Greetings from Paul

1From:a Paul—an apostle not sentb from men or by a man, but by Jesus the Messiah,c and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2and all the brothers who are with me.

To: The churches in Galatia.

3May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah,d be yours! 4He gave himself for our sins in order to rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. 5To him be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

There is No Other Gospel

6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of the Messiahe and, instead, are followingf a different gospel, 7not that another one really exists. To be sure, there are certain people who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel about the Messiah.g 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to youh a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that person be condemned! 9What we have told you in the past I am now telling you again: If anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that person be condemned! 10Am I now trying to win the approval of people or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be the Messiah’si servant.j

Jesus Himself Gave Paul His Message

11Fork I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin. 12For I did not receive it from a man, nor was I taught it, but it was revealed to me by Jesus the Messiah.l 13For you have heard about my earlier life in Judaism—how I kept violently persecuting God’s church and was trying to destroy it. 14I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries, because I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.

15But when God, who set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace, was pleased 16to reveal his Son to me so that I might proclaim him among the gentiles, I did not confer with another human beingm at any time, 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to seen those who were apostles before me. Instead, I went away to Arabia and then came back to Damascus.

18Then three years later, I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas,o and I stayed with him for fifteen days. 19But I did not see any other apostle except James, the Lord’s brother. 20(Before God, what I’m writing to you is the truth.)p 21Then I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22But the churches of the Messiahq that are in Judea did not yet know me personally. 23The only thing they kept hearing was this: “The man who used to persecute us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy!” 24So they kept glorifying God for what had happened tor me.