To give some background, Paul is writing the Galatians because he is incensed that a group of Judaizers had approached the church in Galatia (a primarily Gentile congregation) teaching them that in order to be Christian they must first be circumcised and live under the Mosaic law. Unfortunately, it seems that many in the church in Galatia were taken in by these teachers. Paul begins to correct the Galatians that reminding them of the gospel that he had preached. He then adamantly claims that no one is justified before God by works of the law, but by faith. We have been crucified with Christ through faith so that we might now live for him also in faith. Because we are all justified by faith, not by works, the law’s distinctions between Gentile and Jew, slave or free, man and woman, are no longer binding, because we have been saved by the object of our faith, which is Christ, making us equally heirs to the promise of redemption.
