Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 148:590 (Apr 1991)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: Anonymous

BSac 148:590 (Apr 91) p. 231

Periodical Reviews

“The Misunderstood Apostle,” Daniel G. Reid, Christianity Today, July 16, 1990, pp. 25-27.

In this article Daniel Reid, reference-book editor for InterVarsity Press, assesses a current controversy over the interpretation of the Law in the Apostle Paul’s writings. The traditional evangelical view of Paul’s Jewish background could be summarized in the words, “For the Jews the Law was assumed to be the preeminent means of salvation.” The Law, which Paul acknowledged as “holy and righteous and good” (Rom 7:12), was perverted by the Jews in their effort to establish a self-righteousness (10:1–3). So Paul’s negative statements regarding the Law refer to the Jews’ misunderstanding and misuse of it.

Reid discusses the views of three writers on Paul’s attitude toward the Law. E. P. Sanders (Paul and Palestinian Judaism [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1977]) collected formidable evidence from first-century Judaism to show that salvation was understood to be granted by grace and not by merit-earning works. Sanders says, however, that Paul wrote “statements about the law that, taken as a whole, are unsystematic and at times inconsistent” (p. 26).

James Dunn (Romans, 2 vols. [Waco, TX: Word Books, Publisher, 1988]) follows the thesis of Sanders consistently in his commentary, while seeking to avoid the rough edges. The specific Jewish shortcoming, he says, was to identify God’s people by outward, physical, and nationalistic factors. In this they neglected to live by the Spirit and in faith and love, and so they experienced the curse of the Law. “A true Jew is not identified by physical, visible, and ritual measures, but by the hidden working of the Spirit in the heart” (p. 26). This view emphasizes the continuity if not identity between the Old and the New Covenants.

Stephen Westerholm (Israel’s Law and the Church’s Faith [Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1988]) offers a different solution.

BSac 148:590 (Apr 91) p. 232

“Paul’s radical reassessment of the nature, function, and power of the law called for exclusive reliance on God’s grace and arose out of his encounter with the risen Christ. It was this exclusive reliance on grace that was foreign to Judaism” (p. 27, italics his). Thus Paul’s use of the term “law,” according to Westerholm, usually “refers to the specific commandments given on Mount Sinai” (p. 27), rather than Jewish perversion of the Law.

The traditional evangelical interpretation of Paul’s encounter with the Law includes Dunn’s view (...