After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters by N. T. Wright

Author:N. T. Wright
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Non-Fiction, Spirituality, Philosophy, Religion
ISBN: 9780061730542
Publisher: HarperOne
Published: 2010-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

The words for “see fit” and “unfit” here are from the same root as “work out and approve” (dokimos, dokimazein) in 12.2. Once again this is hard to bring out in translation, but essential to grasp if we are to understand Paul’s overall flow of thought. The mind that is in rebellion against God, that refuses to worship him, becomes “unfit”—that is, incapable of thinking straight about what constitutes appropriate human behavior—whereas the mind that is renewed will learn the habit of clear, wise thinking and approval. The “unfit” mind is, in Romans 1, the root from which a whole host of evil things grow, all of which in Paul’s understanding reflect the fracturing of the “image,” alluded to here in a passage which clearly has the first few chapters of Genesis in mind. It isn’t the case that the body leads the mind or heart astray. Rather, the failure to worship the one true God leads to a failure to think, and thence to a failure to act as a fully human being ought. It is worth noting (for the avoidance of doubt) that Paul is here describing the human race as a whole, not specific individuals within it. He is diagnosing a disease from which we have all suffered, even if the symptoms vary from person to person.

Perhaps the most telling point is the one with which Romans 1 concludes: “They know God’s decree that those who do such things deserve to die, but they not only do those things but approve of those who do them” (1.32). It is one thing to insist on walking south when the compass is pointing north. But to “fix” the compass so that it tells you that the wrong way is the right way is far, far worse. You can correct a mistake. But once you tell yourself it wasn’t a mistake there’s no way back.

The redemption of the whole human being, anticipated in the case of Abraham in Romans 4, is then remarkably characterized by the reversal of this whole process:

[Abraham] did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already dead because he was a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver in unbelief when faced with God’s promises, but gave glory to God, and was fully convinced that he had the power to perform what he had promised. (4.19–21)

That is part of the significance of Abraham in Paul’s thought, particularly in Romans. Because of God’s call and promise, Abraham is the beginning of the truly human people. He is the one who, in a faith which Paul sees as the true antecedent of Christian faith, allows his thinking and believing to be determined, not by the way the world is, and not by the way his own body is, but by the promises and actions of God. This then sets the tone for the “truly human” exposition in chapter 5, which we looked at earlier, where the same root word (dokimos) is used when Paul is talking about the “tried and tested character” in 5.

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