Every indication points to predominately Jewish churches in Galatia, regardless of how many Gentiles were becoming members. Galatians may be Paul’s first new covenant letter after meeting the Jewish Messiah. Paul clearly assumes that his readers understand his Jewish foundation that is essential for understanding the new covenant. His main purpose in writing Galatians is the same reason Jesus confronted him: to confront and correct Judaism. Judaizers (like Paul used to be) were trying to re-enslave the sons of God in Galatia. Paul confronts these new covenant Jews who were troubling the Galatian churches, by contrasting the proper interpretation of the promises made to Abraham alongside the wrongheaded view of the Judaizers. This letter (that Paul the Benjamite wrote to the churches in Galatia) recounts Jewish history, proving that grown up sonship is only in the Messiah. The non-culmination of Judaism was antithetical to true sonship, because it taught continued slavery under old covenant law. Continued slavery under law is not true sonship. The false teachings of the missionaries who came out of Jerusalem and into Antioch were now infecting the assemblies of Galatia with old covenant practices that were about to go away for good.

The phrase “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law” reveals the Jewish origin of the assemblies – Galatians 3:13. Nobody else was redeemed from slavery to the law to become the “set free” sons of God. The Gentiles were not being adopted into the assemblies of the Jews. Gentiles were becoming true sons too, by the Holy Spirit birth, just as the Jews were. Gentiles were being born into the family not adopted by the law. Even Greek Titus, who was traveling with Paul, was not compelled to be circumcised – Galatians 2:3. Titus was certainly not legally adopted by Paul in the circumcision of the flesh. Paul was absolutely no longer a Judaizer after meeting the Jewish Messiah. The truth of the Jewish gospel depended on it. In Galatians 2:13 Paul calls the Jews who sill required circumcision “hypocrites”. The gospel truth is purely Jewish, yet no flesh can be justified by works of the law of Moses. This refers especially to the Jews. If Jews could be justified in their flesh by the works of the law then their Messiah died for nothing – Galatians 2:21. And Paul would have adopted Titus into Judaism legally by circumcision in the flesh. Titus became a Jewish family member by birth. Like everybody else, Titus had to be born again in order to live to the age as a true Jew in the Holy Spirit – John 3:16.

Paul writes to the churches in Galatia rather than to the synagogues, as addressed by Yacobus at an earlier new covenant date – James 2:2. James (Jacob or Yacobus) was written to the 12 tribes before the Gentiles started being born from above by the Holy Spirit, just as all the true Jews were. Therefore: James was written before the Jerusalem council of AD 49 and Galatians was written after the Jerusalem council – Galatians 2:1-14. In Galatians 1:13 Paul recounts his own behavior as a former Judaizer. As a Judaizer Paul himself had persecuted “the church of God”. Paul as an old covenant Jew persecuted the new covenant Jews. At that time the “church of God” was made up of nobody but Jews. The called out Jews originally took the Gospel to nobody but Jews, even after the persecution that arose from the stoning of Stephen – Acts 11:19. Paul was still a Judaizer then.

Paul was in typical Jerusalem among many old covenant Jews from several synagogues, consenting to the death of Stephen. Stephen had performed many great signs and wonders before he was dragged outside the city – Acts 7:56 and drastically censored by members of several synagogues, including the so-called ‘Synagogue of the Freedmen’ – Acts 6:9 & 2 Peter 2:19-20. Paul wrote Galatians to prove who the free Jews were. The true Jews weren’t enslaved by the old covenant types. The old covenant Jews remained in slavery and they were trying to re-enslave the new covenant Jews.

God gave the law as a firm disciplinarian until the arrival of the Messiah from the tribe of Judah. The law never justified anybody. The law enslaved and condemned all the law breakers. It was time to get out. The born again people of God were no longer bound by the typical laws. They should now love one another because in doing so they were actually fulfilling their law. Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians to counter the message of Pharisaical Jewish missionaries who visited Galatia after Paul evangelized there. These born again Jews wrongly taught that the born again Galatians must follow the old covenant types in order to be saved. The opposite was true. The law kills. The typical law covenant never saved anybody. Paul taught the Holy Spirit of the law. The Holy Spirit sent by the Messiah didn’t and doesn’t require the keeping of the types. The Holy Spirit fulfilled the types: such as circumcision of the heart. Nobody even comes close to keeping all the old covenant laws today. Modern ‘Judaism’ doesn’t even try. Not pressing an elevator button on Saturday is a modern day hypocritical attempt to keep the day holy and please some imaginary god while much weightier matters of the law are being broken daily.

Paul was assigned to take the gospel of the Messiah to the nations when he first met the True Sonship on the road – Galatians 1:16. He was introduced to the Jewish Messiah whom he was presently persecuting. The new covenant churches in Galatia are “in the Messiah” – Galatians 3:28. Galatia is one of the nations Paul went to after his covenant re-birth. The Jews in the Galatian churches became born again believers because Paul was no longer an old covenant Judaizer after meeting Jesus, but some born again Pharisees from Judea continued to require circumcision and the keeping of food laws, even after their new covenant birth.

At the end of chapter one Paul presents himself as a former Judaizer, unlike an AA meeting greeting. At an AA meeting you stand up and introduce yourself, saying, “Hi, my name is _____ and I’m an alcoholic”. “Hi, my name is Paul and I’m a Judaizer”, is not what Paul said. Paul is sure he is no longer a Judaizer. He is now accepted by the chosen Jews he once persecuted as a Judaizer. It was Peter who slipped back in to Judaism and needed corrected. Peter wasn’t addicted to law-keeping. Nobody ever was. He gave in because he feared the born again Judaizers who came out of Judea. Peter feared the status quo not the law. Paul sets himself up as an authority in confronting this temptation. Pretending to keep the old covenant types had no place in the Jewish promises that were being fulfilled.

The letter to the Galatians may be Paul’s first new covenant writing. Paul wants the Galatians to know that his authority is straight from God, not even from the born again Jews. Paul doesn’t even claim clout from the Lord’s brother or His chosen apostles. Peter, James and John did not give Paul the assignment to preach the gospel of the Son. He was given authority like Moses; straight from God – Exodus 3:6-8.

Paul never addresses Gentiles in his letter to the churches in Galatia. His letter is all about Jewish history as slaves to the law and Jewish redemption into the freedom of sonship. It’s all about the Jewish promises being fulfilled in their new covenant. Chapter 3 is about becoming true sons of Abraham by faith, not by law. They were given the faith of their Messiah by the Holy Spirit He sent to them in Jerusalem – Romans 3:22. Verse 22 reads faith “of” not faith in Jesus. The born of the Holy Spirit Jews were being blessed by the faith like Abraham was before the law was even given, meanwhile the ‘typical law keepers’ were still enslaved and cursed – Galatians 3:9-13.

“The messiah redeems us out of the curse of the law.” The “us” is the Jewish body that was previously under the curses, as promised by Moses for breaking old covenant laws. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul was warning those being tempted to get circumcised for acceptance, not to do it. He was warning the uncircumcised of the Galatian churches, which included both Jews and Gentiles – Galatians 5:1-5 & Romans 2:29. He surely wasn’t telling Gentiles that their new covenant was being separated from the Jewish promises fulfilled and that is why circumcision was no longer required. Salvation is only in the Jewish new covenant Messiah. He fulfilled the law for them before He laid down His old covenant life. Jesus was circumcised when He was in the old covenant not the new.

The Jews blessed the nations with their good news. New covenant Jesus commissioned Paul to take their gospel to the Gentiles. The covenant re-birth was the fulfillment of the Jewish promises. The gospel didn’t bypass the Jews to save the Gentiles first. The death, burial and resurrection actually happened in Jerusalem. The true Jews willingly died attesting to it. The faithful Jews were astonished when Gentiles joined them in their new covenant birth – Acts 10:45. There is no other Jewish foundation that can be laid for the church – 1 Corinthians 3:11-20. The fulfillment of the Abrahamic promises included blessing the nations with the same faith. Gentiles didn’t join the Jews by believing something different.

Galatians 3:21-29

CLV ²¹ Is the law, then, against the promises of God? May it not be coming to that! For if a law were given that is able to vivify, really, righteousness were out of law.” ²² But the scripture locks up all together under sin, that the promise out of Jesus Christ’s faith may be given to those who are believing.” ²³ Now before the coming of faith we [Jews] were garrisoned under law, being locked up together for the faith about to be revealed.” [The faith of the Christ was revealed in the old covenant] ²⁴ So that the law has become our [true Jews] escort to Christ, that we [true Jews] may be justified by faith.” ²⁵ Now, at the coming of faith, we [the Jews] are no longer under an escort, ²⁶ for you [diaspora and Gentiles mixed] are all sons of God, through faith in Christ Jesus.” [There was a Jewish synagogue in every city escorting the Gentiles to Christ by teaching the law of Moses] ²⁷ For whoever are baptized into Christ, put on Christ, ²⁸ in Whom there is no Jew nor yet Greek, there is no slave nor yet free, there is no male and female, for you all are one in Christ Jesus.” ²⁹ Now if you are Christ’s, consequently you are of Abraham’s seed, enjoyers of the allotment according to the promise.”

Chapter 4 is about slavery to things that are not gods. Galatians 4:3 calls these things the elements of the system. Galatians 4:3-5 speaks of the fulness of time when God sent His Son to redeem them from slavery to law: meaning the types. The Hebrews who were formerly slaves became the freed from law sons of God at the proper time Hebrews 1:1. According to Paul, those who were still concerning themselves with the typical old covenant counting were returning to the elements of the system, i.e., the enslavement of the types – Galatians 4:10-11. Jesus saved His people from fulfilling the millennium typically. Fulfilling their millennial Jubilee in Jesus was the only way to be saved. Calculating the remaining grace time was not even possible after the cross interrupted it mid-week. Jesus was no longer counting in the old covenant. He was in the new. Looking back, the typical counting to the final Jubilee resumed 3 1/2 years before the old covenant destruction. Those stuck in the types finally perished. The only way for the Jews to live to the age was in their new covenant – John 3:16.

Galatians 4:10 gives an example of the elements they were turning back to. Apparently the Jews were scrutinizing the typical feast days to see if they had made a mistake in counting. The second 490 years had passed already and nothing was happening. The 12 tribes typically returned to their original allotments every Jubilee and this was the millennial Jubilee they were counting on to save them from their diaspora. The millennial Jubilee had passed with no promised land reformation in the flesh. God was not being slack in His promises, rather He was being patient not wanting any to perish – 2 Peter 3:9. Peter like James also wrote to the Hebrews in diaspora. The diaspora Hebrews Peter addresses were seeded north of Jerusalem as the result of the Assyrian scattering of the northern tribes – 1 Peter 1:1-25 & 2 Kings 15:29; 17:6.

Adoption is a bad translation in Galatians 4:5, because the new covenant sonship is by birth into the heavenly family not by legal adoption. All God’s people are born into the family by Holy Spirit birth: Jew and Gentile alike, for there is no difference. That is why Gentiles were being accepted into the predominately Jewish churches of Galatia. Not only did Peter have a vision that declared all the nations made clean, just as the born again Jews, the Holy Spirit of sanctification actually started adding Gentiles to the church of freedom (freedom from the typical elements of the law not the morality of law), just like the Jews were being added. If that’s not clear enough, Galatians 4:26 distinctly separates those still in slavery to old covenant Jerusalem under law from those in the freedom of the new covenant Jerusalem. New Jerusalem is in the realm of the Holy Spirit who was sent from heaven. Galatians 4:29 places the slavery of Judaism with those who were only born of the flesh and not of the Spirit. In the flesh they were still clinging to old covenant Jerusalem.  ³¹ Wherefore, brethren, we [true Jews] are not children of the maid, but of the free woman.”

James, Peter, and John were convinced that Paul was given grace by God to invite both the Gentiles and the Jews into their new covenant. Paul’s confrontation with Peter in the port city of Antioch sparked a debate over a group of new covenant Jews that were amazingly still being Judaizers. Paul hadn’t yet to meet Jesus when he was a Judaizer. These born again Judaizers were partly wrong in their beliefs. They believed in Jesus yet they still believed that all new covenant members (including the Gentiles) had to follow the old covenant types. How wrong can God’s people be? Very. This was clearly an old world addiction to slavery. Paul established that the new Jewish covenant has no place for old covenant slavery under the elements of the law and is not to be chained by its passing rituals that were about to go away. How much more today over 2000 years after the old system has passed away for good? Why do some of us still support returning to slavery? Nobody should try to return to the old covenant of slavery or teach others to try it. Paul confronted the wrong headed Jews of his day and said ‘no way’ to the keeping of the old covenant types. The people Paul confronted were the real Jews. They just weren’t acting real.