παιδαγωγός / Paidagogos

“And so the Law was in charge of us until Christ came, in order that we might then be put right with God through faith.”
Galatians 3:24 GNT

What is your understanding of which law was our tutor/schoolmaster/paidagogos in Galatians 3:24?

Multiple scholars explain that the paidagogos is not a teacher or a tutor as the translations put it. Back in the apostles day this was the slave in charge of the children of the household and their responsibility was to care for their well-being while they travelled to and from school and other instances when parents were away. It is reinforced by the way he continues the illustration of the children of the household being kept under guard and treated as slaves until they mature.

“In the same way, we too were slaves of the ruling spirits of the universe before we reached spiritual maturity.” Gal. 4:3 (other translations say ‘while we were children’ but he is speaking figuratively here). So, the law is an instrument that keeps us in bondage as if we were slaves until we are mature enough to receive the inheritance (Christ’s teachings and His kingdom of love).

The bondage of a slave can be easily illustrated by the way the slave just has to do what they are told without understanding the purpose of the master. They are not to ask questions or use their intelligence, they merely have to do as they are told.

So when Paul compares the law to this slave who kept us bound as if we were slaves, he is not saying the law is bad or evil, but that it has served its purpose (and still serves for the spiritual immature). But now that we arrived at the feet of the teacher, so to speak, we no longer have a need to be bound to those laws.

He then explains toward the end of the letter what he means by being slaves (sons of Hagar at mount Sinai). Essentially, the word “works”. Trying to justify ourselves by keeping that law given at Sinai. By trying to justify ourselves by circumcision or keeping days, months, years.

Some people might say Paul didn’t mean the weekly Sabbath here but what do they mean that you can justify yourself by keeping the weekly Sabbath? By no means! He wants to lump the entire law as a means of salvation as bondage, slavery and it (including the weekly Sabbath) is utterly insufficient to have us to be set right with God.

Does this mean that we can go on and do whatever? Forget the laws and live a free for all life? Absolutely not. He then shows us that living in the Spirit, as free people, will release us to love. And love is the fruit of the Spirit alongside a myriad of other great attributes.

Many of us Seventh-day Adventists place a high regard in the writings of Ellen White and her prophetic ministry. Read the words she wrote concerning this topic:

“I am asked concerning the law in Galatians. What law is the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ? I answer: Both the ceremonial and the moral code of ten commandments.” 1SM 233.1

“The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” [Galatians 3:24.] In this scripture, the Holy Spirit through the apostle is speaking especially of the moral law. The law reveals sin to us, and causes us to feel our need of Christ, and to flee unto Him for pardon and peace by exercising repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
An unwillingness to yield up preconceived opinions, and to accept this truth, lay at the foundation of a large share of the opposition manifested at Minneapolis against the Lord’s message through Brethren Waggoner and Jones. By exciting that opposition, Satan succeeded in shutting away from our people, in a great measure, the special power of the Holy Spirit that God longed to impart to them. The enemy prevented them from obtaining that efficiency which might have been theirs in carrying the truth to the world, as the apostles proclaimed it after the day of Pentecost. The light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory was resisted, and by the action of our own brethren has been in a great degree kept away from the world. Lt96-1896.3-4

When she says Minneapolis, it is a reference to the 1888 General Conference (all the people who represented our church convened in a location for meetings and spiritual messages). In this meeting there were two factions presenting ideas, tracts and sermons on the subject. One group was vouching for the ceremonial law being the law which was added and was our schoolmaster and the other group saying it was the moral law of 10 commandments. When she addressed this group later she specified that ALL law was added and all law was meant to bring us to Christ and the rejection of that truth was what essentially kept our church from receiving the power necessary to finish the work of spreading the gospel to the world, so an understanding of this topic today is essential in particular to Seventh-day Adventists.

What do you make of it? What if you are a Sabbath keeper? How do you deal with this? Since I am a Sabbath-observer, I have to say that my reasons for doing so are entirely independent from trying to keep the law to be saved. There is nothing I do with that purpose. I simply have understood the meaning of shabbat (stop) to reflect on his creative power (as he reminds us to do in Exodus 20:11); the fact he is the God who delivered Israel and us from bondage/slavery (Deut. 5:15); and that as our redeemer he rested in the tomb during the Sabbath too before his resurrection. I do not choose to keep this day in order to obtain salvation but to spend special holy time with a God who longs for me to spend time with him.

I hope you have been encouraged by these words that in Christ we live by the Spirit no longer bound by the law. We now live in the freedom of the Spirit who grants us all that the Lord ever requires of His people, a character of love (and of joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and ultimately self-control). And “against such things there is no law.” Gal. 5:23