NEW TESTAMENT READING
Galatians 1:13-17; 2:11-21
13You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently
persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. 14I advanced
in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far
more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. 15But when God, who
had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was
pleased 16to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among
the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, 17nor did I go up to
Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went
away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus.
11But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because
he stood self-condemned; 12for until certain people came from James, he
used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept
himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. 13And the other
Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray
by their hypocrisy. 14But when I saw that they were not acting
consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all,
“If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you
compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?” 15We ourselves are Jews by birth
and not Gentile sinners; 16yet we know that a person is justified not by
the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have
come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in
Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be
justified by the works of the law. 17But if, in our effort to be justified in
Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a
servant of sin? Certainly not! 18But if I build up again the very things that
I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. 19For
through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been
crucified with Christ; 20and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who
lives in me. And 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. 21I do
not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law,
then Christ died for nothing.
Reader: Word of God. Word of life.
All: Thanks be to God!