Even though Christ has redeemed His people from the curse of the law by His sacrifice at Calvary, there still persists amongst God's people the notion that the law remains as a means of enforcing and promoting Righteousness. But how can that be, when the law requires a sanction, and that sanction has been exhausted at the cross?
Both Old Testament law, and the lists of rules that legalists enforce today, are meant to enforce righteousness and produce holiness.
The Roman Catholics impose the sanction of hell or purgatory for breach of the law. Legalists suggest that God's grace must be earned by obedience and lawkeeping.
Paul disposes of this view of the law by the metaphor of schoolboy discipline. He says that the law is like a schoolmaster or guardian that the father places over the minor child to promote discipline and learning.
That discipline could be harsh: beatings, curfews, micromanagement of activities day and night.
But such schoolboy discipline comes to an end. The son obeys his father based upon mature love and respect, not harsh rules and penalties.
But the law as schoolmaster fails to produce righteousness, because of the weakness of the flesh.
Paul makes clear that the real purpose of the law was to lead us to faith in Christ. By the law we learn our hopelessness and guilt. By law, we learn the requirement of judgment, and the need for a substitute.
Hebrews makes clear that the ceremonial and sacrificial law could never make righteousness, but pointed to Jesus' sacrifice for salvation!
Our Lord Jesus has rescued us from the hard lessons of the school of law. He flung open its doors, and proclaimed liberty to all who trust in Him!
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...