The reason God appears so often “wrathful” in the Old Testament but so largely “gracious” in the New Testament, is because the Law of Moses–the Old Covenant–was not able to vivify (Gal. 3:21) and therefore could not justify its subjects but only convict them of sins and injustices, which, when persisted in, brought upon them God’s indignation, anger, or wrath. “For the Law is producing indignation” (Rom. 4:15); “the Law through Moses was given; graciousness and truth came to be through Jesus Christ” (Jn. 1:17). Thus there is indeed a vast difference between the face and disposition that for the most part characterized Jehovah under the Old Covenant, and how He much more perfectly became characterized after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ His own Son, who was commissioned to “take away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29) and thereby unleashed an utterly unprecedented, even astounding, torrent of favor! Yet God’s attitude toward sin had not altered one iota between the Old and New Covenants. He remains the very same God throughout every era and eon. The change was on our part when we “realized the favor of God in truth” (Col. 1:6) and trusted Messiah Jesus, thus receiving God’s gratuitous justification and remission of sins and thereby entering God’s favor and Kingdom! So the problem had been entirely on our side, not on His, for the Law was impotent (Rom. 8:3) and without benefit (Heb. 7:18), its weakness (Heb. 7:38) due to our weakness of flesh (Rom. 8:3, Heb. 7:16).
However, that weak Law did become an escort (paidagogos) to Messiah for the Jews (Gal. 3:24), the superinduction (epeisagoge) of “a better expectation, through which we [also those of the nations] are drawing near to God” (Heb. 7:19). But it is an escort no longer! (Gal. 3:25) Now that we (both Jews and those of the nations) are sons of God by trust in Messiah Jesus, we have our Father’s very own motivation, and so are no longer “under law” (Rom. 6:14-15, 7:1-2, 6, Gal. 3:23, 25, 4:5, 21, 5:18), which is to say, “under guardians and administrators” (Gal. 4:2), “under the elements of the culture” (Gal. 4:3), and due to our fleshly weakness, “under sin” (Gal. 3:22, Rom. 7:14), hence “under a curse” (Gal. 3:10).
Messiah Jesus has reclaimed us from the curse of the Law of Moses (with any attendant anger of God) against our sins. It is, much rather now the favor of God that is our starting point for conduct and behavior. Moses’ Law is no longer our ethic, training us by the use of disciplinary curses and object lessons of anger and destruction (which might easily lead to the notion of a constitutionally angry Deity). Jesus’ favor now takes actual priority since it has invaded a creation still disrupted by sin, and in spite of sin (Rom. 5:6-8), and even overwhelming it (1 Tim. 1:14), taking it off guard, so to speak (1 Cor. 2:6-13), and triumphing over all our enemies in high places (Col. 2:13-15, 1 Cor. 15:8-28). The saving favor of God is now our trainer (Tit. 2:11-15), our discipliner in ethics (Heb. 12:1-15); the Wholesome Spirit of graciousness is now our coach (Jn. 14:16-17, 26, 15:26, 16:7-14)! [11/24/97]
God might have spared ancient Israel their tormented history, as we know it, by not giving them the Law/Torah of Moses at Sinai in the first place. The Law aggravated their sinfulness, thus exposing them in a higher degree to God’s anger than the surrounding nations who had less knowledge of God’s desire, so were less liable to disciplinary action for conscious violations.
In tandem with this provocative intrusion of revealed demands that could not help but heighten Israel’s culpability and expose them to the danger of disciplinary avenging by God, He conjoined sacrificial provisions that promise pardon/ release/ remission/ forgiveness from sin. But in reality those sacrifices, in themselves, accomplished exactly nothing whatsoever to effect that forgiveness. They had this one benefit: they were attached to explicit Divine promises concerning forgiveness, thus faith in God was required to keep offering them. It was this faith that pleased God to pardon the Law’s infractions, though any essential and perpetual cleansing of the conscience could not actually be attained by the operation of those sacrifices.
Upon reflection, this is truly astonishing! It means that “in the forbearance of God” He “passed over the penalties of sins which had occurred” throughout Israel’s entire tortured history long “before” the essential cleansing was made available through Jesus, the Messiah (Rom. 3:25, Heb. 1:1-3). So it was not so much the ancient sacrifices that God was after (to be sure, He even despises and overtly denounces them in no uncertain terms at decisive moments throughout their history), but rather their trust that He really had pardoned them their sins. The ancient mechanism was in itself but a sign, the obedient performance of which could only be a fruit of their belief that God forgave them when He saw the sign (for He saw their repentant, trusting heart impelling it, [12/26/22]).
However, with the work of Messiah accomplished, the Truth was fully unveiled, and the whole scheme of things was inverted! Wrath and grace were transposed; anger and favor got counter-emphasized. Now grace/favor could vaunt over wrath/anger for a change, because Messiah’s Crucifixion had justified God in bursting forth from heaven to avenge his unjust execution by Raising him from the dead and exalting him to highest heaven, above all enemies of God’s Kingdom, and giving him superabundant favor as an agelong recompense! Such an expression of God’s hidden heart was historically impossible prior to Messiah’s barbaric murder. That heinous deed forced God’s hand to intervene in history and natural processes (uh…His own design, as we know…) beyond all precedent. This divine judgment precipitated a new age in which the entire Old Covenant Law was itself pointedly “nailed”! God Himself nailed it fast and blew it to Kingdom come! The supreme standard of righteousness it is no longer! What the Father did for the Son, what God did for His chosen Messiah, far surpasses every precedent of justice. And, mercifully, it even left the culprits alive in the bargain so that they could have time to repent and trust God anew! The human imagination had never conceived such love from any deity.
The spiritual polarity of the universe was reversed in an instant on Resurrection morn! Then at Pentecost, 50 days later, the circuit between heaven and earth was closed and the juice turned on, in order to blow Satan out of the water in the first of a new series of shattering encounters with his resurrected, exalted, and now enthroned Foe!
For us who trust the Victor, Messiah Jesus, this compact scenario heralds a new order of the cosmos! The old-fashioned Law of Moses cannot possibly hold the New Wine of God’s Wholesome Motivation thereupon injected into human affairs. God’s favor has taken over! The Regime of Grace now demands supreme allegiance. Accordingly, the first words we communicate among strangers to this Truth must be words of favor from God in the Messiah—favor that “overwhelms (huperpleonaz-) with trust and love in Messiah Jesus” (1 Tim. 1:14). Thus Paul can add: “Faithful is the explanation, and worthy of all welcome, that Messiah Jesus came into the world to save sinners, foremost of whom am I. But therefore was I shown mercy, that in me–foremost!–Jesus Messiah should be displaying all his patience, toward a pattern of those who are about to be believing on him for life agelong” (1 Tim. 1:16).
Moreover, it is then precisely this favor that proceeds to become the pivot of our way of life in this age, in contradistinction to the old-fashioned Law of Moses. Our ethic, our morality, our very customs must become powered by favor so that God gets full credit for every good action and activity we do. God’s own Motivation of Wholesomeness is now our inspiration for good projects and fine deeds. “Don’t fence me in by antiquated rules” could well be our byword in the face of inveterate judaizers; “Don’t tread on me,” our rejoinder to hypernomian tyrants who dare devalue and disdain the motivational dynamic of Divine favor set loose to stimulate every human potential to the very zenith of glorious achievement and integrity. [11/25/97]
The Premial Atonement 