I once read a caption on a Hebrew Roots site which said, “You need faith first, but you are also required to keep His instruction” (aka the Law or Torah).

Those who make an issue of keeping the Torah, actually know very little about the Torah and purpose for which it was given.

Galatians 3:24 says, The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

The whole purpose for the giving of the Torah (the Law) and its instructions was to bring us to Christ and to justification by faith. We are, therefore, to live by faith in Jesus Christ.

Yet the message of the Hebrew Roots movement is that Christ, and faith, brings you to the works of the Torah as indicated in the citation quoted above.

It is this sort of ideology of which Paul warns the Galatians against when he tells them to Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. ~ Galatians 5:1

The yoke of bondage referred to here is the works of the Law as opposed to living by faith. God did not save us to bring us under the Law of Moses. He gave the Law through Moses to point men to Christ, and once you have found Christ the Law is fulfilled by Christ living in you, as you are led into godly living and a holy character by the power of the Holy Spirit.

When the scriptures speak of the Law being our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ (Gal 3:24), it is referring to the knowledge of sin which comes by the Law. The Law was added because of man’s transgressions (v. 19).

These transgressions are the many sins that resulted from the transgression of Adam’s sin.

Through one man sin entered the world and death was the result of sin. In Adam (through our union with Adam) we were all sinners because, in Adam, we are all under the sentence of death. Therefore, the Law was given so that the offence might abound (Romans 5:20). The offense is sin, and the Law causes sin to abound so that it’s apparent to all.

In Galatians 3:22 Paul says, “the scripture has concluded all under sin.” This is a specific reference to the Law. It is the Law that brings to light the knowledge of sin and declares all guilty in the sight of God. Paul says something similar in Romans 3 when he says, “we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin.”

Fallen humanity was represented by the nation of Israel under the law and by Israel’s failures to obey the Law, God has declared (from a judicial standpoint) all are sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God. The Law (though it was given to Israel) was God’s way of declaring ALL guilty in His sight. This is why Romans 3:19 says, “we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are UNDER THE LAW: that every mouth may be stopped, and ALL THE WORLD may become guilty before God.”

Through the Law all are declared guilty in the sight of God so that all may be freely justified by faith in Jesus Christ. This is how the Law was our school master; not to show us how to live righteously but to show us how unrighteous we are so that we might rely totally on Him and His righteousness.