Jared’s Reviews > Living in Union with Christ: Paul's Gospel and Christian Moral Identity > Status Update

“Christian virtue is a distinctively eccentric thing.” Meaning both that it’s odd and that it’s decidedly centered on something (or Someone) outside the self.” (133)

There is a real danger that some of our pastoral strategies within evangelicalism … have not taught Christians to distrust themselves properly, to recognize that their flesh will take [God’s] commandments and make them serve our self-exaltation against God. We have not taught believers that they will keep themselves from becoming Pharisees or idolaters only if they see their flesh for what it is. (104)

I am not saying that there is no room for Christian moral effort or the formation of good Christian habits but that these need to be done with proper awareness that “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” For example, the routine of having a daily quiet time is a good thing, but not if it is considered a thing in itself. (57)

“Virtue theory is concerned with how we can become better versions of ourselves as we order our appetites and instincts, but Paul is concerned with how we become someone else.” (25)

Helpful to keep in mind when interacting with books like JKA Smith’s ‘You Are What You Love’ and Wright’s After You Believe

“At the heart of Luther’s objection to medieval Catholic accounts of virtue is a recognition that the self—including his self—is desperately and deceitfully sinful and can be delivered only by a savior outside of that self.” (22)