to eat with Gentiles; but as soon as these persons came, he withdrew
and separated himself for fear of the Circumcision party.
002:013 And along with him the other Jews also concealed their
real opinions, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their
lack of straightforwardness.
002:014 As soon as I saw that they were not walking uprightly in the spirit
of the Good News, I said to Peter, before them all, "If you,
though you are a Jew, live as a Gentile does, and not as a Jew,
how can you make the Gentiles follow Jewish customs?
002:015 You and I, though we are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners,
002:016 know that it is not through obedience to Law that a man
can be declared free from guilt, but only through faith
in Jesus Christ. We have therefore believed in Christ Jesus,
for the purpose of being declared free from guilt,
through faith in Christ and not through obedience to Law.
For through obedience to Law no human being shall be declared
free from guilt.
002:017 But if while we are seeking in Christ acquittal from guilt we
ourselves are convicted of sin, Christ then encourages us
to sin! No, indeed.
002:018 Why, if I am now rebuilding that structure of sin which I
had demolished, I am thereby constituting myself a transgressor;
002:019 for it is by the Law that I have died to the Law, in order
that I may live to God.
002:020 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live,
but Christ that lives in me; and the life which I now live
in the body I live through faith in the Son of God who loved
me and gave Himself up to death on my behalf.
002:021 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if acquittal from guilt
is obtainable through the Law, then Christ has died in vain."