Stephen Westerholm quote:

from "Perspectives Old and New on Paul"--

(p. 445) I summed up the issue that divides the "Lutheran" Paul from his contemporary critics as "whether 'justification by faith, not by works of the law' means 'Sinners frind God's approval by grace, through faith, not by anything they do,' or whether its thrust is that 'Gentiles are included in the People of God by faith without the bother of becoming Jews.'" As I see things, the critics have rightly defined the occasion that elicited the formulation of Paul's doctrine and have reminded us of its first-century social and strategic significance; the "Lutherans," for their part, rightly captured Paul's rationale and basic point. For those (like Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and Wesley) bent on applying Paul's words to contemporary situations, it is the point rather than the historical occasion of the formulation that is crucial.