calling Jewish friends....

Just ran across this: "It is the essence of Paul's religious stance that law cannot save; for if so, as he says, what need would there be for the sacrifice of Jesus? In Judaism, these alternatives are not even intelligible, since in Judaism the issue is not salvation at all, for one is saved merely by being in the covenant, and the issue is then to work together with God by implementing the Torah. For the Jew, only outrageously wilful behavior can jeopardize his condition of being 'saved', and thus the expression 'saved' is not even part of the Jewish religious vocabulary." (Hyam Maccoby, in Paul and the Invention of Christianity)

Discuss? I've not been very impressed with the rest of the book, so I'm wondering if this is an accurate summary. If so, it's something I can definitely use in my teaching.