So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Parallel translations
- KJV Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto 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 fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
- Acts 13:38–39Be it known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man is proclaimed to you remission of sins,
- Heb 10:1–14For the law, having a shadow of the good to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near.
- Rom 7:24–25What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?
- Gal 2:16yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law.
- Matt 5:17–18“Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.
- Col 2:17which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.
- Gal 4:2–3but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed by the father.
- Heb 7:18–19For there is an annulling of a foregoing commandment because of its weakness and uselessness
- Gal 3:25But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
- Gal 2:19For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God.
- Rom 7:7–9What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
- Heb 9:8–16The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn’t yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing;
- Rom 3:20–22Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
- 1 Cor 4:15For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News.
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.