After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters

What happens after you believe?Since the beginning, there have been two, great, warring factions within Christendom seeking to answer that question.One demands obedience to a list of rules: legalism.The other claims that grace makes all rule-following null and void: lawlessness.And then there is a middle road: the via media.This isn't the easiest path to take. It's effortless to simply run off into the ditch of legalism or lawlessness.It would be easier for me to hand out a list of rules when someone comes to faith in Christ: "Do pray, do read your Bibles, do come to church when the doors are open. Don't drink, don't smoke, don't chew. And don't date folks who do. Follow these rules and you'll be A-Okay!"Or, it would be just as easy to tell those who come to faith: "You're saved and nothing will change that. Even if you completely quit believing in God or become a mass murderer - don't worry. It's all under the blood."It's easier to maintain the extremes. That's why they're so popular. Unfortunately, neither of the extremes are true - or biblical.So what is?N.T. Wright paints a picture of the middle way between legalism and lawlessness in his book, After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters. Wright notes the two extremes we've already mentioned and he's upfront throughout that he points to a middle way.In the very first chapter, he observes that "many Christians have so emphasized the need for conversion...that they have a big gap in their vision of what being a Christian is all about." I couldn't agree more with this sentiment if I tried.Too many Christians - especially in revival traditions - view the ultimate moment of the Christian life as the moment they first bowed their knee to Christ. But this is like watching baseball and getting all excited - shouting until you're hoarse - the first time your team gets a hit. Hitting the ball is great. But if he's out before he gets to first place - or really, if he's out before he gets home - then all of the excitement and joy is vain.The ultimate moment of the Christian life isn't the first moment we bow our knee. It's the last breath we take, in union with Christ. It's the moment we cross 'home plate'.And yet, for most of us, there's a huge gap between that first bowed knee and that last breath in Christ. What happens in that time? What should be taking place?Legalism says that this time is taken up with keeping all of the right rules (though most legalists can't even agree on which rules are the 'right' rules).Lawlessness says that this time is taken up with waiting for heaven and, perhaps, telling others about God's great grace.But is that it? Are those our only tasks on this earth between conversion and death?God didn't create us merely to follow rules. Neither did he make us to simply enjoy his gifts. When God formed Adam, he gave him a job."Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it..." (Genesis 1:28).God created man as a royal-priest.As Wright writes, "God placed Human in the garden to reflect his image into the new world he was making - that is, to be the means, present and visible, whereby his own care of the garden and the animals would become a reality" (pg 75). This royal-priestly role for man is found scattered throughout the scriptures - in both Old and New Testaments.For example, when God delivers Israel from Egyptian bondage, he tells them, "you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6). Later, Peter picks this verse up and applies it to the Church (1 Peter 2:9). And Revelation tells us the same thing: "He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father" (Revelation 1:6).So, to be human means something. It means being created in the image of God, and with a particular task. And ultimately, that's what Christ is redeeming us to.Jesus' didn't die just so we could go to 'heaven'. He died so that we, as human being, could be what God intended.This is why Paul writes, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since we have this ministry..." (2 Corinthians 4:1).God has restored our capacity to image him rightly. And he has given us a ministry - a service - a task: the role of royal-priest.A quick aside: I probably should have mentioned this sooner but this book is not filled with 284 pages of practical tips on growing in virtue or holiness. Wright penned this book to lay a theological foundation for understanding why we should want to grow in virtue and holiness in the first place. So if you come to it looking for practical advice, you won't get much. The last chapter is the only place in the book that deals heavily with practice. But that doesn't mean this book isn't worth reading. It is. If you closely follow the argument that Wright constructs, your understanding of the why will be deepened. And as the why is deepened, your desire for the what will grow as well."God's future is arriving in the present, in the person and work of Jesus, and you can practice, right now, the habits of life which will find their goal in that coming future" (page 103). This is the heart of Wright's thesis. And I don't know about you, but it excites me.Jesus has inaugurated the Kingdom. And he's calling all people, everywhere, to enter and live in it today. But how do we become Christ-focused people? Without Christ, we're hopelessly lost in pride and idolatry. And going to an altar - bowing my knee for the first time - doesn't perfect me. Old habits need killing. Unhealthy desires need eliminating. And attitudes that used to be acceptable are not any longer.We need to learn the language and culture of our new nation: the Kingdom of God.If Wright uses the first half of the book to explain what we're called to, he spends the second half of the book discussing how we live into that calling.In these chapters, he examines Paul's understanding of the spiritual-transformation made possible through Jesus' death and resurrection. He sums up many of the ideas here when he compares cultivating the fruit of the Spirit to gardening."The key is this: the 'fruit of the Spirit' does not grow automatically...Oh, there may well be strong and sudden initial signs that fruit is on the way...But this doesn't mean it's all downhill from there. These are the blossoms: to get the fruit you have to learn to be a gardener. You have to discover how to tend and prune, how to irrigate the fields, how to keep birds and squirrels away. You have to watch for blight and mold, cut away ivy and other parasites that suck the life out of the tree, and make sure the young trunk can stand firm in strong wings. Only then will the fruit appear" (page 195-196).Throughout these latter chapters, he highlights the importance of the three Christian virtues (faith, hope, and love), the fruit of the Spirit, and the necessity of unity within the body. These make up the Kingdom of God's primary language and culture. Our life on this earth - between now and eternity - consists of growing in these things.My own description of the Church as a 'laboratory of love' fits nicely with the way Wright describes the Church in these chapters. We learn Kingdom-culture there. And we practice the things that we will spend an eternity engaged in.Wright also stresses the twin foci of worship and mission. We need to return to these again and again because we tend to move to one extreme or the other.Wright ends the book with a chapter entitled, 'The Virtuous Circle'. Here, he delineates the five activities that he believes will contribute to our growth in Christian virtue and maturity.The five include scripture, stories, examples, community, and practices.This chapter is helpful and provides a needed practical viewpoint. However, the scripture/stories/examples all sort of flowed into one another. Many of the stories he mentions are stories from scripture. Though he does stress the value in other stories as well - including those that have no Christian background. I tend to agree with him here (though I can imagine others wouldn't). I would also include the telling of testimonies in this category though Wright doesn't explicitly mention that.Wright's focus on the community of faith is a necessary prescription for the anti-establishment movement that has swept so many people into thinking they can live as Christians alone. The problem isn't 'church'. The problem is that too many churches aren't acting like churches.Wright makes a valuable statement about what church should be here: "a community that is practicing the arts of being a royal priesthood, a working and worshipping fellowship for whom faith, hope, and love are being learned and exercised in the service of God's kingdom" (page 275). If Christians would all catch a vision like that (and then live into it), people would be clamoring to join in what God is doing.In his section on practices, Wright notes the basic activities of the Christian life: communion, baptism, prayer, giving, and the reading of scripture. Amen and amen. I can't say more on that front.There may have been a few things I disagreed with as I read but they were incidental to the main thrust of After You Believe (for example, replacing 'man' with 'human' in many scripture references; nothing wrong with it, it just sounds weird).A month or so ago, I finished reading Matthew Bates's Salvation by Allegiance Alone. After You Believe is a great follow-up to that book since many of the threads there weave throughout Wright's book as well.As is usual, I love Wright here. He's a gentle guide who takes your hand and walks you through the scriptures, one thought at a time. Like a pyramid-builder, Wright lays down one idea after another, until he finishes his task. And once finished, the reader comes away with more than just a few tips and tricks for greater spirituality. He comes away with why spirituality is worth pursing in the first place.God calls us to so much more than mere rule-keeping or basking. He calls us to live in eternity today.The question for us is, will we answer the call?

Many years ago two nomads from antipodean climes found themselves in Montreal seeking a young Oxford scholar with whom we could discuss the doctrine of Justification by Faith.We found such in the person of Dr.N.T.Wright.Would he have the time to speak with us? He did. Not only did he give us time he took us to lunch with his lovely wife, and after our time together he drove us to the airport.The experience was unforgettable on a number of accounts: this young scholar was a most gracious,unpretentious man and committed to understanding the Ways of God for the world and His people.I believed I was looking at a man that God would use mightily in the days and years to come. My 'prophecy has been more than substantiated .One reviewer said of the book before us that it is "Vintage Wright". In many respects I agree most heartily.Here we have passion for the Gospel and passion to lead the people of God into the truth of the same.This is with the grace we have come to expect from this Bishop in the Church of God.The book deserves to be read,learned and inwardly digested'.A brief introductory comment about "where I am coming from"(as they say). I have studied and taught theology for the best part of forty years. I am passionate about the Event of Messiah Jesus and its significance for the World and the Church in the world.I have extensive experience in the thought and ways of Conservative Evangelical Christianity of what I would call "of the Pietist variety".I mention this because it is pertinent to my comments about Dr. Wright's book.To understand this review it is essential to realise that I critique the book in the light of what I see as the main targeted readership; essentially, I see that readership as being Conservative Evangelicalism of the Pietistic kind. I do not like names and labels any more than the next person but, as I have said, identifying the main readership is important.There are a lot of Conservative Evangelical scholars who could not be put into the description being worked with in this review. I am sure many such scholars are friends and colleagues of Bishop Wright.So what I have to say can be ignored by such if they wish.So, I have one eye on the Bishop's book and one eye on the Evangelical readership as described in this review.First, The title( which I see as ambiguous and therefore may be read in a kinder light than that in which I read it)is unfortunate and that for two main reasons:There is never a time when there is "after believing" in the Christian pilgrimage.To say this is not to be majoring on a minor because all too frequently Conservative Evangelicals speak in such a way that believing is a "base" and once it has happened the Christian goes on to "higher" things! It may be a "fulness of the Spirit",a concentration on a pious walk or some other thing that eclipses believing/faith( such as "letting Christ live out his life in you" an approach made popular by major Ian Thomas some time ago). Bishop Wright is far too good a scholar to fall for that trick but my concern is that "old habits will indeed die hard" and Christians will be reinforced in those habits.The nature of Faith is crucial in understanding the nature of the Christian life and the role of the Christ-Event in that life. Under no circumstances can faith be relegated to an initial event only.It seems like a truism to say that Everything in the New Testament, whatever it is and whatever 'form' it takes is the result of and is governed by the Christ-Event. that of course, includes the quest for character or virtue. Character/virtue springs out of that Event and is colored by that Event. Do the readers get this point as strongly as they should? or is the door ajar for a runaway search for character or virtue?There have been different attempts to define Pietism ; the "sine qua non" as far as I am concerned is the focus on piety, the Christian life,our Confessional Statements/Doctrine etc., instead of the Christ-Event and the way it determines all those things just mentioned and the specific "color " it gives to them. We shall have occasion to return to this matter later in our review. Like Dr. Wright, let me make it clear I do believe in good works and the development of Christian character; the question for me is how this takes place and what it looks like when it does take place.Second,and apropos of the point above, for me the pursuit of character/virtue is somewhat like the pursuit of happiness. Character and happiness are results of something else ( and indeed involves effort and even struggle). I am not content to simply say that such is the result of Grace(as true as that is)because I believe that this word has, in many instances, been cut off from its historical basis and nature, namely the Event of Messiah Jesus brought to bear on us by His Spirit at the beginning of our Christian walk and at every point of such a long the way. If I may use the term, Grace has been"de-Eventised". I think this is perhaps what the 19th century theologian Kohlbrugge was getting at when he said that the Christian's good works should be carried on the back! it also relates, of course to what Jesus meant when he warned about making our piety public!I know Bishop Wright knows all this all too well; my concern is whether or not habituated Pietist Christians will see it clearly enough in our beloved Bishop's book. The point almost needs to be overstated to get the point across! like a lot of things,when we pick up a book to read we immediately put on our mental specks!Third, and my most important concern thus far:As Bishop Wright knows the creation of good habits and the development of character has at least two sides to it: to begin with there is the overcoming of BAD habits and then there is the creating of GOOD habits. We Christians have some very bad habits, let us face up to the fact! These bad habits are an offense to many in the world; and they are offensive to many within the believing community.One such terrible habit to which to wish to draw attention is what RC Roberts and WJ Wood call INTELLECTUAL VIRTUE.("Intellectual Virtue: An Essay in Regulative Epistemology, OUP,2008). Many of those who call themselves Christians ( and that probably means most of us)are not real good when it comes to knowledge and the use of knowledge in the church and outside the Church. It is disappointing that this is not highlighted in Bishop Tom's book. Like just about everything I have said in this review it is implicit. However it is of such magnitude that it could well do with a major emphasis.One might say,the Gospel's great enemy at times is "knowledge!We Christians 'cross-fellowship' but underneath we feel less than charitable to those fellow Christians who do not see things doctrinally as do we. While we may wish to deny it the fact is we grade other Christians according to what they believe; and that! is the whole point; WHAT they believe (or do not believe). We are even more severe when it comes to "outsiders". Many Evangelical Christians believe there is little or nothing can be learned from those 'outside the Church'. This includes "atheists" as well.!What this amounts to is the elevation of doctrinal knowledge to the status of the Gospel Event.Our "distinctives" are the things in which we trust and in which we derive our confidence. I mentioned above that I would raise the matter of Faith again: we are told that "faith is the substance of things hoped for ,THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN". Maybe for the Hebrews writer but not for many of us.We see the Truth so clearly!We are privileged to PROCLAIM the Messiah Jesus Event but it remains a fact that that Event is Ineffable. it is an indescribable Mystery and belongs to an Intelligence far removed from our own. yet we seek constantly to DISSOLVE that Mystery and adjudicate others on the basis of their acceptance or otherwise of our conclusions.We do not have the capability to live with uncertainty ( what Keats called "Negative Capability") as far as empirical 'evidence' is concerned. We live by faith says the Apostle Paul, not by sight! that includes our intellectual "findings" and our sanctificational achievements as well. So,whatever we are to say about character/virtue in the Christian life we have to do so by (1) preserving the centrality of the historical Messiah Jesus Event at every point of that life along the way and(2) ensure that our character/virtue is in our backpack where others may see it but we are focused on the Glory of God in His Saving Work in the historical Messiah Jesus for the world.As I said at the beginning in this (unusual?) review I have one eye one our Bishop's book and the other eye on the millions of Christians who( hopefully) will pick it up and wrestle with it. if you read the book and do not feel the pressing need for "metanoia" (repentance) and the strong (Spirit sent) urge to "shake off dull sloth (and) have done with lesser things " then you have missed the plot.

This is an accessible but not easy read. Tom Wright draws significant parallels between ancient secular understandings of virtue and the development of character but presses the differences brought about by Jesus the Christ. The careful and re-creative use of material from the Gospels particularly establishes a mind-set that calls people to make the effort of forming a Christ-like way of life. This is aided by the Spirit and is seen to be expressed in the exhortations of the other New Testament writers. It is a rewarding read that calls a person on in the Christian way and adds a new facet to Tom's other dynamic writings.

Excellent book, very helpful in my discernment journey.

Excellent as ever. Clearly argued and well presented. BUT this is the same book as Virtue Reborn. I bought both and whilst I love it I really did not need it twice :-) buy one or the other.

I enjoyed this book but found it to be a difficult read due to its concentrated material and large scope. It is not for casual reading. Perhaps it might have been better in two volumes to allow more development of the vast amounts of material included but it is still very much worth reading.

Very inspiring book. If you are struggling with your spiritual development, this book may be helpful.