“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24)
Are you looking forward to the day when you receive your driver’s license? If so, you will need a driving teacher to show you how to get it.
When Suzanne was fifteen, she enrolled in a driver’s training school. There were two parts to the school. One was the in-class work; the other was the in-car training. Suzanne did very well at the in-class work. She passed all her quizzes and tests because she studied hard and knew the rules of the road.
But the driving part was a little different. Suzanne did not feel very confident when it came to driving in a busy city. Thankfully, the teacher sat right next to her – right in the passenger’s seat – and the teacher had a special tool to help ensure nobody would get hurt. On the teacher’s side, near his feet, he had his own brake pedal.
One day Suzanne and her teacher were in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a fairly large city. One of the things Suzanne was learning to do that day was to merge into traffic. “Merging” is when your car comes off a ramp onto a highway and joins the fast-moving traffic. One key to successfully merging is to speed up and match the speed of the other cars.
Suzanne did not do well at merging. She sped all the way up to about 35 miles per hour, but she should have sped up to about 60 miles per hour! If she had merged onto the highway, the cars coming up behind her would have had to slam on their brakes. It was a good thing that the instructor slammed on his brake and prevented Suzanne from putting the car in a very bad position. After the instructor yelled at Suzanne for a bit, they changed drivers, and another student took the wheel. Suzanne got into the back seat and considered her mistake.
What was the instructor doing? He was teaching students how to drive. Without him and his instruction, Suzanne would never be able to receive her license.
The Bible teaches us that God’s Law is the schoolmaster (or tutor) that brings us to Christ. Just like Suzanne’s driving instructor was bringing her to the point of receiving her own license, so God’s Law is an instructor that shows us how badly we need Jesus Christ. When we see how we have failed to live up to God’s Law, it points us to the only One Who has perfectly fulfilled that Law. And Who is that? It is Jesus Christ! God’s Law guides us to forgiveness in Christ.
Paul helps us understand this truth in Romans 7:7; he says that he would not have known that he was coveting unless the Law had said “do not covet!” God’s Law showed Paul that he was a sinner. When we realize how badly we have broken God’s holy laws and how we have failed to live up to His perfect standards, we are humbled before Him and left with no other option but to cry out in faith for His mercy and forgiveness.
The demands that God makes of us show that our only hope of salvation is through faith in Christ.
My Response:
» Have I considered my behavior in light of God’s holy laws?
» Have God’s laws brought me to a point of seeing my need for forgiveness in Jesus Christ?