Galatians 5:4 Footnotes

Galatians 5:4 NASB
You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

Let's look at the footnotes that are given in my NASB Bible for this verse to see what additional insight they can give us into the meaning of this verse. As we look at these other verses, we need to keep remembering the context of Galatians 5:4 and what Paul has previously told the Galatians about law and grace in this letter.

My first footnote is: 1 Or, would be. So, I look for the 1 in the verse and see it right before "are seeking." So, I would interpret this footnote to mean that the verse could just as well read:
You have been severed from Christ, you who would be seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

My second footnote is: Hebrews 12:15. In my NASB Bible, that verse reads:
See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;
Then that verse goes on to talk about Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. Hmmm . . .
How would this example of Esau selling his birthright for a single meal be similar to this situation among the Galatians?
As the older son, what was Esau entitled to?
What caused him to fall short of his inheritance?
As followers of Jesus Christ, what were the Galatians entitled to? (See Galatians 4:4-7.)
What could cause the Galatians to fall short of their inheritance?

My third footnote is: 2 Peter 3:17.
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from you own steadfastness.
What did Peter mean by "steadfastness"?
When I looked that word up in Strongs, I couldn't find it. That means that I need to see what word the KJV used instead of "steadfastness." I discovered that it spells it "stedfastness." Its number is #G4740. When I looked it up, I learned that it meant "stability." Wanting to learn more, I looked it up in Vines. I found these definitions: "a setting firmly, supporting, fixedness, steadfastness."
Where/had Peter's readers been fixed or supported or set?
How is Peter's warning to his readers similar to Paul's warning to his Galatian readers?

Many people stew over this verse. Does it mean that believers can lose their salvation, or does it mean that the believers weren't really believers in the first place, or does it mean they hadn't reached the point where they'd made a firm decision, or . . . ? Theologians have debated this issue for a long, long time.

What do we know from what Paul has written so far? We know that you don't gain salvation by going through the law. That's a dead end road. Salvation comes through faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Nothing else is needed other than that belief. God did the work of salvation for us. As humans, we need only believe that message. We can't humanly add anything to it, and if we do, then we're not believing the message that Christ alone saves us; the message has been changed. That's what was happening with the Galatians. See Galatians 1:6-7.