Renouncing symbolic capital

What distinguishes Paul’s boast in God ([Rom] 5:2; 15:17-18) from the boasting of this Jew in God-and-the-Law (2:17, 23) is that the former has renounced every form of symbolic capital (pride in every kind of distinction) except for the transformative and creative work of God: it looks for praise from God and not from humans (2:29). Paradoxically, for that reason, it is better equipped to fulfill the Law than the Jew who boasts in it (cf. 9:30–10:4).—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 470n54