Here is a great quote that Michael Bird put in a blog post today.  Totally agree.

“The purposes of God are reducible to his will, a will that initially appears equally set to harden or to save, but turns out on closer inspection, and in the end, to harden only in order to save, to hate only in order to love, and to consign all to disobedience only in order to have mercy on all. What has twisted Paul’s theology into this strange shape is his understanding of a “gift” that has redefined the meanings of charis and eleos and defies explanation or rationale. That gift is the Christ-event which reconciled the world “while we were enemies” (Rom 5:6-10) and justified the ungodly (4:4-6)”
- John Barclay