Cobb and Lull give a preview of Paul's "argument" that they will develop in the commentary.
I was most interested in the opening paragraph of this section (the rest was pretty standard)--the emphasis is mine:
The central issue Paul addressed was "salvation." This issue, however, was as much social as theological. The social dimension had to do, not with the relation of Jews and Gentiles as a whole, but with the relation of Jewish and Gentile converts to the gospel. The question was whether these groups could live together as equals within an undivided and inclusive community, or at least as a closely knit network of diverse communities. For Paul, that was the only acceptable option. Exclusion or segregation of any group was unacceptable. In his letter to the Romans he gave his fullest explanation and defense of why that was so.
Cobb and Lull's interpretation is not new, but I feel that this dramatic turn in Pauline scholarship is still not understood by the church-at-large (just see last week's comments on this blog) and is deserving of attention.
Once you get away from the individualism inherent in so much modern theology and biblical interpretation (and most evangelicals are thorough modernists without even realizing it), you get a dramatically different understanding of the gospel.
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