Kavin Rowe’s Review of John Barclay’s Paul and the Gift

In the latest issue of First Things there is a great review by Kavin Rowe of John Barclay’s new book Paul and the Gift.

Kavin Concludes:

What this book does above all is show that the mainstream of Christian tradition is in fact a reasonable exposition of the heart of Paul’s writing. God’s grace in Christ is unmerited, given abundantly to all without reference to our worthiness or lack thereof. This grace simultaneously calls a community into being with particular disciplines and behavioral norms as the public, social expression of and response to the gift. The community of Christians shows – or is called to show – the gift of God to the world. To say that Barclay is wrong about all this would be to say that Christianity itself is wrong. There are those who think this, of course, but since I am Christian, I cannot.

I should add that Scot McKnight does a great interview with John Barclay about the book in his Kingdom Roots podcast – subscribe if you don’t already!