I think we are arguing two different points here. Some are arguing about "where we go" from the law, i.e. to Christ for Redemption, and the others are arguing "where we go" after we have come to Christ.
We have some are stopping once we have accepted Christ hence we no longer need the law and some are saying we need the law to continue on and bring others to Christ which can not be done without the law because that is what brings us to Christ in the first place. So one side is hearing "we need the law still" because we are going out to teach, and the other side is hearing "we don't need the law" because we have come to Christ. Some are hearing the law is to be followed meaning "we have been to school and been disciplined, and acknowledge the teachings changed us forever in that we learned what God wants" and some are hearing "we only look to Christ, and we take what we have learned though it has no power over us, and we freely walk in the love of Christ. Which if everyone came out of the same school, it is just the way it is all worded, yet the meanings in the end would be the same. In other words we are all saying the same thing in different ways. Or I could be wrong because I only understand my side which is "acknowledging the law is how I learned, and therefore how I teach so that it can't be "done away" with, even though I have come to Christ" and any words that suggest it void in any fashion, just flat out bothers me.
The school master brought us to Christ. How? By watching over us as we were but children in the Word.
The word schoolmaster is Strongs #3807 paidagógos a boy's guardian or tutor, a slave who had charge of the life and morals of the boys of a family, not strictly a teacher.
And Help Word Studies
paidagōgós (from
3816 /país, "a child under development by strict instruction") – properly, a
legally appointed overseer, authorized to train (bring) up a child by administering discipline, chastisement, and instruction, i.e. doing what was necessary to promote
development.
3807 (
paidagōgos) is used of the role of the
Law (OT), especially the necessary "letter" (
foundation, technicalities) needed to establish the doctrines of salvation, grace, faith, etc.
Can we be brought to Christ without the law? If faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God, then once we ourselves have come to Christ, we are "freed" of our schoolmaster, (we have learned our lessons) where are we to go? Spread the Word to the lost of the world. So, we go out, find the lost, teach and/or bring them to the schoolmaster, they hear the word, realize they are sinners, unable to save themselves, and now, knowing the only way to be saved is through Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour, and they come to Christ, "freed" of the schoolmaster etc.
What does the "law" teach us besides we are sinners and have need for a "Saviour"? How are we to become "disciples" ourselves?
Moral discipline, guidance and training, knowledge and understanding
How to form our character
To restrain from evil and temptation
What is to be done and to be avoided
What is righteousness and what is not
The nature of sin, its demerit and consequences
To prepare us so that we would be ready to be "taught" by Jesus
It condemns and thus prepares to welcome the offer of pardon through a Redeemer.
For our duty to God and men
It still does this, today
The law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, so the law is the schoolmaster unto Christ for those who are just being found.
from Gills exposition
The ceremonial law gave them some hints of the Gospel scheme, and the way of salvation by Christ, but in a manner suited to their estate of childhood; by sights and shows, by types and figures, by rites and ceremonies, by shadows and sacrifices; it taught them by divers washings the pollution of their nature, their need of the blood of Christ to cleanse from all sin; by circumcision, the necessity of regeneration, and the internal circumcision of the heart; by the passover, the daily sacrifice and other offerings, the doctrines of redemption, satisfaction, and atonement; and by the brazen serpent, the necessity of looking to Christ for life and salvation, and by various other things in that branch of the legal economy: but besides the instruction the law gave, it made use of discipline as a schoolmaster does; it kept a strict eye and hand over them, and them close to the performance of their duty; and restrained them from many things their inclinations led them to, threatening them with death in case of disobedience, and inflicting its penalties on delinquents; hence they that were under its discipline, The ceremonial law gave them some hints of the Gospel scheme, and the way of salvation by Christ, but in a manner suited to their estate of childhood; by sights and shows, by types and figures, by rites and ceremonies, by shadows and sacrifices; it taught them by divers washings the pollution of their nature, their need of the blood of Christ to cleanse from all sin; by circumcision, the necessity of regeneration, and the internal circumcision of the heart; by the passover, the daily sacrifice and other offerings, the doctrines of redemption, satisfaction, and atonement; and by the brazen serpent, the necessity of looking to Christ for life and salvation, and by various other things in that branch of the legal economy: but besides the instruction the law gave, it made use of discipline as a schoolmaster does; it kept a strict eye and hand over them, and them close to the performance of their duty; and restrained them from many things their inclinations led them to, threatening them with death in case of disobedience, and inflicting its penalties on delinquents; hence they that were under its discipline, were through fear of death it threatened them with, all their time subject to bondage: even the ceremonial law had something awful and tremendous in it; every beast that was slain in sacrifice was not only an instruction to them that they deserved to die as that creature did; but carried in it a tacit acknowledgment and confession of their own guilt; and the whole was an handwriting of ordinances against them. Moreover, the law being called a schoolmaster, shows that the use of it was but temporary, and its duration but for a time; children are not always to be under, nor designed to be always under a schoolmaster, no longer than till they are come to a proper age for greater business and higher exercises of life; so the law was to continue, and did continue, to be of this use and service.
from Meyers NT commentary
that the law prepared those belonging to it for the future reception of Christian salvation (justification by faith) in such a manner that, by virtue of the principle of sin which it excited, it continually brought about and promoted transgressions (
Galatians 3:19;
Romans 7:5 ff.), thereby held the people in moral bondage (in the φρουρά,
Galatians 3:23), and by producing at the same time the acknowledgment of sin (
Romans 3:20) powerfully brought home to the heart (
Romans 7:24) the sense of guilt and of the need of redemption from the divine wrath (
Romans 4:15),—a redemption which, with our natural moral impotence, was not possible by means of the law itself (
Romans 3:19 f.,
Romans 8:3)
from Matthew Henry
And as ministers are to set an example, others must follow them, as far as they follow Christ in faith and practice. Christians may mistake and differ in their views, but Christ and Christian truth are the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Whenever the gospel is effectual, it comes not in word only, but also in power, by the Holy Spirit, quickening dead sinners, delivering persons from the slavery of sin and Satan, renewing them both inwardly and outwardly, and comforting, strengthening, and establishing the saints, which cannot be done by the persuasive language of men, but by the power of God
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
The law of Moses is for our education, though we are not "under" it, as we are of the New Covenant. Yet being under the New does not take the place of how we learned about God and how we came to Christ. We are so blessed we are under grace and without knowing the Old, can not truly appreciate the new, in my opinion.
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