The Relationship of Jewish and Gentile Believers to the Law Between A.D. 30 and 70 in the Scripture

158 includes Gentiles as well. 45 To be "under" the law means to be "suppressed under the law" so that Christ redeemed the world from "the discriminating suppression of the law. " 46 Howard is more convincing and contributes more significantly to the discussion, however, when he speaks to the other side of the antithesis, namely faith. 47 He understands n(anc; and its various constructions ( EK n(aTEwc; XptaToO, 2 :16; 3:22) to refer not to human faith which is placed in Christ, but as the faithfulness of Christ or the "divine faith-act" 48 of Calvary by which God faithfully kept his promise to redeem the world. "It is not that the Gentiles would be justified if they had faith, but rather that God would justify them by faith, that is , by his faith-act toward the promise that all the Gentiles would be blessed in Abra– ham. " 49 Galatians 2: 16 would then read "man is not justified by the works of the law , but through the faith of Jesus Christ (8ta nfaTEwc;'IriaoO XptaToO) and we believed (fmaTEuaaµEv ) on Christ Jesus in order that we might be justified by the faith of Christ {EK ,,, ntaTEwc; XptaToO) and not by the works of the law ." 45 Ibid ., 60 . 46 Ibid ., 61. "In Christ's redemptive act the law lost its divisive power and uncircum– cised Gentiles were ushered into God 's kingdom on equal terms with the Jew , " Ibid., 62. Howard seems forced to soften the traditional understanding of Paul's attitude toward the law in order to find harmony with the practice of Jewish Christianity as found in the book of Acts . He writes, "Often it is thought that the Jews were redeemed from the law in that the law wa done away, brought to an end and literally rescinded . .. But if Jewi h hri tianit continued to ob erve the law, it i nece ary to seek for another explanation . . . . " Ibid ., 61 . We would sympathize with Howard' en itivity to harmony within the c n n but n p it r can ind alleged theological harmony at the expen e of exege i . Howard ' iew f ' rk f the law" i ubject to the ame critici m a Dunn' ; cf. Rai anen ' comment ab n pa 157, n. 41. 47 f. al o hi work , Harvard Theologi al Review th nt1l , " Harvard Theological Revi w 8 1 Id ., 57 . 491 'd I • ti n n th ' ith f hri t, "' : 1- 1 nd th In lu i n f