Lorenzo Palon

Who Belongs to God’s People? Rethinking Paul, Judaism, and Faith

For centuries, Christian teaching has often mischaracterized first-century Judaism as a cold, rule-obsessed religion—where people tried to “earn their way to heaven” through law-keeping. According to this view, Paul came to liberate people from legalism by preaching grace instead. But this contrast, however preachable, is both historically inaccurate and theologically misleading.¹

First-century Jews didn’t believe they earned God’s favor. They believed they already had it—by virtue of God’s covenant with Abraham. Torah obedience wasn’t about gaining salvation, but about walking faithfully within an already-given relationship.² The law was not a ladder to heaven, but a response to grace.

Scholars call this framework covenantal nomism.³ It reshapes how we understand Paul. He wasn’t opposing Jewish “legalism” as we might define it today. His concern was that some Jewish believers were treating Torah observance as a boundary marker—a way to determine who truly belonged in God’s people. Requirements like circumcision, food laws, and Sabbath observance were becoming conditions for full inclusion.⁴

Paul, himself a Jew, didn’t reject the law in principle. But he believed that in Jesus the Messiah, God had fulfilled His covenant promises and opened the door to all nations.⁵ Insisting on old identity markers, now that the Messiah had come, was a failure to grasp the new covenant reality.

This reframes Paul’s letters. His language about justification, faith, and the “works of the law” isn’t primarily about private salvation. It’s about the creation of a unified family in Christ—where Jew and Gentile stand on equal ground. “There is neither Jew nor Greek,” he declares, “for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

Reducing Judaism to legalism misrepresents both history and the grace embedded in Israel’s story. God rescued Israel from Egypt before giving the law. Torah came after deliverance, not before.⁶ Paul’s gospel doesn’t oppose that story—it brings it to its climax in Jesus.

The real question Paul wrestles with is not “How do I earn salvation?” but “Who are God’s people now that the Messiah has come?”

Paul’s answer: not those marked by circumcision, ethnicity, or law-keeping, but those who trust in Jesus the Messiah.

For Paul, faith (pistis) is not mere belief—it is loyal trust, a life surrendered to Jesus’ lordship.⁷ It is the confession that the crucified and risen Messiah is the world’s true King. This is why Paul insists that Gentiles need not become Jews to belong. The Spirit is given not through Torah observance, but through faith (Gal. 3:2–5).

Faith is both the entry into and the way of life within the covenant community. Paul never reduces it to a one-time transaction. It is ongoing allegiance.⁸ That’s why he says, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17) and “Just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him” (Col. 2:6).

Obedience still matters—but it flows from grace, not toward it. Paul speaks of “the obedience of faith” and “the fruit of the Spirit.” The foundation of belonging is not human performance but Christ’s faithfulness, received in trusting response.⁹

So when Paul opposes using the law as a boundary marker, he isn’t rejecting Torah itself. He’s opposing its misuse in a new covenant era.¹⁰ From Abraham to Jesus, the story leads to this: God has formed one worldwide family, not marked by badges of ethnicity, but by the faithfulness of the Messiah—and by the faith of those who trust Him.

Paul’s gospel doesn’t replace the covenant. It reveals its fulfillment.¹¹

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Footnotes:

1. Krister Stendahl, Paul Among Jews and Gentiles (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976), 1–15.
2. James D.G. Dunn, The New Perspective on Paul: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005), 105–130.
3. E.P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1977).
4. N.T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013), 824–830.
5. Richard B. Hays, The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel’s Scripture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 113–126.
6. Michael Wyschogrod, The Body of Faith: God in the People Israel (New York: Seabury Press, 1983), 100–103.
7. Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 200–215.
8. John Barclay, Paul and the Gift (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), 370–389.
9. Douglas J. Moo, Galatians, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 236–250.
10. Matthew V. Novenson, The Grammar of Messianism: An Ancient Jewish Political Idiom and Its Users (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 182–198.
11. N.T. Wright, The Climax of the Covenant: Christ and the Law in Pauline Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 240–259.