Living the Dream

Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. Galatians 3:24 NASB

Tutor – My friend Jerry, a devoted Catholic priest, once told me that an addiction was the way we stayed alive while God was engineering our redemption. Anesthetizing the guilt and shame with addictive behavior kept us from committing suicide. God used that time to find a way to rescue us. But as every addict knows, life without the anesthetic often seems like nothing more than fifty shades of gray. The oblique benefit of addiction, that we actually didn’t kill the victim, is converted into a terrifying curse. In order to experience any real sensation of living, we turn to the addiction. Life becomes a constant search for the dream. The truth is a schizophrenic reality. Brené Brown demonstrates that the direct effect of this insatiable need to avoid guilt and shame is the elimination of exactly what the addict seeks—peace. We can have a world without pain and guilt, but the price is a world without peace and joy.

Perhaps Paul addresses this common human predicament in his letter to the Galatians. Unfortunately, most of us are drawn into the theological debate that Luther created when he bifurcated law and grace. We think Galatians is about Paul’s claim that grace supersedes the law. At least that’s what Luther thought, and his analysis has been reiterated by traditional Christian theology ever since. Fortunately, many significant scholars are discovering the errors in Luther’s thinking and are reclaiming Paul’s Jewish heritage, i.e., the union of “law” and grace in the commonwealth of the Kingdom.

But maybe Paul wasn’t trying to be a world-class theologian when he wrote to those struggling believers in Galatia. Maybe he was just giving them some very practical advice about living. In this particular verse, Paul writes that the Law (by which he can only mean Torah) paidagogos gegonen. The Greek means “our guardian” (or “teacher”) “was.” But the verb is in the perfect tense. That means Paul is expressing a completed action in the past that has continuing effects in the present. It is not the case that the guardianship of the Law is finished. It is rather than whatever the Law provided us in the past is now continuing in the present. Torah served as a way to show us the need and the role of the Messiah, but that does not mean that Torah is finished. By the way, the NASB adds “to lead us” in this verse. The Greek is simply eis, usually meaning “into.” Perhaps what Paul is saying is what every addict knows. The rules for living keep us alive while the Redeemer rescues us from our addictions. The way of life found in the Torah brings us into contact with the Messiah who redeems us from the terror of the dream.

Frankly, we need the “Law.” We need it because without it we are once more cast into the mire of the aimless pursuit of excitement. We who know so well the appeal of a life of Technicolor magic must have a constant reminder that Technicolor isn’t real. It’s an invention of human convenience, projecting a world that exists only on the silver screen. Life, real life, is vulnerable, unpredictable, unreliable—but also filled with joy, gladness, wonder and awe. Life comes bundled. The addict attempts to have life piecemeal. He wants redemption without nomos, color without black and white. When real life isn’t enough, we are in danger of becoming the dream.

Topical Index: addiction, guardian, paidagogos, tutor, Galatians 3:24, law