Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1196
“Therefore the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might bejustified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” Galatians 3:24-26.
NEITHER the Jewish Law of Ten Commandments, nor its Law of ceremonies were ever intended to save anybody. It was not the intent of the ceremonial Law, in itself to effect the redemption of the soul—by a set of pictures it set forth the way of salvation—but it was not, itself, the way. It was a map, not a country. It was a model of the road, not the road itself. The blood of bulls and goats, nor the ashes of a heifer could take away sin! These sacrifices and offerings were but types of the great Sacrifice which, in due time, was presented by the true Priest. There was no inherent virtue in the victims that were slain, or in the services that were observed by the worshippers! Those sacred rites were intended to portray to the minds of the people the real Sacrifice, which was, in the fullness of time, to be offered by our Lord Jesus Christ—but they could do nothing more.
The king’s portrait is not himself, the king! The engraving of a banquet is not the feast, itself, and so the grand old ceremonial Law was but a shadow of good things to come. It did not contain the substance of spiritual blessings. Neither was the moral Law of the Ten Commandments proclaimed on Mount Sinai ever given with the view of sinners being saved by it. When that Law was announced by God, He knew that everyone to whom He gave that Law had already broken it and that, consequently, they could not keep its precepts or claim justification by their conformity to its requirements. He never intended it to be a way of salvation!
Hundreds of years before He had revealed His Covenant of Grace and the way of faith to His servant, Abraham, and the Law was not meant to disannul the ancient promise. To look at the Law as a Savior is to place Sinai in the place of Zion and so to misuse and abuse the Law. It was sent with quite a different purpose, as we shall presently try to show you. It was sent to be our schoolmaster till Christ came—the schoolmaster of a world in its minority that had need to be under tutelage until it attained full age—which would not happen until Christ should be born of a woman and the doctrine of Salvation by Faith in Him should be fully preached and known.
Now I shall try and show, first, the office of the Law. Then, secondly, the design of that office—“to bring us to Christ.” And, thirdly, the termination of that office—“After faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”
I. We begin with THE OFFICE OF THE LAW. It is to be a schoolmaster. Here I must endeavor to explain the figure. A schoolmaster nowadays is not at all like the personage Paul intended. He speaks of a pedagogue, an official, seldom, if ever, now seen among men. This was not a person who actually officiated as master in the school and gave instruction in the school itself, but one—a slave, generally—who was set to take the boys to school and to watch over them. He was to be a sort of general supervisor of them, both in school and out of school and, in fact, at all times.
A pedagogue was very generally employed in the training of the young. Indeed, it was a common and customary thing for the sons of the Greek and Roman nobility to have appointed over them some trustworthy servant of the family who took them in charge. The boys were entirely under these servants—and thus had their spirits broken in and their vivacity restrained. As a rule, these pedagogues were very stern and strict—they used the rod freely, not to say cruelly— and the condition of the boys was sometimes no better than slavery.
The boys, (as it was supposed to be for their good), were kept in perpetual fear. Their recreations were restricted— even their walks were under the surveillance of the grim pedagogues. They were sternly held in check in all points and were thus disciplined for the battle of life. As for the young women, they, also, had some elderly Roman of grim appearance who tried to keep them out of mischief and suppress anything like cheerfulness or girlish glee. It was considered necessary for young people that they should suffer from rigid discipline and bear the yoke in their youth.
Therefore they were all put under pedagogues, whoever they might be—pedagogues armed with penalties and devoid of sympathies.
Now Paul, taking up this thought, which was his idea in the word, “schoolmaster,” says the Law was our pedagogue, our guardian, our custodian, ruler, tutor, governor until Christ came. Well, then, what is the business of the Law as a pedagogue? The business of the Law is, first, to teach us our obligations to God. Let us ask ourselves if we have ever heard the Law teaching us in that way. Brothers and Sisters, read the Ten Commandments and study each separate precept—you will find that in those 10 short precepts you have all the moral virtues, the full compass of your accountability to God and of your relationship to your fellow men.