Our teacher

But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 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 3.23-25

I like to read anything about about teachers, or as the word here reads, schoolmaster. I love teaching with an absolute passion. I love the student/teacher relationship and what it means and how it works and how it plays out and how, if properly done, it lasts forever.

While we are in school we are under the authority of our teachers in their classrooms. A proper student/teacher relationship is more than just a classroom situation. The best relationships continue long beyond leaving the classroom.

Here Paul refers to the Law as a teacher. The Law’s purpose was to prove to the world the need of a Saviour. It is to teach us that no one can keep the Law perfectly and then we are told that if anyone breaks the Law even in the slightest point they are guilty of breaking the whole Law.

So the Law is to point us to the fact that we need some way to sort out this dilemma.

The Law was our teacher to show us to Christ. There is no doubt that reading the Law proves to us that none of us can keep it. Jesus came along and He told us that He was the one to fulfil it because no one else could. Jesus provided the way to deal with the sin problem exposed by the Law and when we trust in His the Law has done its job.

So does that mean that now we can just ignore the Law? No, the Law is good. As we respect and remember the teachings of our teachers so we remember and respect that Law for bringing us to Christ. We are not bound to obey it, but now it can help us in many ways to please God.

The Law showed us our need. We are saved by faith. We are not bound to please the grace robbers who tell us we must keep the Law, but we still need to keep in mind the goodness that the Law did in showing us our need.