1 The Only Good News From Paul, an apostle. I was not chosen to be an apostle by men. I was not sent from men. It was Jesus Christ and God the Father who made me an apostle. God is the One who raised Jesus from death.
2 This letter is also from all the brothers who are with me. To the churches in Galatia.
3 I pray that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will be good to you and give you peace.
4 Jesus gave himself for our sins to free us from this evil world we live in. This is what God the Father wanted.
5 The glory belongs to God forever and ever. Amen.
6 A short time ago God called you to follow him. He called you by his grace that came through Christ. But now I am amazed at you! You are already turning away and believing something different than the Good News.
7 Really, there is no other Good News. But some people are confusing you and want to change the Good News of Christ.
8 We preached to you the Good News. So if we ourselves, or even an angel from heaven, preach to you something different than the Good News, he should be condemned!
9 I said this before. Now I say it again: You have already accepted the Good News. If anyone tells you another way to be saved, he should be condemned!
Grace by Divine Revelation
10 Do you think I am trying to make people accept me? No! God is the One I am trying to please. Am I trying to please men? If I wanted to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
11 Paul’s Authority Is from God Brothers, I want you to know that the Good News I preached to you was not made by men.
12 I did not get it from men, nor did any man teach it to me. Jesus Christ showed it to me.
13 You have heard about my past life. I belonged to the Jewish religion. I hurt the church of God very much and tried to destroy it.
14 I was becoming a leader in the Jewish religion. I did better than most other Jews of my age. I tried harder than anyone else to follow the old rules. These rules were the customs handed down by our ancestors.
15 But God had special plans for me even before I was born. So he called me through his grace that I might
16 tell the Good News about his Son to the non-Jewish people. So God showed me about his Son. When God called me, I did not get advice or help from any man.
17 I did not go to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was. But, without waiting, I went away to Arabia and later went back to Damascus.
18 After three years I went to Jerusalem to meet Peter and stayed with him for 15 days.
19 I met no other apostles, except James, the brother of the Lord.
20 God knows that these things I write are not lies.
21 Later, I went to the areas of Syria and Cilicia.
22 In Judea the churches in Christ had never met me.
23 They had only heard this about me: “This man was trying to hurt us. But now he is preaching the same faith that he once tried to destroy.”
24 And these believers praised God because of me.