(Acts 15:5–21)
1
Then fourteene yeeres after, I went vp againe to Hierusalem with Barnabas, and tooke with me Titus also.
2
And I went vp by reuelation, and declared vnto them that Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but particularly to them that were the chiefe, least by any meanes I should runne, or had runne in vaine:
3
But neither yet Titus which was with me, though he were a Grecian, was compelled to be circumcised,
4
To wit, for the false brethren which were craftily sent in, and crept in priuily to spie out our libertie, which we haue in Christ Iesus, that they might bring vs into bondage.
5
To whom we gaue not place by subiection for an houre, that the trueth of the Gospel might continue with you.
6
But by them which seemed to be great, I was not taught (whatsoeuer they were in time passed, I am nothing the better: God accepteth no mans person) for they that are the chiefe, did adde nothing to me aboue that I had.
7
But contrariwise, when they saw that ye Gospel ouer ye vncircumcision was comitted vnto me, as the Gospel ouer ye circumcision was vnto Peter:
8
(For he that was mightie by Peter in the Apostleship ouer the circumcision, was also mightie by me toward the Gentiles)
9
And when Iames, and Cephas, and Iohn, knew of the grace that was giuen vnto me, which are counted to be pillars, they gaue to me and to Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should preach vnto the Gentiles, and they vnto the Circumcision,
10
Warning onely that we should remember the poore: which thing also I was diligent to doe.
Paul Confronts Cephas
11
And when Peter was come to Antiochia, I withstood him to his face: for he was to be condemned.
12
For before that certaine came from Iames, he ate with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himselfe, fearing them which were of the Circumcision.
13
And the other Iewes played the hypocrites likewise with him, in so much that Barnabas was led away with them by that their hypocrisie.
14
But when I saw, that they went not ye right way to the trueth of ye Gospel, I sayd vnto Peter before all men, If thou being a Iewe, liuest as the Gentiles, and not like the Iewes, why constrainest thou the Gentiles to doe like the Iewes?
15
We which are Iewes by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
16
Knowe that a man is not iustified by the works of the Law, but by ye faith of Iesus Christ, euen we, I say, haue beleeued in Iesus Christ, that we might be iustified by the faith of Christ, and not by the workes of the Lawe, because that by the workes of the Lawe, no flesh shalbe iustified.
17
If then while we seeke to be made righteous by Christ, we our selues are found sinners, is Christ therefore the minister of sinne? God forbid.
18
For if I build againe the things that I haue destroyed, I make my selfe a trespasser.
19
For I through the Lawe am dead to the Lawe, that I might liue vnto God.
20
I am crucified with Christ, but I liue, yet not I any more, but Christ liueth in me: and in that that I now liue in the flesh, I liue by the faith in the Sonne of God, who hath loued me, and giuen him selfe for me.
21
I doe not abrogate the grace of God: for if righteousnes be by the Lawe, then Christ dyed without a cause.