(Acts 15:5–21)
1
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.
2
I went up because of a revelation and set before them the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles. I spoke privately to those who seemed to be important, in order to make sure that I was not running-or had not run-in vain.
3
But not even Titus, who was with me and who was a Greek, was forced to be circumcised.
4
The false brothers came in secretly to spy on the liberty we have in Christ Jesus. They desired to make us slaves,
5
but we did not yield in submission to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
6
But those who seemed to be important, whatever they were does not matter to me, God shows no partiality-those, I say, who seemed important added nothing to me.
7
On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to those who are uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to those who are circumcised.
8
For God, who worked in Peter for the apostleship to those who are circumcised, also worked in me to the Gentiles.
9
When James, Cephas, and John, who were recognized as those who built up the church, understood the grace that had been given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me. They did this so that we should go to the Gentiles, and so that they should go to those who are circumcised.
10
They requested only that we remember the poor, the very thing that I was eager to do.
Paul Confronts Cephas
11
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he was declared to be in the wrong.
12
Before certain men came from James, Cephas was eating with the Gentiles. But when these men came, he stopped and kept away from the Gentiles. He was afraid of those who were demanding circumcision.
13
Also the rest of the Jews joined in this hypocrisy. Even Barnabas was led astray with them by their hypocrisy.
14
But when I saw that their behavior was not following the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of all of them, “If you are a Jew but are living like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
15
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;
16
yet we know that no person is justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. We also came to faith in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law no flesh will be justified.
17
But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, we too, were found to be sinners, does Christ then promote sin? Absolutely not!
18
For if I rebuild those things I once destroyed, I prove myself to be a lawbreaker.
19
For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God.
20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ 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!
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