On Works and the Law
January 2, 2022
There’s a rift in New Testament studies about the role of works in the Torah/Law. It’s a fairly modern rift, with the major work being Paul and Palestinian Judaism by EP Sanders, first published in 1977. If you ask a group of New Testament scholars what the most important book in the field has been in the past 50 years, no other work will get mentioned as often as PPJ.
This rift is all about the relationship between the Law and grace. The traditional reading says that Jews followed the Law in order to get grace. They earned grace by their works. Paul then flips that on its head—Christians get grace through Jesus. Judaism is a religion of legalism and therefore fear; Christianity is a religion of grace and therefore peace.
This “traditional” reading of Paul, however, only dates back to Martin Luther in the 1500s. Nice scholars like NT Wright will express gratitude for that reading—it provided a necessary corrective to the medieval Catholic Church, thinking especially about purgatory and buying indulgences, among other issues. It was helpful, but it wasn’t actually a healthy reading of Paul or the Old Testament. This traditional reading is still widespread, most clearly in the writings of John Piper and people in that orbit, and is not without some scholarly support.
Most scholars, however, will reject that reading, even if they don’t fully accept EP Sanders’ reading. They form the “New Perspective on Paul.” After all, once you re-read the Old Testament thinking about these issues, you don’t find simplistic legalism. The people of God didn’t do works to get grace—they got grace without works, and did works to stay in God’s favor.
Paul himself will argue in Galatians—did the promises made to Abraham come through the Law or faith? We might add a host of other passages. Did the Exodus happen because of God’s grace or Israel’s obedience? Did salvation from the judges happen because of faith or obedience? What is the most repentant passage in all of Scripture? Can there be a more right answer than Psalm 51? Or what is the passage that most expounds the beauty of Scripture? Can there be a more right answer than Psalm 119, that great love poem to the Torah? Or how can Jews in the New Testament consider themselves “blameless,” from Zechariah and Elizabeth (Luke 1.6) to Paul (Phil. 3.6)?
Once we see this rift and cross over to some version of the new perspective on Paul, a world of opportunity opens up, one we will explore in Galatians. What does it mean for us to be the covenant community of God, heirs to the gracious promises made to Abraham? What is the role of faith in entering the covenant community of God? What is grace, and how are we saved by it? Along the way, we can pray that through the power of the Holy Spirit, we might come to know God more fully.
—John Coffey
