Is it Torah?

Paul evokes the death of Christ not to exclude an alternative soteriological mechanism (salvation by works), but to counteract an appeal to the Torah as the normative definition of “righteousness” — the appeal advanced both in Antioch and in Galatia. The Christ-event has revolutionized the believers’ existence, recalculating their norms. If they think that “righteousness” is Torah-defined, or act as if it were, they are no longer true to the good news. The gift enacted in the death of Christ has fundamentally reshaped every system of values, and to reestablish the Torah as the ultimate norm would be to refuse God’s gift. That event is either reflected in the norm-breaking practice of communal life or is in danger of being altogether denied. The good news stands or falls with the realization, in thought and practice, of the incongruous Gift.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 387