The Law Is Not Our Ex-Spouse

The law never belonged to the Gentiles. The law is not our ex-spouse.  At the end of Romans 9, Paul reminds his readers that the Gentiles were not even pursuing righteousness, but they attained it. They had no relationship with the law. The Jews were the ones who were married to the law, and yet they didn't attain righteousness, because they tried to attain it by their marriage to the law, and not by faith. The Gentiles, who were not married to the law and weren't even trying to be righteous (they weren't pursuing righteousness), attained it anyway, because they bypassed the law completely and simply believed in Christ.

Apart from law, Gentiles believed and became righteous. Apart from pursuing righteousness they became righteous. It wasn't until they had already been established in a relationship with Jesus, by faith alone, apart from any involvement from the law, that the Judaizers came along and introduced the law to them, trying to get them to add their Jewish law, which the Gentiles had never known, to their lives in Christ. The Galatians were being "bewitched," but they weren't being bewitched to go "back" to the law. Again, they had previously not had a relationship with the law and had not even been pursuing righteousness. Rather, they were being bewitched into "adding" law where there had previously been no law.

The "tutor" or "guardian" of the law was purely for those who had been in that relationship with the law - those who had actually been under the law and who had been pursuing righteousness by their attempts at keeping the law - the Jews. The Gentiles had been under no such guardianship. They had been on the outside of all of this, and had no law and no covenants of promise with God, and were "far off," having "no hope and without God in the world" (Eph 2:12).  They weren't even trying to pursue righteousness, but they found it anyway, because Jesus shed His blood for them and brought them near that way. "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off (Gentiles) have been brought near by the blood of Christ" (Eph 2:13).

The Gentiles hadn't been led to faith in Christ by the law, which they had never known in the first place. They had been led to faith in Christ through the message of the good news that Christ's blood had been shed for them just as it had been shed for those who had the law and the covenants of promise and the heritage of God. They had been led to Christ through the message that while they were once considered as "dogs" on the outside, God had shown His love for them equally and had provided the way for them to be equal heirs with the Jews in His family.

Both those who had been married to the law and those who had had no relationship to the law whatsoever were now joined together into "one" body ("one new man" – Eph 2:15). The Jewish people had to die to the law that they had been married to, in order to now be joined to Christ. The Gentiles, who had been without law, had to simply accept the invitation, by faith, to become part of this new family that God was forming out of the two.