The three assigned readings for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost are Isaiah 65:1-9; Galatians 3:23-4:7 and Luke 8:26-39. Chosen for the sermon text is Galatians 3:24, “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

The interpretation and application of this verse all depends on how one understands the Greek word for “tutor” which is also our English “pedagogue.” Different translations use “guardian,” “pedagogue,” “tutor” and the King James has “schoolmaster.” Unfortunately, most of these have the concept of the office of a teacher as though the Law was teaching us how to get to the real teacher, Jesus Christ. However, of the options provided the closest to come to the real sense is “guardian.” For this individual was a trustworthy slave of either a wealthy Greek or Roman family. His task was not to teach the young boy but to guard and supervise his morals. In fact, the boy was not even permitted to step out of the house without this guardian until he reached manhood.

Not only was the Law a guardian in that is made us aware of sin (Romans 3:20) but it also had a curbing use to keep us from doing sin. For most young men this guardian was not so much a friend as a jailer keeping in check the behavior of the boys. By means of the motivation of either fear of punishment or hope of reward, the Law worked on the basis of the self-interest of the individual to keep him in check. The guardian was not so much a friend of the boy as a watcher and judge over all that he did.

The Law as a teaching tutor therefore is a total misunderstanding if one has the sense that it teaches us how to be saved. For no teaching is possible–even by God Himself–to help the natural man become saved. The Gospel of Christianity is NOT a set of teachings as to what you are to do in order to become saved. There are no steps to salvation that anyone can follow; there is no possibility for an unbeliever to make a right choice or provide an invitation to God to come into his life.

The bottom line is that the Law cannot teach anyone how to be saved because its purpose is to make natural man aware of his total inability to do, say or think anything that will help him to be saved. And the Gospel is also not a teaching of how one is saved. Instead, the Gospel is the announcement that your sins have been forgiven at the cross of Christ and that effort on the part of Jesus was absolutely successful in light of His resurrection from the dead. 

It is NOT that Christianity doesn’t teach. It’s just that the Christian faith doesn’t teach anyone how to be saved. Rather, the faith reveals how you have been saved. Only after you are totally saved does the faith begin to teach you. It teaches you how God and God alone became a human being to save you; it teaches about the mercy and grace of God; it teaches all the gracious promises of God for the believer in Christ and it teaches about the celestial heaven after the Day of Judgment. Yes, Christianity teaches. It just doesn’t teach an unbeliever how to be saved. God is not capable of providing you with a 4-step plan as to what you are to do in order to be saved.

Indeed, salvation come by grace through faith on account of Jesus Christ. And that came about for many because the Law made them aware of the impossibility of being able to do anything to get saved. Instead, salvation is a gift from God that comes not through hearing instructions as to how to be saved but through hearing the revelation from God Himself as to how God saves you without any contribution or cooperation on your part.