The Law As Child-Leader Until Christ

Galatians by H.A. Ironside

Lecture 8

Galatians 3:19-29

Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 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. (Gal 3:19-29)

We have been considering in our studies of the earlier part of this chapter the relationship that the law had, the law as given at Sinai, to the unconditional promise of grace which God gave to Abraham 430 years before, and we have seen that the law coming in afterward could not add to nor take away from the covenant already made. That naturally leads to the question of verse 19, "Wherefore then serveth the law?" If the law did not add anything to what God had given by promise to Abraham, and surely it could not take anything from it, what was its purpose? Why did God give it at all? The apostle answers, "It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator." I think perhaps we may understand it better if we read it, "It was added with a view to transgressions," in order that it might make men see the specific character of transgression, and thus deepen in each soul a sense of his sinfulness and his need.

We are all so ready to excuse ourselves, to say if we had known better we would not have done the wrong thing. How often you hear people say, "I do the best I know, and endeavor to do the best I can." But where has a man or woman ever been found who could honestly utter those sentences? Have you always done the best you knew? Have you always done the best you could? If you are absolutely honest before God, you know that you have not. Again and again we have all sinned against light and knowledge, we have known far better than we have done. Thus we have failed to glorify God, and by going contrary to His revealed will we have proven ourselves not only sinners but transgressors.

Both in the original language of the New Testament and that of the Old Testament, there is a word for "sin" which literally means to "miss the mark." I remember having this brought before me when working among the Laguna Indians of New Mexico. One day my interpreter, a bright Indian, said, "I am going to spend the day hunting; would you like to go with me?"

I am no hunter, but I went with him for the exercise. He had a fine new rifle which he was very eager to try out. He gave evidence of his prowess with that weapon. Standing on one side of a canyon he would say, "Do you see that creature moving yonder?"

At first I could not possibly see it, but as he pointed it out I would see something that was just a moving speck away over on the opposite wall.

He would say, "Wait a minute," and level his rifle, and the next moment I would see the creature that looked like a small speck leap into the air and then drop down dead. He was a wonderful shot with a rifle, but when we got home he said to me, "I want to show you what I can do with our old weapon, for I have kept up with the bow and arrow. That seems so typical of our people that I have wanted to keep it up."

So we went into the field, and the Indian hunter set up a very small twig of a willow, and enacted a scene something like that described in Scott's Ivanhoe. He fitted the arrow to the string and said, "Now I am going to split that twig in two." Letting fly the arrow, he shot right by the twig but did not touch it. "Oh," he said, "I have sinned." 

For the moment I did not ask him why he used that expression.

Then he said, "I didn't take the wind into account, as I should have done." He fitted another arrow to the string, and let it fly, and split that twig right in two. I could hardly believe that any one could do such a thing.

He said, "There! I did not sin that time."

I said to him, "Why did you use that term sin? You were not doing anything wrong when you did not hit that wand. Why did you say, "I sinned, and when you did hit it, "I didn't sin that time?"

"Oh," he said, "I was thinking in Gowaik (that is the language of the Laguna Indians) and speaking in English. In our language, to sin, means "to miss the mark."

"That is a very singular thing," I said, "for in the Greek and Hebrew "to sin" is "to miss the mark."

That is what is involved in the expression, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). But in the law we have something more than that. God has set up a standard of righteousness. The law with its ten definite ordinances, "Thou shalts and thou shalt nots," makes known to man exactly what God demands of him. Now if man sins knowing the revealed will of God, if he fails to obey that law, it is evident that he is not only a sinner but a transgressor. He has definitely violated a specific command of God; he has crossed over the line, as it were, and, "Sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful" (Rom. 7:13). That was one reason for which God gave the law that men might have a deeper sense of the seriousness of self-will which is the very essence of sin, of rebellion against God. When God gave the law He gave it in the hands of a mediator, and Moses sprinkled the book of the covenant and also the people with the blood of the covenant, testifying to the fact that if man fails to keep his side of the covenant he must die, but also signifying that God would provide a Savior, a Redeemer.

"Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one." Two contracting parties suggest the thought of the need of a mediator, but when God gave His promise to Abraham there was only one. God gave the Word, and there was nothing to do on Abraham's part but to receive it. He did not covenant with God that he would do thus and so in order that God's promise might be fulfilled, but God spoke directly to him and committed Himself when He said, "In thee shall all nations be blessed" (Gal. 3:8). The question arises, Is the law against the promises of God by bringing in certain terms which were not in the original promise?

Does the law set the promises to one side? God forbid. But a certain principle was laid down in the law which declared that "the man that doeth them shall live in them" (Gal. 3:12), and if any man had been found to do these things perfectly he could have obtained life on the ground of the law. But the law said to man,

"The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezek. 18:4), and no man was ever found who could keep it. "If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law."

A gentleman said to me in California one night, "I do not like this idea of being saved by another. All my life I have never wanted to feel indebted to other people for anything. I do not want anybody's charity, and when it comes to spiritual things I do not want to be saved through the merits of anybody else. According to what you said tonight, if I keep the law perfectly I will live and will owe nothing to any one. Is that right?"

I said, "Well, yes, it is."

He said, "I am going to start in on that."

I said, "How old are you?"

"Around forty."

"Suppose you came to years of accountability somewhere around twelve; you are nearly thirty years too late to begin, and Scripture says, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them" (Gal 3:10). Therefore, because the law cannot give life, you will never be able to earn anything on that ground." He went away very disgruntled.

"But the scripture hath concluded all under sin." If God has concluded all under sin, must all men be lost?

No, all have been concluded under sin "that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." God would have all men recognize their sinfulness in order that all might realize their need and come to Him proving His grace. He puts all men on one common level. Romans says, "There is no difference: for all have sinned" (Rom. 3:22-23). Men imagine that there are a great many differences. One man says, "Do you mean to tell me that there is no difference between a moral man and a poor reprobate in the gutter?" Of course there is a great deal of difference, not only as far as the standard of society is concerned, but also as to their own happiness and the estimate of their neighbors; but when it comes to a question of righteousness, "There is no difference: for all have sinned." All may not have sinned in the same way, they may not have committed exactly the same transgressions, but "all have sinned," all have violated God's law.

A gentleman once said to a cousin of his, "I do not like that idea about there being no difference; it is repugnant to me. Do you mean to tell me that having tried all my life to live a decent and respectable life, God does not see any difference between me and people living lives of sin and iniquity?"

She said to him, "Suppose that you and I were walking down the street together, and we passed some place of interest, perhaps a museum, that we were eager to see. We went to the window and inquired about the admission fee, and were told it was $1.00. I looked into my purse and said, "Oh, I have left my money at home; I have only 25 cents." You looked at your money and found you had only 70 cents. Which one of us would go in first?"

"Well," he said, "under such circumstances neither of us would get in."

"There would be no difference, and yet you have a great deal more money than I; but as far as having what was necessary to pay our way in, there is no difference."

God demands absolute righteousness of sinners before they enter heaven. "There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth" (Rev. 21:27). You may have your 95 cents worth of righteousness while I do not have a nickel's worth of it, but neither of us can get in unless we have our hundred cents, and there is no difference. "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3:10). Remember that God has said that, not some zealous, earnest preacher or evangelist, but God Himself by the Holy Spirit.

And the law was given to demonstrate that fact. But if men take the place of unrighteousness before God, if they take the place of being lost sinners, and own their sin and guilt, what then? "The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." In other words, when men come to the place where they realize the fact that they cannot earn eternal life by any effort of their own, and are ready to receive it as a free gift, that moment it is theirs. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John 3:36). "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24).

But now the apostle shows another use for the law. Paul says in verse 23, "But before faith came," that is, "before the faith," because it was made known clearly and definitely that God was justifying men by faith alone in His blessed Son, "we were kept under the law" he speaks now as a Jew" we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed." The Gentiles at that time did not have the law, but the Jews did. God gave the Jew that law, and he was looked upon as a minor child under rules and regulations. "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." That word rendered "schoolmaster" is exactly the word that we have Anglicized by the term "pedagogue," a school teacher. But the original word was not exactly a school teacher, it really means a child leader, a child director, and was the name applied in ancient Greek households to a slave who had the care of the minor children. He was to watch over the morals of the child, protect him from association with others who were not fit for his companionship, and take him day by day from the house to the schoolroom. He there turned him over to the schoolmaster, but at the end of the day he would get him and bring him back home again. The apostle says here, and very beautifully, I think, "The law was our child leader, our child director, until Christ." That is, God did not leave His people without a code of morals until Jesus came to set before us the most wonderful moral code the world has ever known, and the law served in a very real way to protect and keep them from much of the immorality, iniquity, vileness, and corruption found in the heathen life round about them. As long as the people lived in obedience, in any measure, to that law, they were saved from a great deal of wickedness and evil.

"The law was our [child leader]," perhaps not exactly to bring us to Christ, but, "The law was our [child leader until] Christ." "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). Now that Christ has come, we have come to the door of the schoolroom of grace, and we have learned the blessed truth of justification by faith alone in Him whom God has set forth to be the propitiation for our sins. We are no longer under a child director.

We are here told that we are not only freed from the law as a means of attempting to secure justification, but are also freed from that law as a means of sanctification, for we have so much higher a standard in Christ risen from the dead, and are to be occupied with Him. As we are taken up with Him the grace of God teaches us that, "Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Titus 2:12). For instance, suppose I as a Christian by some strange mishap had never even heard of the Ten Commandments. Suppose it were possible that I had never known of them, but on the other hand I had been taught the wonderful story of the gospel, and had been entrusted with some of the books of the New Testament showing how a Christian ought to live. If I walk in obedience to this revelation, I live on a higher, on a holier, plane than he who only had the Ten Commandments. Anyone having the wonderful teaching that came from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the marvelous unfolding of the epistles showing what a Christian ought to be, has this new standard of holiness, which is not the law given at Sinai, but the risen Christ at God's right hand, and as I am walking in obedience to Him my life will be a righteous life, and so, "After that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster."

Then he adds, "Ye are all the children [sons] of God by faith in Christ Jesus," from Him we receive life.

To whom does God communicate eternal life? To all who put their trust in His blessed Son. "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:12). And so we can see why our Lord Jesus stresses, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).

There must be the impartation of the divine life. This makes us members of God's family a new and wonderful relationship.

"For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." (Gal. 3:27) He probably has two thoughts in mind here. Outwardly we put on Christ in our baptism. That ordinance indicates that we professedly have received the Lord Jesus Christ, but I think also he has in view the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and by that we are actually made members of Christ and, in the fullest, deepest sense, we put on Christ. And now as members of that new creation, "there is neither Jew nor Greek," national distinctions no longer come in. In this connection 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." He does not ignore natural distinctions. Of course we still retain our natural place in society, we remain servants or masters, we remain male or female, but as to our place in the new creation, God takes none of these distinctions into account. All who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are made one in Him, "members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones" (Eph. 5:30). How we need to remember this!

"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." To be "in Christ" and to be "Christ's," comes to exactly the same thing, "all one in Christ Jesus." "And if ye be Christ's [if you belong to Him], then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Because you too have believed God as Abraham did (Abraham "believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." [Rom. 4:3]), it is counted to you for righteousness. And so every believer forms part of Abraham's spiritual seed. There is both the spiritual and the natural seed of Abraham. "They which be of faith are blessed with [believing] Abraham" (Gal. 3:9). I hope we are clear as to this distinction between law and grace.

Some years ago I took with me to Oakland, California, a Navajo Indian. One Sunday evening he went to our young people's meeting. They were talking about this epistle to the Galatians, about law and grace, but they were not very clear about it, and finally one turned to the Indian and said, "I wonder whether our Indian friend has anything to say about this."

He rose to his feet and said, "Well, my friends, I have been listening very carefully, because I am here to learn all I can in order to take it back to my people. I do not understand what you are talking about, and I do not think you do yourselves. But concerning this law and grace, let me see if I can make it clear. I think it is like this. When Mr. Ironside brought me from my home we took the longest railroad journey I ever took. We got out at Barstow, and there I saw the most beautiful railroad station with a hotel above it that I have ever seen. I walked all around and saw at one end a sign, "Do not spit here. I looked at that sign and then looked down at the ground and saw many had spitted there, and before I think what I am doing I have spitted myself. Isn't that strange when the sign say, "Do not spit here? I come to Oakland and go to the home of the lady who invited me to dinner today and I am in the nicest home I have ever been in my life.

Such beautiful furniture and carpets I hate to step on them. I sank into a comfortable chair, and the lady said, "Now, John, you sit there while I go out and see whether the maid has dinner ready."

I look around at the beautiful pictures, at the grand piano, and I walk all around those rooms. I am looking for a sign; the sign I am looking for is, "Do not spit here," but I look around those two beautiful drawing rooms, and cannot find a sign like this. I think, What a pity when this is such a beautiful home to have people spitting all over it too bad they don't put up a sign! So I look all over that carpet but cannot find that anybody has spitted there. What a funny thing! Where the sign says, "Do not spit," a lot of people spitted; here where there is no sign, nobody spitted. Now I understand! That sign is law, but inside the home it is grace. They love their beautiful home and want to keep it clean. I think that explains this law and grace business," and he sat down.