God's Modus Operandi

Two years ago I struggled my way through a thick scholarly tome written by a theologian challenging other theologians to reconsider two chapters of the Book of Romans not as Pauline in origin but as Paul writing a diatribe where he characterizes the opposing teaching so it will contrast when he gets to his message.

The book had over one hundred textual and critical defenses of his thesis and it was discussed by his fellow scholars for months. His bottom line is that the church has a confused and tragic flaw in thinking that God's wrath is still in effect, that he is still heading this human mess toward judgement day.

Just this morning I read another book by a man who by his own confession was not a scholar or a reader of many books, but one whose life message was the power of the idea that in the cross of Christ, God left all his wrath against the wrongs of humanity, against our sin, and began to operate by grace and grace alone.

It was the same message as the previous book, you cannot have both grace and law operating at the same time, it is either grace for all or law for all.  This is to me the essense of Paul's gospel and the true explanation for Jesus teaching about the law and his death for mankind being a rebirth to a new way of life, a gracefull way of life.

Both of these men are onto something big, and when I bring these thing up among regular folks there default mode is law, judgment, fear, and references to God judging American like he did Sodom and Gommorah.
This is sadly why many Christians who say they are born again have never really been born again to see how God changed his mode of operation 2000 years ago from law to grace. He put down the hammer and picked up the scalpel to operate on the real issue, the human heart.