1 Catorze anos depois, subi novamente a Jerusalém, dessa vez com Barnabé, levando também Tito comigo.2 Fui para lá por causa de uma revelação e expus diante deles o evangelho que prego entre os gentios, fazendo-o, porém, em particular aos que pareciam mais influentes, para não correr ou ter corrido em vão.3 Mas nem mesmo Tito, que estava comigo, foi obrigado a circuncidar-se, apesar de ser grego.4 Essa questão foi levantada porque alguns falsos irmãos infiltraram-se em nosso meio para espionar a liberdade que temos em Cristo Jesus e nos reduzir à escravidão.5 Não nos submetemos a eles nem por um instante, para que a verdade do evangelho permanecesse com vocês.6 Quanto aos que pareciam influentes — o que eram então não faz diferença para mim; Deus não julga pela aparência — tais homens influentes não me acrescentaram nada.7 Pelo contrário, reconheceram que a mim havia sido confiada a pregação do evangelho aos incircuncisos, assim como a Pedro, aos circuncisos.8 Pois Deus, que operou por meio de Pedro como apóstolo aos circuncisos, também operou por meu intermédio para com os gentios.9 Reconhecendo a graça que me fora concedida, Tiago, Pedro e João, tidos como colunas, estenderam a mão direita a mim e a Barnabé em sinal de comunhão. Eles concordaram em que devíamos nos dirigir aos gentios, e eles, aos circuncisos.10 Somente pediram que nos lembrássemos dos pobres, o que me esforcei por fazer.11 Quando, porém, Pedro veio a Antioquia, enfrentei-o face a face, por sua atitude condenável.12 Pois, antes de chegarem alguns da parte de Tiago, ele comia com os gentios. Quando, porém, eles chegaram, afastou-se e separou-se dos gentios, temendo os que eram da circuncisão.13 Os demais judeus também se uniram a ele nessa hipocrisia, de modo que até Barnabé se deixou levar.14 Quando vi que não estavam andando de acordo com a verdade do evangelho, declarei a Pedro, diante de todos: "Você é judeu, mas vive como gentio e não como judeu. Portanto, como pode obrigar gentios a viverem como judeus?15 "Nós, judeus de nascimento e não ‘gentios pecadores’,16 sabemos que o ninguém é justificado pela prática da lei, mas mediante a fé em Jesus Cristo. Assim, nós também cremos em Cristo Jesus para sermos justificados pela fé em Cristo, e não pela prática da lei, porque pela prática da lei ninguém será justificado.17 "Se, porém, procurando ser justificados em Cristo descobrimos que nós mesmos somos pecadores, será Cristo então ministro do pecado? De modo algum!18 Se reconstruo o que destruí, provo que sou transgressor.19 Pois, por meio da lei eu morri para a lei, a fim de viver para Deus.20 Fui crucificado com Cristo. Assim, já não sou eu quem vive, mas Cristo vive em mim. A vida que agora vivo no corpo, vivo-a pela fé no filho de Deus, que me amou e se entregou por mim.21 Não anulo a graça de Deus; pois, se a justiça vem pela lei, Cristo morreu inutilmente! "

1 Later still, after an interval of fourteen years, I again went up to Jerusalem in company with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me.2 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.3 But although my companion Titus was a Greek they did not insist upon even his being circumcised.4 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.5 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.6 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.7 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–8 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–9 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.10 Only they urged that we should remember their poor–a thing which was uppermost in my own mind.11 Now when Peter visited Antioch, I remonstrated with him to his face, because he had incurred just censure.12 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.13 And along with him the other Jews also concealed their real opinions, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their lack of straightforwardness.14 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?15 You and I, though we are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners,16 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.17 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.18 Why, if I am now rebuilding that structure of sin which I had demolished, I am thereby constituting myself a transgressor;19 for it is by the Law that I have died to the Law, in order that I may live to God.20 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.21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if acquittal from guilt is obtainable through the Law, then Christ has died in vain.«