Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Parallel translations
- WEB So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
- BSB So the law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
- NKJV Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
- NASB Therefore the Law has become our guardian to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.
- NLT Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The law functioned as a tutor or guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Its goal all along was to point beyond itself to Christ.
Overview
Paul compares the law to a 'tutor' (paidagogos), a guardian who supervised children until maturity. The law's role was to bring people to Christ, in whom they are justified by faith. This shows the law was never the destination but the guide directing sinners to the Savior.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Rom 10:4For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
- Acts 13:38–39Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:
- Heb 10:1–14For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
- Rom 7:24–25O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
- Gal 2:16Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
- Matt 5:17–18Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
- Col 2:17Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
- Gal 4:2–3But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
- Heb 7:18–19For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.
- Gal 3:25But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
- Gal 2:19For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
- Rom 7:7–9What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
- Heb 9:8–16The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:
- Rom 3:20–22Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
- 1 Cor 4:15For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 3:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.