John Calvin Commentary Galatians 3:24

"So that the law is become our tutor [to bring us] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." — Galatians 3:24 (ASV)

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster. This is the second comparison, which still more clearly expresses Paul’s design. A schoolmaster is not appointed for the whole life, but only for childhood, as the etymology of the Greek word παιδαγωγός implies. Besides, in training a child, the object is to prepare him, by the instructions of childhood, for maturer years.

The comparison applies in both respects to the law, for its authority was limited to a particular age, and its whole object was to prepare its scholars in such a way that, when its elementary instructions were closed, they might make progress worthy of manhood. And so he adds, that it was our schoolmaster (εἰς Χριστὸν) unto Christ. The grammarian, when he has trained a boy, delivers him into the hands of another, who conducts him through the higher branches of a finished education. Similarly, the law was the grammar of theology, which, after carrying its scholars a short way, handed them over to faith to be completed. Thus, Paul compares the Jews to children, and us to advanced youth.

But a question arises: what was the instruction or education of this schoolmaster? First, the law, by displaying the justice of God, convinced them that in themselves they were unrighteous; for in the commandments of God, as in a mirror, they could see how far they were distant from true righteousness. They were thus reminded that righteousness must be sought elsewhere.

The promises of the law served the same purpose, and might lead to such reflections as these: “If you cannot obtain life by works, but only by fulfilling the law, some new and different method must be sought. Your weakness will never allow you to ascend so high; indeed, however much you desire and strive, you will fall far short of the object.” The threatenings, on the other hand, pressed and urged them to seek refuge from the wrath and curse of God, and gave them no rest until they were constrained to seek the grace of Christ.

Such, too, was the tendency of all the ceremonies. For what purpose did sacrifices and washings serve but to keep the mind continually fixed on pollution and condemnation? When a man’s uncleanness is placed before his eyes, when the unoffending animal is presented as the image of his own death, how can he indulge in sleep? How can he not be roused to the earnest cry for deliverance?

Beyond all doubt, ceremonies accomplished their object, not merely by alarming and humbling the conscience, but by exciting them to the faith of the coming Redeemer. In the imposing services of the Mosaic ritual, everything that was presented to the eye bore an impress of Christ. The law, in short, was nothing other than an immense variety of exercises, in which the worshippers were led by the hand to Christ.

That we might be justified by faith. He has already said that the law is not perfect, when he compared it to the training of childhood; but it would make men perfect if it bestowed upon them righteousness. What remains, then, but for faith to take its place? And so it does, when we, who are destitute of a righteousness of our own, are clothed by it with the righteousness of Christ. Thus is the saying accomplished, “He hath filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:53).