Wherefore the law was our pedagogue in Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

“But as many as feared God, and were anxious about His law, these ran to Christ, and were all saved. For He said to His disciples: "Go ye to the sheep of the house of Israel, which have perished." And many more Samaritans, it is said, when the Lord had tarried among them, two days, "believed because of His words, and said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we ourselves have heard [Him], and know that this man is truly the Saviour of the world." And Paul likewise declares, "And so all Israel shall be saved;" but he has also said, that the law was our pedagogue [to bring us] to Christ Jesus. Let them not therefore ascribe to the law the unbelief of certain [among them]. For the law never hindered them from believing in the Son of God; nay, but it even exhorted them so to do, saying that men can be saved in no other way from the old wound of the serpent than by believing in Him who, in the likeness of sinful flesh, is lifted up from the earth upon the tree of martyrdom, and draws all things to Himself, and vivifies the dead.”

“For the word which, in matters of doctrine, explains and reveals, is that whose province it is to teach. But our Educator. And when, having senselessly filled themselves, they senselessly played; on that account the law was given them, and terror ensued for the prevention of transgressions and for the promotion of right actions, securing attention, and so winning to obedience to the true Instructor, being one and the same Word, and reducing to conformity with the urgent demands of the law. For Paul says that it was given to be a "schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.". Perchance, too, philosophy was given to the Greeks directly and primarily, till the Lord should call the Greeks. For this was a schoolmaster to bring "the Hellenic mind "as the law, the Hebrews, "to Christ.". As far as a sort of training with fear and preparatory discipline goes, leading as it did to the culmination of legislation and to grace.”

“Yet one nation after another made a gradual advance to a fixed and authoritative code of laws, not imposed from the beginning like that of Moses of old, who educated his nation in the knowledge of letters and of fixed law, being the first who showed both by word and deed the firm and permanent nature of the law and of letters, until, after a long course of time, he conducted the nations, guided and guarded by the firm nature of the law, to the predicted Lord Christ and his teaching.”

“Here the Apostle raises another doubt, namely whether the law is harmful to grace. And first he raises the doubt, saying "Is the law then," etc., as if to say: if the law was established on account of transgressions, does the law then act against the promises of God — namely, so that what God promised he would do through the promised seed, he does through something else? God forbid. As if to say: no. For above, in the same place: "the law does not make void the covenant so as to nullify the promises," etc. Romans 7:12: "the law is holy, and the commandment holy." Second, when he says "For if a law had been given," etc., he resolves the doubt. And first he shows that the law is not against the promises of God; second, that it is in service of the promises, at the point "but concluded," etc. He says, therefore, that although the law was established on account of transgressions, it is nevertheless not contrary to the promise of God, because it cannot remove the transgressions themselves. For if it did remove them, then it would clearly be against the promises of God, because justice would be through another way than the one God promised — since it would be through the law and not through faith — whereas nevertheless it is said, Habakkuk 2:4: "my just one lives from faith." Romans 3:22: "the justice of God is through the faith of Jesus Christ." And therefore he says that if a law had been given of such a kind that it could give life — that is, were of such power that it could confer the life of grace and eternal blessedness — then truly, and not merely apparently, justice would be from the law, if the law did what faith is said to do; and thus faith would be in vain. But the law does not justify, because the letter — namely, of the law — kills, as is said in 2 Corinthians 3:6, and Romans 8:2: "for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus," etc. Then when he says "but Scripture concluded," etc., he shows that the law not only is not contrary to grace but is even in service to it. And first he shows that the law serves the promises of God; second, how this service was made manifest among the Jews, at the point "but before faith came," etc.; third, how the Gentiles too, without the law, obtained the promises of God, at the point "for you are all sons of God," etc. Concerning the first, it must be known that the law serves the promises of God in general with respect to two things. First, because it manifests sins. Romans 3:20: "through the law, knowledge of sin." Then, because it manifests human weakness, inasmuch as man cannot avoid sin except through grace, which was not given through the law. And just as these two things — namely, knowledge of the disease and the powerlessness of the sick person — greatly induce one to seek a physician, so knowledge of sin and of one's own powerlessness induce one to seek Christ. Thus, then, the law served grace, insofar as it supplied knowledge of sin and experience of one's own powerlessness. And therefore he says "Scripture" — that is, the written law — "concluded," that is, it held the Jews shut in, "under sin" — that is, it showed them the sins that they were committing. Romans 7:7: "I did not know concupiscence," etc. Likewise it "concluded," because with the law coming they took occasion for sin. Romans 11:32: "God has concluded all things under unbelief," etc. And this was so that man might seek grace. And therefore he says "that the promise" — that is, the grace that had been promised — "might be given not only to the Jews, but to all believers," because that grace was able to free from sins, and this grace is from the faith of Jesus Christ. Then when he says "but before it came," etc., he sets forth the experience of this service made manifest among the Jews. And first he sets forth the service rendered to the Jews; second, he draws a certain corollary, at the point "therefore the law was our pedagogue," etc. He says, therefore: if Scripture — that is, the written law — held all things shut in under sin, what benefits did the Jews have from the law before faith came from grace? He answers and says: we Jews, before the coming of faith, were kept under the law, inasmuch as it made us avoid idolatry and many other evils; we were kept, I say, not as free men, but as it were as servants under fear, and this "under the law" — that is, under the burden and dominion of the law. Romans 7:1: "the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives," etc. And we were kept "shut in" — that is, preserved lest we should slip away from life, but were being prepared for it — that is, for that so-good faith which was to be revealed. Isaiah 56:1: "my salvation is near, that it may come, and my justice, that it may be revealed." And he says "to be revealed," because since faith exceeds every human intellect, it cannot be had through one's own understanding, but from revelation and the gift of God. Isaiah 40:5: "the glory of the Lord shall be revealed," etc. Or: for that faith which was to be revealed in the time of grace, lying hidden in ancient times under many signs. Whence also, at the time of Christ, the veil of the temple was torn, Matthew 27:51. Consequently, when he says "the law was our pedagogue," etc., he draws a certain corollary. And first he shows the office of the law; second, the attestation of that office, at the point "but when the fullness of time came," etc. Now the office of the law was the office of a pedagogue, and therefore he says "the law was our pedagogue," etc. For as long as an heir cannot obtain the benefit of the inheritance, whether on account of a deficiency of age or of some due perfection, he is kept and guarded by some instructor, and this instructor indeed is called a "pedagogue," from "paidos," which means "boy," and "agoge," which means "leading." For through the law the Jews, like weak children, were held back from evil through fear of punishment, and were advanced toward the good by the love and promise of temporal things. Now to the Jews was promised the blessing of the future seed with a view to obtaining the inheritance, but the time of obtaining that inheritance itself had not yet come. And therefore it was necessary that they be preserved until the time of the future seed, and be restrained from unlawful things — which was accomplished through the law. And therefore he says "therefore," etc., as if to say: since we were kept under the law, the law was our pedagogue — that is, directing and preserving us "in Christ," that is, in the way of Christ. And this was so that we might be justified from the faith of Christ. Hosea 11:1: "Israel a child, and I loved him." Jeremiah 31:18: "you have chastised me, Lord, and I was instructed," etc. Romans 3:28: "for we reckon that a man is justified through faith," etc. And although the law was our pedagogue, it nevertheless did not lead to the perfect inheritance, because, as is said in Hebrews 7: "the law brought no one to perfection," etc. But this office ceased after faith came. And this is what he says: "but when faith came" — namely, the faith of Christ — "we are now no longer under a pedagogue" — that is, under a coercion which is not necessary for free men. 1 Corinthians 15: "when I was a child," etc.; "but when I became a man," etc. 2 Corinthians 5:17: "if then any new creature in Christ, the old things have passed away," etc.”

“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ,.... So the words should be read, as they are by the Syriac and Ethiopic versions; for the words "to bring us" are a supplement of our translators, and have nothing to answer to them in the original; and the sense of the passage is, that the law performed this office of a schoolmaster until the coming of Christ; which shows that till that time the church was in its minority, that the Jews were but children in knowledge and understanding, and therefore stood in need, and were under the care of a schoolmaster, the law, by which the whole Mosaic administration is designed. They were taught by the moral law, the letter, the writing on the two tables, with other statutes and judgments, their duty to God and men, what is to be done and to be avoided, what is righteousness and what is not, the nature of sin, its demerit and consequences; but these gave them no instructions about a Saviour, and life and righteousness by him. The ceremonial law gave them some hints of the Gospel scheme, and the way of salvation by Christ, but in a manner suited to their estate of childhood; by sights and shows, by types and figures, by rites and ceremonies, by shadows and sacrifices; it taught them by divers washings the pollution of their nature, their need of the blood of Christ to cleanse from all sin; by circumcision, the necessity of regeneration, and the internal circumcision of the heart; by the passover, the daily sacrifice and other offerings, the doctrines of redemption, satisfaction, and atonement; and by the brazen serpent, the necessity of looking to Christ for life and salvation, and by various other things in that branch of the legal economy: but besides the instruction the law gave, it made use of discipline as a schoolmaster does; it kept a strict eye and hand over them, and them close to the performance of their duty; and restrained them from many things their inclinations led them to, threatening them with death in case of disobedience, and inflicting its penalties on delinquents; hence they that were under its discipline, were through fear of death it threatened them with, all their time subject to bondage: even the ceremonial law had something awful and tremendous in it; every beast that was slain in sacrifice was not only an instruction to them that they deserved to die as that creature did; but carried in it a tacit acknowledgment and confession of their own guilt; and the whole was an handwriting of ordinances against them. Moreover, the law being called a schoolmaster, shows that the use of it was but temporary, and its duration but for a time; children are not always to be under, nor designed to be always under a schoolmaster, no longer than till they are come to a proper age for greater business and higher exercises of life; so the law was to continue, and did continue, to be of this use and service to the Jewish church during its minority, until Christ came, the substance of all it taught and directed to: both the Jerusalem Targum and that of Jonathan ben Uzziel, on Num 11:12 use the very Greek word the apostle does here, concerning Moses, rendering the words, as a "pedagogue" or "schoolmaster" bears a sucking child into the land, &c. That we might be justified by faith; by Christ the object of faith, by his righteousness, which faith looks unto and receives, and not by the law and the works of it; the people of the Jews were in such a state under the law, and the law of that use unto them before the coming of Christ, as above represented, that it might be made manifest, be a clear point, and out of all dispute, that there is no such thing as justification by the law; for how could ever such a blessing be expected from it, when men were kept under it as under a military guard; when they were shut up in it as in a prison, and were treated by it as malefactors, convicted and condemned; and when they were under the discipline of it, as a rigid and severe schoolmaster? this being their case till Christ came, when it ceased to be all this to them, he being the end of it for righteousness, it became a thing self-evident, that justification is only by him and his righteousness, and so the end here mentioned was answered.”

“The law was our schoolmaster - Ὁ νομος παιδαγωγος ἡμων γεγονεν εις Χριστον· The law was our pedagogue unto Christ. The παιδαγωγος, pedagogue, is not the schoolmaster, but the servant who had the care of the children to lead them to and bring them back from school, and had the care of them out of school hours. Thus the law did not teach us the living, saving knowledge; but, by its rites and ceremonies, and especially by its sacrifices, it directed us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. This is a beautiful metaphor, and highly illustrative of the apostle's doctrine. See the note on Rom 10:4, where this figure is farther explained.”

“As for the law, it was put or given because of transgressions, to put a stop, by the punishments prescribed, to idolatry and other crimes, which the Jews had learnt from other nations, particularly in Egypt. The law was a pedagogue, or schoolmaster, to direct and correct and bring men to Christ, our chief Master, our great Mediator, who being now come, we are no longer under our former pedagogue. Christ hath by his grace made all, who believe in him and follow his doctrine, his sons and his adoptive children, whether they were before Jews or Gentiles; now they are all one, united in the same faith, and in the same spirit of charity. All the faithful are to be accounted of the seed of Abraham, and his spiritual children by the accomplishment of the promise. (Witham) — Pedagogue; i.e. schoolmaster, conductor, or instructor. (Challoner)”

“"So that the law hath been (that is, hath turned out to be) our schoolmaster (or "tutor," literally, "pedagogue": this term, among the Greeks, meant a faithful servant entrusted with the care of the boy from childhood to puberty, to keep him from evil, physical and moral, and accompany him to his amusements and studies) to guide us unto Christ," with whom we are no longer "shut up" in bondage, but are freemen. "Children" (literally, infants) need such tutoring (Gal 4:3). might be--rather, "that we may be justified by faith"; which we could not be till Christ, the object of faith, had come. Meanwhile the law, by outwardly checking the sinful propensity which was constantly giving fresh proof of its refractoriness--as thus the consciousness of the power of the sinful principle became more vivid, and hence the sense of need both of forgiveness of sin and freedom from its bondage was awakened--the law became a "schoolmaster to guide us unto Christ" [NEANDER]. The moral law shows us what we ought to do, and so we learn our inability to do it. In the ceremonial law we seek, by animal sacrifices, to answer for our not having done it, but find dead victims no satisfaction for the sins of living men, and that outward purifying will not cleanse the soul; and that therefore we need an infinitely better Sacrifice, the antitype of all the legal sacrifices. Thus delivered up to the judicial law, we see how awful is the doom we deserve: thus the law at last leads us to Christ, with whom we find righteousness and peace. "Sin, sin! is the word heard again and again in the Old Testament. Had it not there for centuries rung in the ear, and fastened on the conscience, the joyful sound, "grace for grace," would not have been the watchword of the New Testament. This was the end of the whole system of sacrifices" [THOLUCK].”