Paul tells how God dealt directly with him, revealing the Gospel of faith - not works - and making him an apostle. His stand for truth (then against 'Judaizers') must be copied today. Here, also, is what it means to have Christ revealed in us.

Peter believed in salvation by faith alone, but at Syrian Antioch he failed to stand up for the truth. Why did he err; and what was at stake? Here are glorious features of the true doctrine.

Paul quotes Genesis about Abraham's belief being 'accounted to him for righteousness'. He does not mean that belief is accepted in lieu of righteousness; or that it assists justification. Here is the meaning. Also, how faith in Christ brings us into all the blessings promised to Abraham.

The moral and ceremonial laws of the Jewish era spelled out the barriers to being accepted by God, along with many lessons of forgiveness through trusting in the coming Christ. But finding this mercy was always through faith, not works, as these great verses prove.

Paul shows that before Christ all people were under elementary forms of worship. The Jews were given sound rituals designed to lead them to God, while the pagan world devised their own. Then came the marvel of Gospel light.

While making powerful appeals for loyalty to salvation by faith, Paul brings a lesson from Ishmael and Isaac. Here are the great differences between salvation by works and faith; the two covenants are contracts for securing union with God, that are foreshadowed in the history of Abraham's household.

The doctrine of Christian liberty proclaims our freedom from the condemnation of the moral law and from Jewish ceremonial ritual. It includes our freedom to approach God, through Christ, without need of a priesthood. Yet we are to be willing servants of God's standards, and of other people. Key verses show how.