The Law - Our Tutor

Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Galatians 4:1-7

But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

Galatians 3:22-25

Paul is explaining to the Galatians the purpose of the law. After having accepted Paul's teaching about Jesus Christ (that He died and rose again for our justification and sanctification), the Galatians were beginning to turn back to the law. He is reminding them that the purpose of the law is to point out sin. Once we come to the realization in our lives that we are sinners, that there is nothing we can do to clean up our own act, the purpose of the law has been fulfilled in our lives. We realize our filth, and we realize we need to go to Someone beyond ourselves for justification and sanctification. Once faith in Jesus comes, we mustn't turn back to the law. We are heirs of God through faith, not through the duty of law. We are sons and daughters of God because of what Jesus did, and not because of what we are trying to do. Make no mistake: faith is all about putting our trust in what Jesus did (past tense); law is all about doing this and doing that, and if we don't, we live under a curse. The law calls us to perfection, which we cannot live up to. Once we realize this, we have been "tutored" to realize that righteousness comes a different way: the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Our being children of God is based on faith, not the works of the law.