Galatians 2:9-21

9When James, Cephas, and John  — those recognized as pillars  — acknowledged the grace that had been given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnabas, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

10They asked only that we would remember the poor, which I had made every effort to do.

11But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.

12For he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party.

13Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

14But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?”

15We are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners,”

16and yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.

17But if we ourselves are also found to be “sinners” while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin? Absolutely not!

18If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker.

19For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God.

20I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

21I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.