A. Ganoune Diop
Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. Galatians 3:24, 25.
What does Paul mean in Galatians 3:24 that the law was our tutor? What does it tell us about the status of the law? Is the law done away with for the Christian now that faith in Christ has brought maturity?
The meaning of the word “law” – The word “law” legitimately can be said to designate a particular body of commandments, such as the Ten Commandments, but it goes far beyond that. The Greek word “nomos” (law) or its Hebrew antecedent is not confined to a judicial or a purely legal setting. Law, translated from the Hebrew word “Torah,” in its most general sense, means “instruction.” Unless the context makes reference to explicit commandments, this general meaning of law is to be preferred.
The purpose of the law – In Galatians 3:19-29, Paul addresses the purpose of the law and compares it to a tutor. In 3:22, he states that all are confined under sin, hemmed in on all sides, in need of deliverance. This is the circumstance under which the law comes into the picture. The law does not accomplish the actual deliverance. Instead, the law (1) highlights the condition of the sinner; and (2) it points to the One who can make the deliverance a reality. Faith in this Person is mandatory for the deliverance to take place.
“‘The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith’ (Galatians 3:24). In this scripture, the Holy Spirit through the apostle is speaking especially of the moral law. The law reveals sin to us, and causes us to feel our need of Christ and to flee unto Him for pardon and peace by exercising repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (1SM 234).
The law functions as a tutor – The understanding of the word tutor is often seen as negative. “Tutors were often strict disciplinarians, causing those under their care to yearn for the day when they would be free from their tutor’s custody. The law was our tutor which, by showing us our sins, was escorting us to Christ.”1 The Greek word paidagogos for “tutor,” in verse 24, was used in Greek literature as a referent for one who teaches a child to behave, a private tutor, or a teacher. Etymologically, the word paidagogos contains the idea of leading a child. In some settings the tutors were slaves to whom were entrusted the care of children. “In the Hellenistic period, the accompanying role of the paidagogos expanded and became nobler; his protection was not exclusively negative. He formed the child’s character and morality and even became its private tutor, if not its teacher.”2
The issue in Galatians is how righteousness is obtained – At issue in the Epistle to the Galatians is the overarching motif of “righteousness by faith.” The question is, How is “righteousness” obtained? Is it through the law (any law: ceremonial, moral, etc.) or through faith in Jesus Christ, understood as dependence on His righteousness? In Romans 4:3, Paul unequivocally states that Abraham believed in God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness; faith is the key to righteousness. But righteousness is an attribute of God that He grants to those who believe in Christ Jesus.
To clarify the source and nature of righteousness, Paul had to address the function of the law. In Galatians 3:21, Paul focuses on the real issue. He specifies that the law is not against the promises of God. He takes this position in order to avoid the charge of being against the law. To the question of verse 19, “what purpose then does the Law serve?” Paul states insightfully that it cannot give life. He emphatically declares “If a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (vv. 21, 22). What the law does can, therefore, be compared to that of a tutor who leads to faith in Christ Jesus. When we receive Christ we are no longer under the condemnation of the law, but we are not free to disregard the law either or else we would come back under its condemnation. By accepting Christ we receive power to be obedient to the law (Rom 3:31). Thus Galatians 3:24, 25 give no support to the claim that the law is abolished.
This understanding of the law as leading to Christ is in harmony with Jesus’ own teaching in Matthew 5:17 in which the status of the law is at issue. Jesus has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, that is, to bring it to its intended goal, to indicate the righteousness of God personified in Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:30).
1 John MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007), 1667.
2 Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, translated and edited by James D. Ernest, 3 vols. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), 3:2.
We should carefully study the Bible, asking God for the aid of the Holy Spirit, that we may understand His word. We should take one verse, and concentrate the mind on the task of ascertaining the thought which God has put in that verse for us. We should dwell upon the thought until it becomes our own, and we know “what saith the Lord.”
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