Curses and Blessings Part 8

Last time we saw that one of the purposes of the law was to confine all under sin. The next purpose of the law is to keep us under guard until the faith came. To be honest with you, I’m not sure what that means. Perhaps it means that the law keeps people under control in sort of an artificial way until the reality of faith comes.
The third purpose is to be a tutor to bring us to Christ so that we can be justified by faith. The important point here is that Paul goes on to say that once faith comes, the tutor is no longer needed! Galatians 3:25. The question I have is when did faith come? Does that mean when we trust Christ and are saved? Let’s continue reading.
So the law is like the parent or guardian to an under-aged child. Galatians 4:1-3 says just as much. A child, Paul says, is not much different than a slave even though he is the heir of everything. He is under the rule of his parent until he comes of age. In the same way, when we were children we were in bondage under the elements of the world. My question is still the same – when were we children and when did adulthood come?
Paul answers that question in Galatians 4:4. He says, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” Verse 7 goes on to tell us that if we are a son then we are an heir of God. Think about what that means! We are adult sons, not children. We are heirs of God with all the rights and privileges of being an adult son. The guardianship of the law has ended. It ended when Christ came.
Please don’t interpret any of this to say that we are free to live in any way we like. I’m talking about the role of the law and its place in our lives. The reason this is important is that many Christians put themselves under the law in order to try to please God in the sense of making Him happy with their level of obedience. Another motivation sometimes is to try to use the law to get their lives in order. The problem is that the law brings a curse as we have seen. In fact in Romans 7:8 that sin takes the opportunity in the law to produce all sorts of evil desire. 2 Corinthians 15:56 tells us that the strength of sin is the law. Life requires self-discipline, but putting oneself under the law doesn’t work and in fact God pleads with us not to do that. More on that next time.