Why the Law?

Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. - Galatians 3.24-25

If indeed the Law was powerless to save us or to tell us how to live of what possible use was it? Was the whole Old Testament thing a big waste of time. Were Moses and Mt Sinai and the Ten Commandments and the legal system and Leviticus and Deuteronomy there for nothing? What was the use if we all now have liberty in Christ? 

But the Law was not a waste of time. It did have a purpose and Paul lays out the purpose for us here. 

The Law was our schoolmaster, or our tutor, or our teacher to bring us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith. The Law taught us that we could not keep it perfectly. It had to be perfect because even one little blip on the record would invalidate all of the keeping of the Law. To break one point was to break the whole thing. 

So the Law taught that we cannot reach Christ in our own efforts. It teaches us that Christ is our only hope of salvation. 

But once we have learned our lessons our teacher no longer has authority over us. It is like a real teacher in a classroom. None of my former students has to submit to my authority. They are free from the rules of my classroom. 

And so it is with us and the Law. It no longer has authority over us. It couldn't save us and it doesn't do us any good today. We are free from its authority. 

But just a thought here. When we have teachers we respect we don't despise them after we leave their classrooms. We look back with gratitude do the things they taught us. We are grateful for the lessons learnt. 

I think that is the proper attitude toward the Law. We praise God for what it taught us. We continue to respect it. We don't despise it. Wet ske things from it. But we are free from its authority and rules and regulations.