The Promise Is Given To All Who Believe

In the last ministry in Galatians, we learned that the Law and promises were not contradictory and opposed to one another. Nor is the relationship to the Law the same after the coming of Christ – the promised Seed of the woman. In this ministry, the apostle speaks of the Law as a tutor or schoolmaster. Does this mean that the Law is still our schoolmaster? The pedagogical nature of the Law is expressed very clearly by the apostle. Once we have learned the lesson of the necessity of the Savior, and we have received the promised justification by faith, the Law's purpose in that sense is fulfilled. For one who has received the promise by faith to return to the tutelage of the old schoolmaster, and to seek what has already been provided by faith, is to do something which doesn't make sense. The graduate rightly leaves his alma mater and pursues the life for which he has presumably been prepared. To begin to take the same classes over again would, in effect, deny the validity of the education already received and the diploma conferred. This is the point that the apostle would have the church understand. The Law is an excellent schoolmaster, but it is a poor savior and does not have the ability to make the Christian more righteous than Christ has. – Pastor Schlegel