God who loved me and sacrificed himself for me.
21I refuse to make nonsense of the grace of God! For if righteousness were possible under the Law then Christ died for nothing.