After You Believe by N.T. Wright

Author:N.T. Wright [Wright, N.T.]
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-11-17T05:00:00+00:00

Though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but became foolish in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. Giving themselves out to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of the image of mortal humans, and birds, animals and reptiles…. And, just as they did not “see fit” to hold God in their mind, God gave them up to an “unfit” mind, to do things that are inappropriate. (1.21–23, 28)

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:

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