January 31 Click on verses for Full Scripture

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Today's Pathway: Galatians 3:24-29 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

In verse 24 Paul calls the Law a "schoolmaster". This term literally means "one who leads children". It often referred to a servant whose job was to accompany a boy to school each day and to see that he got there safely; to watch his actions both in school and on the street; and to train the boy in morals, manners, and behavior. Henry Morris explains it this way,

"The schoolmaster was not a teacher, but a slave whose special task was to look after a child. He exercised a general supervision over the boy’s activities, and it was his responsibility to bring him to the teacher who would give him the instruction that befitted his station.”

"The idea is that of training and discipline, not of impartation of knowledge. The schoolmaster was not the instructor of the child; he exercised a general supervision over him and was responsible for his moral and physical well–being. Thus understood, 'schoolmaster' is appropriately used with ‘kept under the law’ and ‘shut up’ (Galatians 3:23), whereas to understand it as equivalent to ‘teacher’ introduces an idea entirely foreign to the passage."

When a young man has learned what he needs to learn he no longer needs a schoolmaster to take him to school and dictate his behavior. He now has internalized the teachings that he has received and he doesn't need someone standing over him to tell him what to do. The same is true for the believer. Once a man has received Christ he no longer needs the law to dictate his actions, because he has the Holy Spirit indwelling him and directing him. In fact, Paul writes in verse 26 that the believer is now a child of God. The young man in Paul's illustration was never a child of the schoolmaster, and thus could not have a father/son relationship with him. In like manner the Law was never a father to anyone, but God becomes our Father through faith in Christ, and the Christian does have a Father/son relationship with Him. Paul then adds in verse 27 that believers have "put on" Christ. Hopefully we all understand that being "baptized into Christ" has nothing to do with baptismal regeneration. Baptism never saved anyone, and never will. However, the fact is that when people got saved in the New Testament they followed the Lord in believer's baptism. The only believer on record in the New Testament who was not baptized by immersion after conversion was the thief on the cross, and clearly he did not have the opportunity to be baptized because he died while on the cross. Believers were supposed to get baptized in order to identify themselves with the Lord, and the Great Commission includes believer's baptism as one of the churches' three responsibilities. So when Paul speaks of being baptized into Christ he is speaking of water baptism after salvation for the purpose of identifying publicly with Christ. As believers we have been given the righteousness of Christ for a garment, which is something that the Law could never do for us. So, because we have put on Christ, we have been given everything we need to obey and serve Him, and thus the Law is no longer needed.

In verses 28-29 Paul writes that it does not matter whether or not someone is a Jew or a Gentile once he or she receives Christ. Remember that the Judaizers wanted Gentile believers to become like Jews. Paul writes that this is not necessary, but there is to be unity in the family of God because ethnic and societal and gender differences are not important. Spiritually speaking, all believers are the offspring of Abraham and recipients of the promise that God gave to him, and that is the only thing that truly matters.