The news is buzzing with reports of the death of Osama Bin Laden by U.S. Special forces. The cheers at the news of his death have been loud, the declaration that justice has been done is everywhere.

I hapen to be in New York City for an Orchard Group board meeting today and I saw the NY tabloid headlines as I walked passed news stands on 6th avenue this morning.  The New Your Post declared, "Got the Bastard!"  The Daily Post front cover read, "Rot in Hell!"

As I continued walking toward the Orchard Group offices on Broadway, I reflected on these headlines and the death of Bin Laden... and I couldn’t help but make a connection to Rob Bell’s book Love Wins. Whether or not you agree with Rob (and I do not for the most part), his basic premise is that there are second chances to accept Christ and end up with him for all eternity. Finally, God’s love will have his way with us.

This all sounds wonderful until we bump into Osama Bin Laden. Here is someone that people want to have "rot in Hell" for all he has done, they don’t want any second chances. Where is the justice in Bin Laden dying, getting to Hell and 15 minutes later seeing Jesus Christ, his love and wanting it, accepting it and being released from his punishment into an eternity with Christ? “He needs to pay for his crimes” is the cry we might very well hear from the lips of Americans and from the lips of all who suffered from his atrocities. Let "good people" get a second chance... but not Bin Laden.

However, when you think about it, this is exactly the scandal of grace. That people like Bin Laden, people like you and me can be accepted not because we are good, but because Christ took our punishment in his place. If Bin Laden, like the thief on the cross, would have given his life to Christ before the bullet came toward him he would have heard the same words as the thief on the cross, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” This is absolutely scandalous and it is absolutely the hope and wonder of the gospel.

This reality also makes us wonder all the more at the cross and what Christ must have suffered there. We know what people want for someone like Bin Laden, we know the kind of punishment that is deserved, we also know that people like Bin Laden have become followers of Christ and had their sins taken on the shoulders of Christ. What was it like to bear that level of wrath against sin on the cross? What was it like to bear the wrath of God against our sin on the cross? It is good for us to remember that as horrified as we are by what Bin Laden did, so what we have done in the eyes of a holy God is also a thing of horror and deserving of punishment, a punishment taken by Christ.

The scandal of grace is that another pays for our sins, even the worst of our sins, even the sins of the worst of sinners. So will Bin Laden get a second change to experience this grace? Rob Bell seems to think so, but I’m not sure after reading his book that his case has as strong of merit as he wants it to have. But even without that second chance grace remains a scandal... and the only hope we have.