Back at it
Mere Christianity, Book Two What Christians Believe, Chapter 5 The Practical Conclusion
"The perfect surrender and humiliation were undergone by Christ: perfect because He was God, surrender and humiliation because He was man." I would change the past-tense "was" to present-tense "is" but CS Lewis was the Oxford professor of English, not me! Jesus is God and He is man. But the point is that Christians who share in Jesus' surrender and humiliation (admitting that we are imperfect to say the least and must surrender our lives) will also share in His victory over death and have new life. How is this possible? How can Christ put His new life into us? Lewis believes there are three things that "spread the Christ-life to us": baptism, belief, and communion. This is one point from which the many "denominations" of Christianity disperse. I personally believe that the only way to receive new life in Christ is by simply believing in Him. Baptism and communion are necessary actions to take in obedience. Jesus commands believers to be baptized and to take communion, but these actions are not what save a person and give them new life. Being dunked or splashed with "Holy Water" does not make you a Christian any more than eating a cracker and drinking wine. I certainly don't mean to diminish the importance of doing those things if you are a Christian, but if the belief is not there, then they are meaningless rituals. Like I said, many Christians have a different opinion, and Lewis makes a point to mention it, but says "I am not going into that. Anyone who professes to teach you Christian doctrine will, in fact, tell you to use all three, and that is enough for our present purpose."
Lewis then goes on the explain why he believes these actions are what give Christians new life. He says he believes in on authority. "Believing things on authority only means believing them because you have been told them by someone trustworthy." When you think about it this way, most everything we "know" is on authority. "I believe there is such a place as New York. I have not seen it myself. I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there must be such a place. I believe it because reliable people have told me so. The ordinary man believes in the Solar System, atoms, evolution, and the circulation of the blood on authority--because the scientists say so. Every historical statement in the world is believed on authority." Christians first and foremost believe Jesus is who He said, so it would follow that Christians believe what Jesus said is true, and Jesus said an awful lot about how to receive new life in Him.
The new life a Christian receives doesn't magically make him perfect. "A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself. In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enable to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble--because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time..." This is not to say that Christians have a get-out-of-jail-free card to play whenever they feel like sinning...the consequences of sin remain. It is to say that we are a work in progress, and that Jesus is the one working on us, changing us.
This is why Christians are different from other people who are trying to be good. They do good because they hope it will gain them God's or other people's favor (or a number of other reasons). Christians believe that the good things we do come from Christ, not thinking that God will love us because we are good, but that He "will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it." When a Christian says that he is in Christ or that Christ is in him, this isn't just a fancy way of saying that he is thinking about Jesus, or trying to be just like Him (while that may also be true). Christians believe they are the organism through which Christ operates...the actual physical body of Christ in this world--"that we are His fingers and muscles, the cells of His body."
Lewis then proposes two objections that may have come up at this point. Here is the first: if Jesus is the only way we can receive this new life, what about those who don't know about Him, or have never heard His name? I personally believe that God reaches out to every person in some way and gives each person a chance to turn to Him and receive Him, again, based on the authority of what has been written about Him. The fact is, people who ask this question DO know of Jesus. So they had better make sure they decide about Him themselves before moving on to worrying about those who don't know of Him. I hope that makes sense. "If you want to help those outside, first you must add your own little cell to the body of Christ who alone can help them."
Here is the second possible objection: "Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it?" Christians believe He is coming to invade, but that He is patiently waiting, giving people a chance to accept Him freely. However, He isn't going to wait forever. I leave you with Lewis' words at the end of the chapter.
"God is going to invade all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else--something it never entered your head to conceive--comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use in saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it."
"The perfect surrender and humiliation were undergone by Christ: perfect because He was God, surrender and humiliation because He was man." I would change the past-tense "was" to present-tense "is" but CS Lewis was the Oxford professor of English, not me! Jesus is God and He is man. But the point is that Christians who share in Jesus' surrender and humiliation (admitting that we are imperfect to say the least and must surrender our lives) will also share in His victory over death and have new life. How is this possible? How can Christ put His new life into us? Lewis believes there are three things that "spread the Christ-life to us": baptism, belief, and communion. This is one point from which the many "denominations" of Christianity disperse. I personally believe that the only way to receive new life in Christ is by simply believing in Him. Baptism and communion are necessary actions to take in obedience. Jesus commands believers to be baptized and to take communion, but these actions are not what save a person and give them new life. Being dunked or splashed with "Holy Water" does not make you a Christian any more than eating a cracker and drinking wine. I certainly don't mean to diminish the importance of doing those things if you are a Christian, but if the belief is not there, then they are meaningless rituals. Like I said, many Christians have a different opinion, and Lewis makes a point to mention it, but says "I am not going into that. Anyone who professes to teach you Christian doctrine will, in fact, tell you to use all three, and that is enough for our present purpose."
Lewis then goes on the explain why he believes these actions are what give Christians new life. He says he believes in on authority. "Believing things on authority only means believing them because you have been told them by someone trustworthy." When you think about it this way, most everything we "know" is on authority. "I believe there is such a place as New York. I have not seen it myself. I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there must be such a place. I believe it because reliable people have told me so. The ordinary man believes in the Solar System, atoms, evolution, and the circulation of the blood on authority--because the scientists say so. Every historical statement in the world is believed on authority." Christians first and foremost believe Jesus is who He said, so it would follow that Christians believe what Jesus said is true, and Jesus said an awful lot about how to receive new life in Him.
The new life a Christian receives doesn't magically make him perfect. "A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself. In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enable to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble--because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time..." This is not to say that Christians have a get-out-of-jail-free card to play whenever they feel like sinning...the consequences of sin remain. It is to say that we are a work in progress, and that Jesus is the one working on us, changing us.
This is why Christians are different from other people who are trying to be good. They do good because they hope it will gain them God's or other people's favor (or a number of other reasons). Christians believe that the good things we do come from Christ, not thinking that God will love us because we are good, but that He "will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it." When a Christian says that he is in Christ or that Christ is in him, this isn't just a fancy way of saying that he is thinking about Jesus, or trying to be just like Him (while that may also be true). Christians believe they are the organism through which Christ operates...the actual physical body of Christ in this world--"that we are His fingers and muscles, the cells of His body."
Lewis then proposes two objections that may have come up at this point. Here is the first: if Jesus is the only way we can receive this new life, what about those who don't know about Him, or have never heard His name? I personally believe that God reaches out to every person in some way and gives each person a chance to turn to Him and receive Him, again, based on the authority of what has been written about Him. The fact is, people who ask this question DO know of Jesus. So they had better make sure they decide about Him themselves before moving on to worrying about those who don't know of Him. I hope that makes sense. "If you want to help those outside, first you must add your own little cell to the body of Christ who alone can help them."
Here is the second possible objection: "Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it?" Christians believe He is coming to invade, but that He is patiently waiting, giving people a chance to accept Him freely. However, He isn't going to wait forever. I leave you with Lewis' words at the end of the chapter.
"God is going to invade all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else--something it never entered your head to conceive--comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use in saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it."
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