This letter could be considered the Christian “Declaration of Independence.” It grapples with the issue of whether the Church would stay a Jewish sect or go on to maturity as a carrier of God’s final revelation to Jews and Gentiles in Jesus Christ. Here are key background points to the Galatians letter:
Paul was left for dead by angry Jewish leaders in Galatia (central Turkey) – see Acts 14:19-20.
The same threat of persecution hung over the Galatian churches (Gal. 6:12-13).
Paul addresses both Jewish and Gentile converts (Gal. 4:3, 8).
The trigger for heresy in Galatia was from Judaizers saying, “To avoid persecution let’s get as Jewish as we can get” (Gal. 6:11).
Paul obviously uses circumcision in this letter as shorthand for the whole Jewish way of life (Gal. 2:7, 14).
Galatian Christians had already turned back to some features of Jewish ritual with Gentile customs possibly added. They were now contemplating the act of circumcision (Gal. 5:1-3).
Paul describes any and all religious systems not putting Christ in the center as “weak and beggarly elements,” (Gal. 4:9) elsewhere described as “rudimentary things” (Col. 2:20) and shadows (Col. 2:17).
Paul castigates all attempts to attain salvation (“to stay saved thru law”) apart from Christ as an “end run” around the faith principle (Gal. 5:4).
For Paul, the Law is not so much denigrated as demoted from its past position (Gal. 3:21). The Law of Moses, he well knew, always included Sabbaths, new moons and set feasts (2 Kings 4:23, Hosea 2:11, Ezek. 46:3).
Paul’s concern is that spiritual regression takes place when believers stay fixated on the rituals of the Law (Gal. 5:4). “The Law is not of faith” (Gal. 3:12). “The Law made nothing perfect” (Hebrews 7:19).