The Perfect Penitent (Book II - What Christians Believe, Chapter 4)

A Chapter Summary from C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity

Here it is, the frightening alternative. This man we are talking about either was (and is) just what He said or else a lunatic, or something worse.  Is this the choice that people think? Or are there other choices, perhaps not even believing He was real or that the disciples misconstrued who he was. I have to accept the view that He was and is God. But why? Why did he come? Christians think the main thing He came to earth to do was to suffer and be killed. 

Be killed? Why? There seems to be multiple theories. One such theory is that God wanted to punish men for having deserted and joined the Great Rebel, but Christ volunteered to be punished instead, and so God let us off. But neither this theory nor any other is Christianity. The central Christian belief is that Christ's death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start. Theories about Christ's death are not Christianity: they are explanations about how it works. No explanation will ever be quite adequate to the reality. 

Explanations and theories or pictures are there only to help us better understand. Yet, what occurs cannot be pictured, exactly. The picture is a help, but the picture is not the end in and of itself. It cannot be fully understood - the inconceivable, the uncreated, the thing from beyond nature, striking down into nature like lightning. [I notice even more so today that we are obsessed with understanding, defining it, with this idea that unless it is completely understood it can't be real. That thinking then is based on the assumption that only things that can be completely defined and understood are real.] A man can eat his dinner without understanding exactly how food nourishes him. A man can accept what Christ has done without knowing how it works: indeed, he certainly would not know how it works until he has accepted it. 

Once again, here is the Christianity formula that we are told we must believe: Christ was killed for us, His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. 
- Romans 5:8 - While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
- I John 1:7 - But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
 - I Corinthians 15:57 - Thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Any theories we build up as to how Christ's death did all this are quite secondary. Yet, we can look at them.  

First of all, to go back to what was said previously - that God desires to let us off. If this is his desire, why the whole process of sending his son to do this when he could have just let us off with a word. None at all that I can see, if you are thinking of punishment in the police-court sense. To me we are in trouble with the law because we are lawbreakers and God the judge lets us off, not being of what we have done, but because he decides to do this. But, what if rather than a police-court sense we are talking about a debt. One person doesn't have the ability to pay and someone else comes to the rescue or "foots the bill; one person got himself into a hole, getting out falls on a kind friend.  Can a person get out of the hole by improving himself? By building his muscles up, by running, by getting a MBA, by doing better today in life than he did yesterday, by going to church more, by reading the Bible more, by giving to the poor, by serving the poor??? No. The only way a person can get out of the hole is by yelling, "Help!" And then someone else helps him out of the hole. 

Now what was the sort of "hole" man had got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, man has tried to say, "I am God." Rather than surrendering to his creator, man erects himself as God, setting his own rules. (Romans 1:25 - they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature.) Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. He must admit that he does not belong to himself. This is the big contrast that exists in the world. Modern religion/faith and life in general is all about self-help or self-improvement. Man believes in his heart not only that he controls his own destiny but he determines his own destiny. The idea that if we can learn to do enough good things in life and be on a trajectory for self-improvement then either God will forgive us and look past all of the previous offenses or for the atheist that life will be okay. Churches today fall into this trap of being about self-improvement. On the contrary, surrendering is the idea that I am not in charge. It is saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track. This is the only way out of a "hole" and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor.

This is what Christians call repentance. Repentance is not fun at all. It is admitting that you have been going the wrong way. It means killing a part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death. And here is the catch. Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person - and he would not need it.  

If you ask God to take you back without repentance, you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back. But the same badness which makes us need it, makes us unable to do it. Therefore, we need God's help. When you teach a child writing, you hold its hand while it forms the letters: that is, it forms the letters because you are forming them. We take the child through the motions and then eventually we release our hands and the child does it on their own. But, you gave the child the power and direction. 

You and I can go through this process only if God does it in us; but God can do it only if He becomes man. 

Such is my own way of looking at what Christians call the Atonement. 

Childlike Faith

As with anyone, there is a need for someone to see they are a sinner. That they have broken God's laws. For a child, this may be seen through disobeying parents or lying. Murder, as Jesus said, is hate in our heart toward our brother. Coveting is wanting what someone else has. Stealing is taking something that isn't yours. So, just looking at the 10 commandments and then breaking them down to their application for a child. A child is definitely one that can understand consequences. They often live in a land of correction and consequence. Our sin has consequences. It separates us from God. God loves us, but hates sin and can't be with sin. Sin can't be removed by doing good things. Sin must be covered so that God can't see it any more in our lives. Jesus covered sin by His Blood. Blood came about from him dying on the cross. What makes Jesus blood more significant from ours is that it is perfectly clean. His life had no sin in it and so it is pure. So, his death on the cross was for our sins. But Jesus dying doesn't mean that every person gets this. The Bible tells us we must receive it. God gave us Jesus as a gift. He lived and died. But, it is a gift. Do you accept the gift? If you do. Say, "I believe in Jesus and that he died for me." We receive the gift by faith, which is agreeing with God. And just as Jesus conquered death by rising from the dead, so we to can now live a life honoring God. We still will make mistakes and sin. But, our sin is covered. Jump on the Jesus cot or bed and let Him carry You through life. -- Just a thought.

Speaking the Truth in Love

Ephesians 4:15 - but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.

What is mean to 'speak the truth in love?'

Often, in going through the gospel with someone, a way to shed light on a person and help them see they are a Christian is to ask them, "have you ever told a lie?" Everyone has told a lie at some point in their lives. Lies are told to make ourselves look better. It is to hid the truth. People often will justify a lie because of the belief that speaking the truth will hurt someone. This verse seems to contrast the notion of speaking a lie and instead states, "speak the truth in love."

Yet, how easy is or it or how do we even 'speak the truth in love?' Prior to getting married, there was a couple in our life that we wanted to come to our wedding. They were THE catalyst in bringing my wife and I together, but they were unwilling to come, citing their attachment to school. We could have flown them out just for the wedding and had them back the next day. We were willing to do whatever we could, but they were still unwilling. We had been in their wedding and we naturally wanted them to be involved in ours. We sought the Lord during this time and after it was laid on our heart, we tried to speak to them in love, confronting them with truth that we saw. It backfired and we ended up losing a relationship for many years.

I still think we did the write thing, but since then, it has been hard at times to speak the truth in love. Love is to be the prompt and reason communication is made. I think, at times, though, in raising kids I spoke to quickly. Sometimes in love, but sometimes in anger, I admit. I don't think I ever figured out how to discipline properly with love.

I think if Love would have been my motivator at all times then it would have (1) affected how I spoke the truth and (2) what truth was spoken. Therefore, some truth would have been left unspoken.

Proverbs 15:1 says, "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger."

If love is what is driving us to speak to others, we will, first of all, be concerned about how we speak. We will seek to watch the words that we use as well as the attitudes, motives, and tones of voices with which we speak them. We will strive not to give offense by the way we speak the truth.