"But before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So that the law is become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith." (Gal. 3:23, 24.)

      "The scripture," Paul had just said (Gal. 3:22), "shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." Those who had the law (the Jews) and "the Gentiles which have not the law," both alike were judged and condemned as sinners, and "all the world" was "brought under the judgment of God." But alike to all that believe ("for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God") the promise by faith in Christ Jesus is freely given. So Paul taught in Romans (3:19-24). And this is evidently the point here also. Now when he says "Before faith came we were kept in ward under the law" he speaks specifically to Jews to whom the law became a schoolmaster, whose hard discipline was calculated to make them seek refuge in Christ, to be justified by faith.

      It is well here to consider how the apostle uses the term "faith." The word is generally taken to mean the belief of Divine testimony. That is indeed the fundamental meaning. But in Paul's teaching a special significance is attached to the word "faith." In the common sense of it it might be said that those who were under the law had faith. They believed in God. They believed that He had given them the law, through Moses. They believed that the law was God's authoritative word. They believed that if they kept it God would bless them and reward them as He had promised; and that if they disobeyed the punishments denounced upon the transgressors would come upon them. All this and much more that was true the people who were under the law believed. If that was faith, they had it. But that was not faith as Paul uses the word. In fact he says that "faith" had not come as yet while the people were under the law. And though they believed in the Divine authority of the law, and held as true all its promises and warnings, yet, Paul declares, "the law is not of faith, but he that doeth them [i. e. the commandments of the law] shall live in them." (Gal. 3:12.) In like manner does he distinguish between "the righteousness which is of the law," and "the righteousness which is of faith." "For Moses writeth that he that doeth the righteousness which is of the law shall live thereby. But the righteousness which is of faith saith thus . . . if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Rom. 10:5, 9). It is clear then that the endeavor to obtain salvation by law-keeping is "not of faith"; and that by "faith" the apostle means the belief and acceptance of the free and gracious promise of God in Christ Jesus (Comp. Phil. 3:9). In the one case the man seeks to merit acceptance by works of law; in the other, he receives his acceptance before [24] God as a free gift, by faith in Christ. This contrast is well brought out in Rom. 4:4, 5--"Now to him that worketh the reward is not reckoned as of grace but as of debt; but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness."

      Returning now to Galatians 3:24--the law, says Paul, was our schoolmaster [or "tutor"] to bring us to Christ; "but now that faith has come"--that is the free salvation by faith in Christ--"we are no longer under a tutor." Children and minors of Roman households were usually put under the charge of household-servants, slaves, who exercised strict authority and control over their master's children (Hence the teaching of Gal. 4:1-3). But when the day of maturity came they were thenceforth freed from that rule, and regarded as sons, entering in upon the full rights of sonship. (That is the meaning of "adoption"--Greek, huiothesia, placing-as-sons.) So now, the apostle tells us, we have become sons by faith, in Christ Jesus; "for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." They are now clothed with Christ, as it were; for they have been baptized into Christ--therefore they are now in Christ. Henceforth they share Christ's standing in the sight of God. This is their position now. When in Rom. 13:14 he tells them to "put on" Christ the exhortation is to Christlike life which corresponds to the high place God has given them in Christ Jesus.

      The changes of pronoun--"we" and "ye"--should be noticed. It is "we" (the Jews) that were kept in ward under the law (v. 23) and the law became their tutor to bring them to Christ. But now they are no longer under a tutor. Here (at v. 26) he changes off to "ye"--not only "we," but "ye" Gentiles also, (in fact all of us alike) who have so received Christ--"are all sons of God through faith, in Christ Jesus. For, as many of you [you Gentiles] as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Now "in Christ" human distinctions disappear. Those who are in Christ are as part of Him (1 Cor. 12:12). "There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male or female; for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus. And if ye are Christ's [so united and identified with Him] then are ye Abraham's seed [see 3:16], heirs according to promise" (Gal. 3:25-29).

      Here the apostle goes back to explain. As above he said "we were kept in ward" and "under a tutor"--the children, though they are prospective heirs of all, were on no higher footing than bondservants, subject to the rule and supervision of guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father--namely, the day of their promotion to sonship. So were the Jews under the law--in bondage under the rudiments of the world. "But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." (How that redemption was accomplished, how they were redeemed from the servitude of the law, is pointed out in Rom. 7:4; Gal. 2:19, 20; Col. 2:13-17, 20). [25]

      Let us pass over verses 6 and 7 for the moment. In verse 8 Paul again speaks to the Gentile brethren. The while the Jews were under bondage to the law, the Gentiles, not knowing God, were in bondage to them that were no gods. Both the law, and the hard discipline of heathenism (Acts 14:16) he classifies together under the general head of "weak and beggarly rudiments of the world"--the "rudiments of the world" mentioned in v. 3. In seeking their perfection in circumcision and law-observance, these Galatians were really returning to the former bondage and servitude--not to their heathen rudiments indeed, but to the Jewish rudiments of the law; which was just as bad for them. They had actually begun to observe days and months and seasons and years, after the regulations of the law. (Comp. Col. 2:17.) This so greatly endangered all their Christian hope and standing, that the apostle fears lest all the work he had done among them might go for nought. Tenderly and tearfully he expostulates with his foolish Galatian children in verses 12-20.

      We passed over Gal. 4:6. There Paul mentions the great outstanding boon and token of sonship: "Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father." In v. 4 God sent forth His Son who redeemed them. In v. 6 He sent forth the Spirit of His Son. It is the Spirit that emancipates from the servitude of the law. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (2 Cor. 3:17). Henceforth we serve God in the newness of the Spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father." (Rom. 7:6; 8:15). [26]

[PLG 24-26]