Click to see the book at Amazon.
N. T. Wright has a wonderful book called After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters. I would strongly recommend it to anyone, whether a new Christian, or one who has been in the faith for many years but wants to grow in discipleship and faithfulness.
WHY BE VIRTUOUS?
One of the key insights that Wright brings to light in the book—and there are many—has to do with the Why? of Christian virtue. In other words, what is the reason for pursuing holiness, discipline, character, and virtue? What is our motive? Here he offers something fresh—something that I think moves us further along than many of the common answers to this question, and it does so by inspiring the imagination.
Often the answer to such a question seems to boil down to brute command: Do it because the Bible says so. Which amounts to: “Do it because God says to. Just obey. Don’t ask why, just get to it.” There is, of course, a certain amount of validity to the notion that God as creator has the authority to command, and that we as creatures have a duty to obey, whether we understand or not; however, that kind of misses the point. God is not like the exasperated parent who says, “because I said so,” in response to a sincere search for understanding. After all God doesn’t want a bunch of brow-beaten children; he wants us to grow up in doing his will and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12.2). He wants us to know why we obey, so that we can obey with wisdom, discerning not only the letter, but also the spirit of the law of liberty.
Another answer, more common than the previous one in reformed circles is gratitude. We obey Christ, and we seek to grow in character, in sanctification, out of sheer gratitude for what God has done for us in Christ. Again, at one level no one can quibble with this. Of course we are to be motivated by gratitude. The problem, however, is when this becomes the only admissible motivation for obedience. There are those who would have us believe that obedience to God for any reason other than gratitude is false obedience and isn’t pleasing to God at all.
But for this to be true, large sections of Scripture have to simply be shucked, not least, much of the Wisdom literature. The Proverbs routinely enjoin obedience because it brings blessing, and because of the fear of the consequences of disobedience. Likewise, Ecclesiastes tells us that obedience to God brings flourishing. Gratitude is something that we need to cultivate, but the very fact that we need to do so means that we have to be obedient even when we don’t feel much gratitude.
There are other possible answers that can be given to the question of why we should develop Christian character and obedience: the fear of the Lord, the desire to be a good witness for Christ, and even the knowledge that obedience to God is a way of working with the grain of creation, thus usually leading to a greater sense of peace and contentment in the long run. All of these are good and right reasons to develop Christian character as far as they go. All of them should factor into what motivates our faithful obedience.
A GOOD, FRESH ANSWER FROM WRIGHT
But Wright points us to something else, something I’ve never seen elucidated as well as he does in this book. Wright notes that to get at the motive for obedience and character development, we need to look to the telos, the goal, of that obedience and character development. The Why? can be answered by looking at the To What End?
You see, if the goal of the Christian life is to get saved and then hold on till you die and get to go to heaven, then Christian character is just about trying to be good while you wait. It’s only of fleeting importance, and it doesn’t require the creative application of honed wisdom; rather it can be reduced to some basic guidelines and rules. ‘Don’t drink, don’t cuss, don’t chew, and don’t go with boys who do.’ But that is a sub-biblical picture. Contrary to much popular opinion, the Bible is not primarily “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.”
The picture painted in the Bible is one of a creation, frustrated by sin eagerly awaiting a Messiah who would come and turn things back to the way they were meant to be, who would restore the Kingdom first established in Eden so that humanity could fulfill his initial task to rule with God over his good creation. And although it happened in a way that wasn’t what anyone seems to have expected, that is precisely what happened in Jesus. Through his death on the cross, his resurrection, his vindication, his ascension, and his session at the right hand of the Father, Jesus the Messiah has overturned the curse of death.
But one aspect of Jesus’ triumph that surprised everyone was that he didn’t do it all at once. Though Jesus has decisively defeated Satan, there remains work to be done. Though the New Testament is emphatic that in Christ the Kingdom has come we see the Kingdom in some sense developing from the time of Acts on. Though Jesus presently rules, his rule is not yet as manifest as it will eventually be. What’s more, not only did he not complete the revolution all at once, it seems that he wants us to help him complete it! (Of course, this is all by the power of the Spirit he has put within us and therefore is all of grace. He doesn’t need our help. He empowers us to help as a way of fulfilling us to be what he made us to be. We join him in the task for our sake, not for his.)
And this is the key to Wright’s insight. Christ came to set the world back the way it was meant to be, to restore mankind to our royal priestly role (1 Pet 2.9), ruling over the creation and ministering to God on behalf of the creation. And because this Kingdom has already come, though not in the fullness it will finally reach, so we likewise presently rule with Christ (Rom 5.17), though not in the fullness that we will do when Christ returns and earth and heaven are finally joined in full and perfect harmony. There remains dissonance, but the coming of the kingdom means the anticipation in the now of the future Kingdom of God in its fullness.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR CHRISTIANS
What this means for Christian character is that it is actually of eternal consequence. Our formation in Christian virtue (shaped by faith, hope, and love, as well as the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit) is not merely the right way to behave until we die and go to heaven. It is preparation for life in the new heavens and new earth that will be when Christ returns. Christian virtue is the anticipation of God’s promised future in our present, and it is how we make manifest our call to rule with Christ in his Kingdom even now, so that we will be particularly fit to rule with him in that hoped for future.
Not only does this view challenge us to recognize our present growth in character and obedience as of eternal worth, and as an anticipation and even a growing into our final calling, but it also challenges us with a picture of rule that is at odds with what we so often see in the world. Though we should not be surprised, given what ruling looked like in Jesus’ life and particularly his death, ruling with Christ means dying to self, serving others, humility, contentment, but also bravery, conviction, steadfastness. You see, it’s not just that growth in Christian virtue makes us fit to reign with Christ even now, it’s that growth in virtue is the very means by which we reign with Christ. It’s as we grow in faith, hope, love (this one above all others), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control—it’s as these things, through effort and long practice, become second nature to us (the very clothes we wear), that we will begin to rule with Christ by acting according to them.<>
