Galatians: Adoption, Paul’s Two “Sents”
The book of Galatians, unlike some other books in the New Testament, is not written to a specific church. Rather, Galatians is written to an area that contained multiple churches who were all having the same problem: people claiming to have authority were coming in and steering these churches toward a form of legalism. These false teachers believed that the only way for the people in these Galatian churches to be children of God was for them to follow the same rules they followed (e.g., circumcision and dietary restrictions). The churches in Galatia started to become confused and didn’t know what to do, because they wanted to please God. Paul catches wind of what is going on and writes this letter, telling them they are saved by grace—not works—and to trust in the provision of Christ.
