Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech, Galatians

Part 1

Produced by Martin Ward

Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech, Galatians

Third Edition 1913

R. F. Weymouth

Book 48 Galatians

001:001 Paul, an Apostle sent not from men nor by any man, but by Jesus Christ and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from among the dead--

001:002 and all the brethren who are with me: To the Churches of Galatia.

001:003 May grace and peace be granted to you from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,

001:004 who gave Himself to suffer for our sins in order to rescue us from the present wicked age in accordance with the will of our God and Father.

001:005 To Him be the glory to the Ages of the Ages! Amen.

001:006 I marvel that you are so readily leaving Him who called you by the grace of Christ, and are adhering to a different Good News.

001:007 For other "Good News" there is none; but there are some persons who are troubling you, and are seeking to distort the Good News concerning Christ.

001:008 But if even we or an angel from Heaven should bring you a Good News different from that which we have already brought you, let him be accursed.

001:009 What I have just said I repeat--if any one is preaching to you a Good News other than that which you originally received, let him be accursed.

001:010 For is it man's favour or God's that I aspire to? Or am I seeking to please men? If I were still a man-pleaser, I should not be Christ's bondservant.

001:011 For I must tell you, brethren, that the Good News which was proclaimed by me is not such as man approves of.

001:012 For, in fact, it was not from man that I received or learnt it, but by a revelation from Jesus Christ.

001:013 For you have heard of my early career in Judaism--how I furiously persecuted the Church of God, and made havoc of it;

001:014 and how in devotion to Judaism I outstripped many men of my own age among my people, being far more zealous than they on behalf of the traditions of my forefathers.

001:015 But when He who set me apart even from my birth, and called me by His grace,

001:016 saw fit to reveal His Son within me in order that I might tell among the Gentiles the Good News concerning Him, at once I did not confer with any human being,

001:017 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were my seniors in the Apostleship, but I went away into Arabia, and afterwards came back to Damascus.

001:018 Then, three years later, I went up to Jerusalem to inquire for Peter, and I spent a fortnight with him.

001:019 I saw none of the other Apostles, except James, the Lord's brother.

001:020 In making these assertions I am speaking the truth, as in the sight of God.

001:021 Afterwards I visited Syria and Cilicia.

001:022 But to the Christian Churches in Judaea I was personally unknown.

001:023 They only heard it said, "He who was once our persecutor is now telling the Good News of the faith of which he formerly made havoc."

Part 2

001:024 And they gave glory to God on my account.

002:001 Later still, after an interval of fourteen years, I again went up to Jerusalem in company with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me.

002:002 I went up in obedience to a revelation of God's will; and I explained to them the Good News which I proclaim among the Gentiles. To the leaders of the Church this explanation was made in private, lest by any means I should be running, or should already have run, in vain.

002:003 But although my companion Titus was a Greek they did not insist upon even his being circumcised.

002:004 Yet there was danger of this through the false brethren secretly introduced into the Church, who had stolen in to spy out the freedom which is ours in Christ Jesus, in order to rob us of it.

002:005 But not for an hour did we give way and submit to them; in order that the Good News might continue with you in its integrity.

002:006 From those leaders I gained nothing new. Whether they were men of importance or not, matters nothing to me-- God recognizes no external distinctions. To me, at any rate, the leaders imparted nothing new.

002:007 Indeed, when they saw that I was entrusted with the preaching of the Good News to the Gentiles as Peter had been with that to the Jews--

002:008 for He who had been at work within Peter with a view to his Apostleship to the Jews had also been at work within me with a view to my Apostleship to the Gentiles--

002:009 and when they perceived the mission which was graciously entrusted to me, they (that is to say, James, Peter, and John, who were considered to be the pillars of the Church) welcomed Barnabas and me to their fellowship on the understanding that we were to go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews.

002:010 Only they urged that we should remember their poor--a thing which was uppermost in my own mind.

002:011 Now when Peter visited Antioch, I remonstrated with him to his face, because he had incurred just censure.

002:012 For until certain persons came from James he had been accustomed 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."

003:001 You foolish Galatians! Whose sophistry has bewitched you-- you to whom Jesus Christ has been vividly portrayed as on the Cross?

003:002 Answer me this one question, "Is it on the ground of your obedience to the Law that you received the Spirit, or is it because, when you heard, you believed?"

003:003 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now going to reach perfection through what is external?

003:004 Have you endured such sufferings to no purpose--if indeed it has been to no purpose?

003:005 He who gives you His Spirit and works miracles among you-- does He do so on the ground of your obedience to the Law, or is it the result of your having heard and believed:

003:006 even as Abraham believed God, and his faith was placed to his account as righteousness?

Part 3

003:007 Notice therefore that those who possess faith are true sons of Abraham.

003:008 And the Scripture, foreseeing that in consequence of faith God would declare the nations to be free from guilt, sent beforehand the Good News to Abraham, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed."

003:009 So we see that it is those who possess faith that are blessed with believing Abraham.

003:010 All who are depending upon their own obedience to the Law are under a curse, for it is written, "Cursed is every one who does not remain faithful to all the precepts of the Law, and practise them."

003:011 It is evident, too, that no one can find acceptance with God simply by obeying the Law, because "the righteous shall live by faith,"

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