From Jailor to Tutor to Sonship Text: Galatians 3:23-29
Introduction: The Great Emancipation
The book of Galatians is a stick of theological dynamite. Paul is writing to a cluster of churches that have been bewitched, seduced by a different gospel which is no gospel at all. They had begun in the Spirit and were now trying to be perfected by the flesh. Judaizers had crept in, demanding that these Gentile believers place themselves under the Mosaic law, beginning with circumcision, as the path to true righteousness. Paul's response is not one of gentle correction; it is a full-throated, apostolic broadside against any attempt to mix law and grace, to put the free sons of God back into slavery.
We live in a time that is not so different. The modern church is constantly tempted by its own forms of legalism. Sometimes it is the dour legalism of the fundamentalist, with his lists of prohibitions. Other times it is the progressive legalism of the woke, with its endless demands for penance and social works. But at the bottom, it is all the same error. It is the religion of man, the religion of climbing, the religion of earning. It is the attempt to justify ourselves by our own performance, our own tribe, our own obedience. It is an exhausting, soul-crushing dead end.
Into this weary darkness, the doctrine of justification by faith alone shines like the sun. It is the great emancipation proclamation of the Christian faith. It declares that our standing before God is not based on what we do for Him, but entirely on what Christ has done for us. This passage before us today describes the great historical and personal transition from the old age of the law to the new age of faith. Paul uses three powerful metaphors to describe this shift: from a prison, to a school, to a family. We were in custody, then we were under a tutor, and now we are sons. Understanding this progression is the key to Christian liberty and to a life of grateful, joyful obedience, as opposed to the grim, resentful drudgery of the slave.
The Text
But before faith came, we were held in custody under the Law, being shut up for the coming faith to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor unto Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.
(Galatians 3:23-29 LSB)
The Law as Jailor (v. 23)
Paul begins by describing our condition before the arrival of the messianic age, the age of faith.
"But before faith came, we were held in custody under the Law, being shut up for the coming faith to be revealed." (Galatians 3:23)
Before the coming of Christ, the Law acted as a jailor. The words here are stark: "held in custody," "shut up." This describes a state of confinement, of being under guard. This applies to Israel corporately during the centuries between Moses and Christ. The Mosaic covenant, with its intricate system of sacrifices, purity laws, and civil codes, served to fence Israel in, to separate them from the pagan nations and to preserve the line of the Messiah. It was a protective custody.
But it was also a custody that revealed sin. The Law holds up a mirror to our faces and shows us our filth. As Paul says in Romans, "through the law comes the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20). The Law gives sin its power, defining transgression and making us accountable. It shuts every mouth and proves the whole world guilty before God. It corners us, it traps us, it proves to us that we cannot escape on our own. The Law's function was to take away all our excuses and leave us helpless, awaiting a rescuer.
Notice the purpose of this confinement: "for the coming faith to be revealed." The Law was never intended to be the final word. It was always pointing forward. It was a placeholder, a temporary arrangement until the reality, Christ, arrived. The entire Old Testament system was pregnant with a promise it could not itself deliver. It was a signpost pointing down the road to someone else. It was designed to create a profound sense of need, a desperate longing for the very faith that was to be revealed in the gospel.
The Law as Tutor (v. 24-25)
Paul then shifts the metaphor from a jailor to a tutor, which refines the purpose of the Law.
"Therefore the Law has become our tutor unto Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." (Galatians 3:24-25 LSB)
The word for "tutor" here is the Greek paidagogos. This was not the teacher in a formal school, but rather a trusted household slave who was responsible for a boy's moral and physical well-being. He would walk the boy to school, discipline him, and guard him from corrupting influences. The paidagogos had real authority, but it was a temporary authority. His job was to prepare the boy for the day he would come of age and assume his role as a free son and heir.
This is what the Law did for Israel. It was a strict disciplinarian. It taught basic lessons of right and wrong, of God's holiness and man's sinfulness. It drilled them in the grammar of redemption through the sacrificial system, teaching them that sin requires death and that substitution is necessary. But it could not impart the inheritance. Its purpose was preparatory: "unto Christ." The goal of the whole enterprise was to hand us over to Christ, the true teacher, so that we might be justified by faith.
The moment Christ comes, the tutor's job is done. "But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." The son has come of age. To go back to the Law, as the Judaizers were demanding, is like a grown man, a full heir of a vast estate, asking to be put back under the authority of his childhood nanny. It is an absurdity. It is to trade the freedom of sonship for the restrictions of the nursery. It is to misunderstand the entire flow of redemptive history.
The Freedom of Sonship (v. 26-27)
The arrival of faith in Christ brings about a radical change in status. We are no longer prisoners or pupils, but sons.
"For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." (Galatians 3:26-27 LSB)
This is the glorious result. The Law could only condemn; faith in Christ makes us sons of God. This is not a natural state. We are by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Sonship is a gift of grace, received through faith. It is a legal adoption, where God declares us to be His own, with all the rights and privileges that belong to His only begotten Son, Jesus.
Paul then connects this new identity to our baptism. "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." Baptism is the visible sign and seal of this reality. It is our formal, public enlistment into the Triune name. It is the uniform of the kingdom. To be baptized into Christ is to be united with Him in His death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4). In baptism, God objectively marks us as belonging to His covenant people.
The imagery of "clothing" is rich. In the Old Testament, priests were clothed in holy garments for their service (Exodus 28:2). In the parable of the prodigal son, the father commands, "Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him" (Luke 15:22). To be clothed with Christ means that when God the Father looks at us, He does not see our filthy, sin-stained rags. He sees the perfect righteousness of His Son. We are covered, enveloped, and identified with Jesus. This is our new identity. It is not something we achieve; it is something we "put on" by faith, and which is publicly declared in the waters of baptism.
The New Humanity (v. 28-29)
This new identity in Christ creates a new humanity, transcending all the old divisions of the fallen world.
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise." (Galatians 3:28-29 LSB)
This is one of the most revolutionary statements in all of Scripture. In Christ, the fundamental social, ethnic, and economic barriers that define the world are rendered ultimate no more. "Neither Jew nor Greek" demolishes the wall of ethnic hostility. "Neither slave nor free" demolishes the structures of social caste. "No male and female" demolishes the pagan war between the sexes.
Now, we must be careful here. This is not some modern, egalitarian mush. Paul is not saying that ethnic distinctions, social roles, or the created differences between men and women are obliterated. He is the same apostle who gives instructions to husbands and wives, masters and slaves, and who recognized his own unique calling to the Gentiles. The point is not that these distinctions disappear, but that they are no longer the basis of our standing before God. They are not what defines us at the most fundamental level. Our union with Christ is what defines us. In the church, a believing slave is a brother to a believing master, and both are co-heirs of the same grace. A believing woman is a sister to a believing man, and both are sons of God. Our unity in Christ is more profound than any earthly division.
And this brings us to the stunning conclusion. Paul ties it all back to the promise made to Abraham.
"And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise." (Galatians 3:29 LSB)
The Judaizers wanted the Galatians to become sons of Abraham by getting circumcised and keeping the law. Paul says, no, that is entirely the wrong way to go about it. The true children of Abraham are not defined by physical descent or ritual observance, but by faith in the promised Seed, who is Christ (Galatians 3:16). Therefore, if you belong to Christ, if you are united to Him by faith, then you are the true seed of Abraham. You, believing Gentile in Galatia, you, believing American in the 21st century, are a true Jew in the sense that matters. You are an heir, not according to the works of the Law, but "according to promise."
This means the inheritance is a gift. It is grace. The great promise made to Abraham, that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed, finds its fulfillment in the gospel of Jesus Christ. By faith, we are brought into the family, clothed in righteousness, and made heirs of the world (Romans 4:13).
Conclusion: Live as Sons, Not Slaves
So what does this mean for us? It means everything. It means our identity is secure. It is not based on our performance, our ethnicity, our social standing, or our gender. It is based on Christ alone. We are sons of God, clothed in Him. This is an objective reality, declared in our baptism.
Therefore, we must stop living as though we are still in the prison house or the nursery. We must reject every gospel that tries to put us back on the treadmill of earning and performance. Whether it comes from the right or the left, if it adds anything to "faith in Christ," it is a false gospel. Our response to God's grace is not to try and pay Him back, but to live as the free sons and daughters He has made us to be.
This means we obey, not out of fear of the jailor's whip, but out of love for our Father. We pursue holiness, not to make ourselves acceptable, but because we have already been accepted. We fight sin, not as slaves trying to earn our freedom, but as sons defending the honor of our Father's house. And we face the world with confidence, knowing that we are heirs of a promise that cannot fail, united in a new humanity that is the future of the world. You are in Christ. You are a son of God. You are an heir of the promise. Now live like it.