I have been reflecting recently on the damage the 30 year old fight over homosexuality has had on the church.(I must admit that I often feel like a child who has come home from camp only to discover that your parents have ripped the house apart in some big fight and now the children are left to clean up.) I have begun to wonder if one of the great causalities is the interaction between gospel and law. In many conversations it seem like we have divided our selves up into two camps. One camp emphasizing the gospel of grace and the other the law of God. Since they have been fighting it is almost as if both sides have decided to shore up their defenses instead discovering the richness of their own gospel/law, and how vital the interaction is.
It just seems to me that the Gospel is about a God of such profound grace, that we are welcomed not only into a relationship with God, but into the very work of God, who shares with us God’s wisdom (law) about this work, and who picks us up when we fall and who helps us grow into this calling (grace). For me at least that is a much more compelling, and scriptural vision, then a God who loves us, but leaves us in our violence or a God who says shape up or I will denies you my blessing (which includes life it self). For what if instead of fighting over who is right, we are being called to be formed into the image of Christ (as Paul says), a process that involves both the grace and wisdom of God.
PT
What if...? 