Living as the People of God

I’m currently reading N.T. Wright’s After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters for my Spiritual Formation class and gobbling it down with more interest than I thought I’d have. In chapter two Wright writes, “Virtue, as we have already seen, is about the whole of life…We are called to be genuine, image-bearing, God-reflecting human beings.” Here he summarizes what he has made clear in the first two chapters, that rather than the Christian life being about a set of rules or on the other hand about what we intuitively feel is worthwhile, it is about glorifying God in the vocation He has given us- being His children and members of His kingdom.

We have an event at church called ‘Secret Church’ where we gather in sparse surroundings to study the Bible verse by verse and experience more closely what many believers in persecuted countries go through. Lately we have been going through the Sermon on the Mount and last night we continued by studying Matthew 5:17-32. C.S. Lewis once said about the Beatitudes, “As to ‘caring for’ the Sermon on the Mount, if ‘caring for’ here means ‘liking’ or enjoying, I suppose no one ‘cares for’ it. Who can like being knocked flat on his face by a sledge hammer? I can hardly imagine a more deadly spiritual condition than that of a man who can read that passage with tranquil pleasure.” I can’t say I disagree with him as intense study of these passages is a painful sort of experience. I think that is the reason why so many people have discarded what is said either because in their minds it stinks of legalism or it is much easier to think about it as addressing our future in heaven (though why there would be the need to address the poor, the mourning or the sinful then is confusing).

Connecting the two studies brought me back to the opposing viewpoints Wright presents. Either we focus on getting people saved from their sin so that they can obey a set of rules once again or we focus on grace to the exclusion of transformation. Yes, Jesus saves you from amidst the mud and the filth- no, he doesn’t want you to stay there. The how here is very important and not something I can claim to have accomplished in my life. Following a new law won’t change our hearts and listening to our hearts’ desires won’t change our lives. For me it comes back to what Wright refers to as our ‘vocation’, our kingdom life that reflects the glory and power and love of God in a broken world. Our focus must be then taken off of self (either laws we can never completely follow or desires that don’t always line up with the Bible) and put onto the wondrous, matchless holiness of our King. How do we reflect that glory? Following Christ. Not saying a prayer, not making sure not to cuss or smoke or drink, but surrendering to follow after Jesus and like Him make our decisions based on God’s will for our lives.

“Being a Christan is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.”                     –Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Text Reference: Lewis, C.S., (2001). God in the dock. Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Wright, N.T., (2010). After you believe: why christian character matters. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Photo Reference: Tyne and Wear Archives & Museums, Quayside, possibly near the Fish Market, fish seller and small crowd gathered around.