It is not appropriate to apply the specific verses of Galatians to Christians who practice Judaism (observe Torah), regardless if it is Jew or gentile whom practices Judaism.

Read ACTS 21 til END of book, 4 times Paul says he has not broken tradition or any Law. Basically if you read acts 21 to the end of acts.. u will read at least 5 times where Paul (and apostle james and all jews) show that he follow commands of the law.. (but NOT in order to be saved)

paul even sacrifices animals to show that he obeys the law.
so since he obeys the law.. is he under the law?
of kurs not..
being "under the law" only refers to a dead teaching that no one teaches in church or on any website that I know of.

It is only judaizers who taught one must convert on oath to obey ALL LAW perfectly to become physical son of abraham (circumcision) IN ORDER to get the Holy Spirit seal of salvation.
The Galatians were already saved prior, and already had the Holy Spirit! Then some fell from grace (they lost or rejected salvation) when the Judaizers taught them... no u can not get the Spirit until after being circumcized.

Think about how illogical and assinine that is. The Galatians already had proof of having Holy Spirit, thus were saved before the Judaizers came. Truly foolish for the Galatians to renounce their own salvation from Paul!

 

As for "Remain in the state you were saved. Circumcised should remain so, and uncircumcised should remain so"...

 

Paul also says.. what matters is doing God's commandments. 1 cor 7.16-24 

Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you--although if you can gain your freedom, do so.

 

Paul says stay uncircumcized...but he also says.. stay an unmarried virgin.... and stay a slave!

 

God never commanded gentile males to be cut at any age to be saved. The Mosaic commandment circumcision only applies to BABIES at the 8th day, OR to a uncut gentile or uncut jew who will bring passover sacrifice.  exodus 12.48

Therefore, circumcision of babies on the 6th or 9th day is not true fulfillment of the commandment. However the circumcision is issued on the baby to fulfill the passover requirement.

 

GET IT? God NEVER required circumcision before being saved, first you get redeemed, when you believe God will fullfill all his salvation promises to you, then God sets you apart from sin, shows you how to imitate God, how to be holy as continued agreement to be believe God's commandment promises. Torah is promise of LIFE if you try observing it. Torah is freedom from slavery to sin. Torah means hitting the mark, imitating Jesus as the Living Torah, he hit the mark perfectly! Missing the mark means less faith. Trying to hit the mark means more faith in God's blessings.

 

so why did the Judaizers require what God did NOT require?

 

answer- foolish idea of converts to Judaism- foolish idea of man.

 

Christian Jews are not Judaizers.

Hebraic Christians are not Judaizers.

Jewish Christians can also be called MESSIANIC. A Messianic congregation is not a church full of Judaizers. 

Torah is the instruction God gave to the Jews through Moses, so sometimes it is called the Law of Moses. Paul refers to the Torah as the law of circumcision, or "the circumcision".

No Jew of today claims to be saved by perfectly observing Torah. Half of the rules can not even be performed without a sacrificial Temple, so such a claim would be suicide. Even when there will be a Temple, Rabbis still know salvation is given through faithfullness only. Being faithfull to God's instruction is NOT earning, or working for salvation, it is called REPENTANCE...accepting the process of salvation or being in COVENANT/ testament (commonly called sanctification).

In other words, what Rabbi Paul and the Apostles were against... is working to earn salvation by FORCING conversion before the Sanctification could be offered. Earning wages toward earning salvation, i.e. REQUIRING conversion first, in order for the new Christian to earn the Holy Spirit, is not Biblical.
The Holy Spirit is given to non-Jews who were fearing God and living righteously, but had not entered Mosaic covenant, Acts 10. That proved God was giving Salvation freely, for free, to those who repented- accepted the process of sanctification. To accept salvation is to accept the responsibility to imitate Jesus Yahshua merits, not our own.

 

If a person at ANY TIME IN THEIR LIFE, decides to reject a GODLY LIFE, turns back to live with mate unmarried, or seeks revenge on an enemy, then that person rejects repentance, and has rejected GRACE! YES YOU CAN REJECT YOUR OWN SALVATION. After you have been sealed for salvation by the Holy Spirit, you can decide to betray Jesus 1 cor 5,6 has a list of people in church, who call themselves brothers, who are in danger of not being saved. 
That is NOT MY OPINION.. it is BIBLE.
If a born again returned to their vomit of fornication living with mate unmarried, that person must STOP living with the mate, as the only repentance valid. This is not works...this is called repentance, forgiveness, entering covenant, process of sanctification.

That is the true issue with Judaizers. They thought becoming a convert and legally bound by Torah, becoming a legally adopted son of Abraham, was needed BEFORE the sanctification process, the Holy Spirit seals a believer.

PAY ATTENTION... THIS IS THE CRUX OF GALATIANS.

Judaism has ALWAYS taught, and there has never been any disagreement in Judaism, that salvation came through FAITHFULLNESS to God's instruction. GOD NEVER instructed that gentiles must convert to Judaism FIRST, in order to receive salvation. Many gentiles worshipped at Jerusalem's Temple, and never converted. They were considered righteous gentiles, whom had no covenant forcing legal Torah observance on them. Gentiles were only asked NOT OFFEND Jews in any way and be open to more Torah instruction.

The Judaizers required FIRST circumcision, working in order to earn reward, in order to be saved. That is "works of the Law" only.  Observing the Law as a promise, is not the same as "works of the Law".

 

BEING OBEDIENT TO GOD IS NOT "works". Living in obedience to God to be saved is not being saved by works,

 it is effort of obedience, loving God.

The Judaizers were not part of mainstream Judaism, but a small cult within this new messianic path, THE WAY  (Christianity). All the ancient Rabbis who did NOT accept Jesus, considered Christian Jews to be apostates! This means the Judaizers were not fully accepted as brothers by Rabbis of the Talmud.

They were probably never more than 200 Judaizers, yet they were very evangelistic. Judaizers were mostly gentiles whom had converted to non Messianic Judaism, and later became proselytes. They spread their version of required Torah first in order to please the leaders of Christianity. Remember the leaders of the Jerusalem council were ALL JEWS. 99% of Christians were Jews. The gentiles that did accept Jesus were not the average heathen or pagan gentiles.

The only gentiles that became Christian in the first 13 years after Jesus' resurrection were GOD FEARERS. A God fearer was a title of a gentile who was in the process of conversion to Judaism. I will explain this later. But for now, know that Cornelius the Centurion recieved the Baptism of the Holy Spirit 10 years after Yahshua's death. The events of Acts 10 occur 10 years after Yahshua's death, the Italian regiment was assigned to Ceaserea 10 years after.

In Galatian and Rome, everywhere, Paul preached to gentiles that attended SYNAGOGUE! Those were gentiles who were already attending synagogue with interest in conversion to JUDAISM! They were GOD FEARERS, in the process of conversion to Judaism. They had the legal status as being GENTILES! Hence they are called gentiles in the book of Acts, but they are not gentiles in today's modern understanding. Today, a convert is called a Jew, however this is not the case in the time of ACTS.

When Paul was a sanhedrin member, he was a leader in persecuting the Messianic cult. About 10 years after Yahshua Jesus ascended to heaven, the first gentiles were allowed into the Jewish cult. Many of those Messianics who had converted from gentile to Jew, became very jealous. Those who had converted were legally bound and punished according to sanhedrin Torah interpretation, by whippings, and lashes and what not. Thus the "whip" references in Galatians 5:11. Once a God fearer fully converted to "Orthodox" Judaism, he was still called a gentile, but subject to the theocracy of the Sanhedrin geo-political "executive branch". In the Bible, a convert gentile is still called a convert, and not called a Jew, since the convert does not have Jewish blood. But the convert is considered an heir in the age to come. He was since his conversion, punishable by stoning, whip, as the Sanhedrin saw fit to punish, in accordance with Sanhedrin instruction. Basically, conversion was tantamount to swearing allegiance to the Sanhedrin authority as God's authority on earth. This was NOT God's will.

Yet the gentiles who became Messianic after Cornelius of Acts 10, had no intention of converting. Giving them the Jewish wisdom treasures was VERY TABOO, it was a very NEW, groundbreaking concept. It was EXTREMELY difficult for Jews to grasp. Gentiles did not have to convert to receive the Holy Spirit. For this reason, Peter the Apostle and Paul have serious disagreements in accepting gentiles, throughout their lives. Throughout his life, Shimon Kefa Cephas in fact struggled with the fact gentiles were saved without conversion, Gal 2:11-16. This is the reason he was the apostle to the Jews and not the Apostle to the gentiles.

Judaizers were mostly converts to Judaism, teaching that in order to earn and achieve salvation status, a gentile had to FIRST legally convert to "Orthodox" Judaism.

In Judaism, there was never a great commission to convert gentiles into Jews, since God accredited righteousness according to one's faith. Abraham wasn't even Jewish when he was accredited with righteousness through FATIH. Abraham was just being FAITHFULL to God, meaning his actions were obedient to God's instruction. Judaism has always understood that God only instructed JEWS to observe Torah, and to share Torah with interested gentiles. (There are legends, in Hebrew called AGGADAH, that God offered the Torah to all nations at Sinai, but all nations rejected Torah except for Israel. This is only legend and not substantiated by the Bible. In other words, it is bogus legend Rabbis use to incriminate the gentiles.)

Judaism has understood that gentiles are not required to observe Torah. Unfortunately Judaism has MISUNDERSTOOD that Jews are supposed to share Torah as a blessing to all humanity.

Most early Christians were Jews. The titles God Fearer and Devout one are actually titles of specific gentiles in the process of conversion. It was a very very foreign, groundbreaking, TABOO idea for early Christians to share Gospel with non-Jews. But that is exactly what God allowed with Cornelius in Acts 10.  It took a long time for Jews to break the non-equality with gentiles taboo. Think about it, Cornelius was a Centurion, a commander of the Roman army that was occupying Judea with brutal violent force. Cornelius had no doubt killed zealot Jews, and had commanded his forces to kill zealot Jews.

One does not have to be a physical son of Abraham to be saved, but one has to be a spiritual son of Abraham. The issue in Galatians and Romans, Colossians and any other book, is if legal conversion to Judaism is required before one is accepted as a member of Christianity. The issue does not insinuate that those who are Jews by the circumcision should cease to live so, after accepting the true Messiah.

There is nothing wrong with being an obedient Jew and believing in Yahshua Messiah. Obeying God is not being legalistic.

Adding rules that God never intended to add, like "You must be circumcized before you can be saved" that is legalism. Obeying the traditions of man over God's tradition, or adding to God's tradition, that is legalism.

Obeying the traditions God has instructed YOU to obey, is called FAITHFULLNESS. It can be called Sanctification or Obedience.

The difference between Judaizers and a God fearer gentile who TRIES to obey Torah is....the Judaizer is under age child, legally UNDER a bodyguard's protection PEDAGOGAI, the pedagogai takes him/her to school and brings him home, the Law is his bodygaurd pedagogai taking him to school LEGALLY, not voluntarily.

Pedagogai does NOT MEAN SCHOOLMASTER!! nor teacher.

but WE who choose to love Jesus, obeying his commandments... we are not UNDER a Pedagogai, forcing us to go to school,

we now FREELY CHOOSE to go to school and FREELY learn commandments at school, without any legal oath or agreement.

Galatians 3. we are free from the CURSE of the LEGAL oath to keep all the Law ... 

DID YOU EVER make an oath to keep all the TORAH?

no you didn't so Galatians main topic does not apply to you.

 

we are NOT free from learning the Law.