Almost finished

Okay, I'm almost finished with my term paper for the semester. It basically looks at the phrase, "works of the law" in Galatians, and I have learned so much from the work. I really think this has been the best term paper for me, educationally. It remains to be seen what the final form will look like, but the research has really shaped my understanding in a new way.

Basically, the research strongly indicates that what Paul is dealing with in Galatians is a group of Christian missionaries who profess belief in Jesus, but also believe that to fully enter the kingdom of God, gentiles had to become complete proselytes to Judaism. That meant taking on what were the markers for Jews in the first century, namely circumcision, the adoption of food laws, and Sabbath keeping. These are the works of the law, the things required by the law to remain within the covenant people. There was no understanding that these things "earned" a person salvation (the way this is taught in Sunday school), rather, they were signs of the covenant, responses to the grace God had poured out on Israel.

What Paul is very stubbornly insisting on is the sufficiency of faith in Christ to mark out a person as belonging to the covenant people. God wasn't trying to produce more Jewish converts, but in the messiah he was making available the means by which Gentiles, as Gentiles, could be a part of his covenant people.