23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
After our long discussion on the meaning of law, we take up once more Paul's argument with the words in 23, 'Before faith came'. Paul is thinking here historically and dispensationally, but what he says is just as true in the lives of individuals. The law has its 'killing' work to do in individual hearts, 'shutting them up' to faith, in order to bring them to Christ. This twofold application is relevant throughout this whole section of the epistle, right up to 4:7. The law is being spoken of here in a particular context and sense, of course. Paul does not mean that in the old economy no one was in the enjoyment of spiritual life and freedom - we know this is not the case, as Hebrews 11 indicates. But he is contrasting two orders of existence, and it is in this sense that he can speak of 'before' and 'after' faith has come. 'Faith' here could almost be taken as 'the faith', if we think in terms of the coming of the gospel. In this respect, 23 is best understood in the first instance in a dispensational sense - i.e. with reference to God's providential dealings with the Jews, as a people. The words 'shut up' translate the same word as is rendered 'concluded' in 22, and the same kind of contrast is made: 'shut up under sin' and 'shut up unto faith'. 'Schoolmaster' in 24 means something different than our modern sense of the word. It was used to describe the slave employed by Greek and Roman households to have general charge of a boy (age 6-16), exercising moral supervision and watching over his behaviour, and attending him whenever he went from home, e.g. to school. Again, the idea here is of the historical succession of one period of revelation upon another, and the displacement of the law by Christ and His coming.