Mike Fox furthered the discussion a bit with a comment on a previous post, so I thought I’d continue with another excerpt from my reflection on Sanders which lines up with our interaction:
From a biblical perspective, Sanders’ covenantal nomism seems to reconcile with the intention of Israel’s religion from the perspective of the Old Testament better than the legalistic view. While some Jews appear to have fallen into a sort of legalism in the New Testament period, Judaism at its best was always based on the gracious act of God in initializing the covenant relationship.
What I mean by “intention” is the ‘pattern of religion’ as purposed by God in the OT. I give evidence of this in my paper, though I’d like to formulate my argument more fully before sharing it (since this particular point was a small part of what was supposed to be a brief review).