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

217 legitimate badge of covenant membership, the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's final emotional appeal is seen in his reference to the physical marks which his loyalty to Christ has brought him, the legitimate mark corresponding to the illegitimate marks his opponents would unpose. Conclusion We began this chapter by evaluating recent approaches to the book of Galatians. It was determined that any understanding of the book which claims to unlock its message must deal adequately with the antithesis between "works" and "faith" which is central to Paul's argument. The traditional "Lutheran" approach paraphrased the contrast as human effort versus human faith , a view which has a hoary tradition and the support of many recent interpreters. The view understood "works of the law" as legalistic attempts to merit God ' favor. Two problems with this view, however were its non-historical caricature of Judaism as it was intended and practiced and its failure to deal in a historical-grammatical fashion with the text of Deuteronomy. Recognizing the problems inherent in the "Lutheran" approach, Jame Dunn and others proposed that Paul 's apparent disdain for "works of the Law" temmed from the exclu ive nature of the law which kept Gentile at an arm length. He acknowl dge that while the law erved to protect I rael it purpo e wa not to e elude Gentile and that in reality the problem in Antioch and Galatia wer a human di tortion f th accordmg to Dunn, Paul ' argument wa not with th aw but the Law which xclud d ntil . While hi i w rightl tt mpt d t ntur it il d n t 1 t t fai l d t d ith P ul ' d1 u 1 n f th ' ur f th . Thu , ppli ti n f ith th 1) p 1fi 11 , it " nd (_) m r