The Purpose Of God's Laws

Paul asks plainly, "What purpose then does the law serve?" and answers, "It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come" (Galatians 3:19, NKJV). The law was never given as a way of earning righteousness. Its purpose is to expose sin, reveal God's holy standard, and shut the sinner up to faith in Christ. Dr. Holt explains that the law functions as a tutor leading us to the Savior, not a ladder by which we climb to God.

No. Paul anticipates the objection directly: "Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not!" (Galatians 3:21, NKJV). The law and the gospel are not enemies; they serve different functions in God's one plan of redemption. The law cannot give life, "for if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law" (Galatians 3:21, NKJV). Grace fulfills what the law could only require.

The word translated "tutor" (Galatians 3:24, NKJV) renders the Greek paidagogos, a household guardian responsible for the care and discipline of a child until adulthood. The law disciplines, restrains, and convicts, exposing our guilt so we will look to Christ. Calvin and Luther both stressed this pedagogical use: the law acts like an evangelist, stripping away self-righteousness and driving the sinner to the cross, "that we might be justified by faith."

"It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made" (Galatians 3:19, NKJV). The law was given to make sin visible as sin, to multiply the knowledge of guilt, and to hold Israel under guardianship until Christ arrived. It does not annul the earlier promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:17); it serves that promise by revealing humanity's need for the Seed, who is Christ.

No one can. Scripture "has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe" (Galatians 3:22, NKJV). The law condemns rather than saves, because no fallen person keeps it perfectly. The Westminster Confession affirms believers are "not under the law, as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified, or condemned" (WCF 19.6). Justification is by faith alone, in Christ alone.

No. Galatians addresses the law as a way of justification, not the moral law's abiding worth. The Westminster Confession teaches that "the moral law doth for ever bind all, as well justified persons as others... in respect of the authority of God the Creator, who gave it" (WCF 19.5). For the believer the law is no longer a judge but a rule of life, showing God's will and the holiness to which grace calls us.

God's commands carry the weight of the Lawgiver's right to command. Because He is Creator, His law binds every conscience whether or not anyone consents to it. Dr. Holt emphasizes that the law's authority does not rest on human agreement but on the authority "of God the Creator, who gave it" (WCF 19.5). To dismiss the law is not to free oneself from an opinion but to defy the rightful King of all the earth.

"Before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed" (Galatians 3:23, NKJV). Paul pictures the law as a custodian holding people in protective confinement, like prisoners awaiting release. This guardianship was temporary and preparatory. It exposed sin and restrained it until the appointed time when Christ would come and faith in Him would be openly proclaimed.

"But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor" (Galatians 3:25, NKJV). The guardianship that held God's people until Christ's arrival has reached its goal. Believers now relate to God as adopted sons, not as wards under a custodian (Galatians 4:5-7). This does not abolish the moral law as a rule of life; it ends the law's role as a temporary guardian pointing forward to the Savior who has now come.

Where lawlessness reigns, ruin follows. Dr. Holt warns that a culture rejecting God's righteous standard does not gain freedom but reaps disorder, because the law reflects the moral order of the Creator Himself. The law restrains evil and exposes sin; remove it and both multiply. The same law that condemns the individual sinner also testifies, even in its civil restraint, that God will not leave wickedness unaddressed.