Paul’s thought did not run from plight to solution, but rather from solution to plight. -E. P. Saunders
Jewish people did not see themselves as in a dire predicament from which they needed rescue. By virtue of their place in the covenant, God’s loving care was the precondition in which they found themselves; their task was to honor the law as a pledge of their desire to maintain their blessedness. Neither did the apostle Paul “perceive himself to have a ‘plight’ from which he needed salvation.”
That is a version of Christianity we have rather imposed upon the past, largely a heritage of the fourth century, when it became common to think of the human condition as one in need of rescue.
