Paul's Doctrine of Law -- A "New Perspective"?

Recent decades have seen influential academic research and discussion presenting a "New Perspective" on Paul the apostle's doctrine of the Law.  This discussion denies the paradigmatic attitude about an overarching threat from the Law of God, which they say was an inaccurate understanding of Paul's doctrine stemming from misunderstandings which developed during the Reformation.

We need to be careful about this.

Paul's doctrine is that through the law we died to the law.  We as believers died to the Law in Christ when he died.  We and he are still dead to the law, and dead to its curse. We believers live in the resurrected Christ in a new way, by the Spirit.  We are members in him of the New Creation. 

All persons and cultures not believing in Messiah Jesus are part and parcel of the First Creation, which is a fallen creation, and which has been and will be judged unto death.  According to Paul, all such persons and cultures are the natural offspring of Sinai.  All are "legal," no matter how much they may speak of "grace." And, because they are "legal" and do not keep the Law, they are doomed to death.

The only hope is resurrection, a spiritual birth into the New Creation in Christ, through faith in him, and ultimately a physical rebirth in the resurrection of the body.

This only is the resurrection and the life.