Before we were saved by faith; before we lived our lives by faith, we were kept under guard by the law. Here, Paul uses a different word and a different idea than when he wrote the Scripture has confined all under sin in the previous verse. The idea behind confined is imprisonment; the idea behind under guard is protective custody. There is a sense in which we were imprisoned by our own sin under the law; but there is also another sense in which it guarded us in protective custody. How does the law protect us? It protects us by showing us God’s heart. It protects us by showing us the best way to live. It protects us by showing what should be approved and disapproved among people. It protects us by providing a foundation for civil law. In these ways and more, we were kept under guard by the law.
The Law of Moses prepared us to come to Jesus by the way it reveals God’s character and the way it exposed our sin. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. The purpose of the Law of Moses is fulfilled when we stop trying to justify ourselves and come to faith in Jesus. The whole purpose of the law is to bring us to Jesus. Therefore, if someone doesn’t present the Law in a manner that brings people to faith in Jesus, they aren’t presenting the Law properly. The way Jesus presented the Law was to show people that they could not fulfill it, and needed to look outside of their law-keeping to find a righteousness greater than the Scribe and the Pharisees (Matthew 5:17-48).
But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor: Once we have come to a relationship of faith, we no longer have to live under our tutor, though we remember the behavior he has taught us. So we respect our tutor, the Law; but we don’t live under him. We live under Jesus by faith. Tutor is not a completely accurate translation of the idea of the ancient Greek word paidagogos. The paidagogos did not simply teach a child. More than that, the tutor was the child’s guardian, watching over the child and his behavior. The idea is more of a nanny than of a teacher, but since the tutor could discipline the child, the tutor was also the “dean of discipline.”
This tutor is still available to you. Perhaps your mind and soul has lost its need for Jesus. After all, we are surrounded by so many pleasures and priviliges. Sometimes we forget that we need Jesus. We are still sinners. If that description reminds you of your self, read the ten commandments today. These ten commandments summarize all that is under the law. My prayer is that you will find that God’s law was not meant to burden you, but rather the law was meant to free you by pointing you to your need for Christ. Be free! Remind yourself that you are a sinner so that you remind yourself how much you need Jesus.