The Law as Tutor

“What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise hath been made; and it was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator.” Galatians 3:19

Paul has just argued that the covenant with Abraham came 430 years before Sinai and that the law “doth not disannul” it (3:17). The obvious objection follows: then why did God give the law at all? Paul’s answer has three parts packed into one verse. The law was added, laid alongside a promise already standing, so it was never the foundation. It was added because of transgressions, to name sin as sin and hold it in check. And it ran till the seed should come, Christ, whom Paul identified as the promised seed back in 3:16. A purpose and a term, both stated in the law’s own commissioning.

“Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would have been of the law.” Galatians 3:21

“But the scripture shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” Galatians 3:22

Paul hears the conclusion someone might draw from his own argument, that law and promise are enemies, and he slams the door on it with his strongest denial: God forbid. The two were given by the same God and serve the same end. The law simply holds a different office. It could command righteousness and expose its absence, and a written code can do no more; making the dead live was never in its commission. So the scripture “shut up all things under sin,” closing every exit a self-saving person might try, so that the one door left open would be the promise, received by faith in Jesus Christ.

“So that the law is become our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Galatians 3:24

ASV says “tutor”; KJV says “schoolmaster”; Paul’s word is paidagogos. In a Greek or Roman household the paidagogos was a trusted slave charged with a boy from about age six to sixteen. He walked the child to school and home again, carried his things, guarded his conduct, and corrected him, strictly and sometimes severely. The one thing he did not do was teach the lessons. That was the schoolmaster’s work, at the destination. So the picture Paul draws is exact: the law disciplined, guarded and escorted, and its whole office was to deliver the child to the Teacher.

This passage describes an office in redemptive history: what the law was appointed to do, and for how long. Paul guards his own argument at exactly this point, and the page keeps his guard. The promises of God stand. The covenant spoken to Abraham 430 years before Sinai was confirmed by God and stays confirmed (3:17); the law served that promise for its appointed season; and the same apostle who wrote this chapter wrote of Israel, “God did not cast off his people which he foreknew” (Rom 11:2). The tutor’s term ending says something about the tutor’s assignment. It says nothing against the family, and this site’s tradition holds with Paul that God’s plan for Israel stands.

Read this way, the passage becomes a testimony to God’s long faithfulness. He made a promise, guarded it through fifteen centuries with a law that named sin and pointed past itself, and kept the promise in Christ. The law did its whole office well: every command exposed the need, every sacrifice drew the picture, and the escort ended at the Teacher’s own door.