On the Nature of Grace and Virtues

How our status before God frees us to pursue the things that are above

Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

One of the challenging aspects of writing a book on virtues from a reformed perspective, as I have done with To Live Well, is that some readers can be overly sensitive toward anything they think might be “law,” even to the point of antinomianism. Even though I would say the book is just an example of what the writer of Hebrews calls stirring up “one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24), I anticipate someone will complain that there’s too much emphasis upon “stirring up” and not enough emphasis upon simply resting on the grace of God to bring about good works. I hope that when you read it, you’ll see that I’m clear on the relationship between grace and good works. God works good works in us, but we are called to righteousness and have a moral responsibility to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. We walk in the good works God prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10).

A good way of understanding the nature of this relationship between grace and virtues can be found in Colossians 3, which I have been reading lately with my small group. In it, Paul clearly lays out that it is because of who we are, our ontology, our status before God, that we are commanded and even able to choose to pursue the righteous, virtuous good works we are called to. And this good news should be exciting, not a heavy yoke of the law, but the easy and light burden of Christ.