Mere Christianity -- Book 2, Chap. 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. And if we share in Christ's humility and suffering then we will also share in His conquest of death and find a new life after we have died and in it become perfect, and perfectly happy creatures (cf. Rom. 6:1-11).

Therefore, what must we do to be right with God and enter into this new life after we die?

It has already been done for us in Christ.  "It has happened already.  In Christ a new kind of man appeared:  and the new kind of life which began in Him is to be put into us."  This means that being a Christian is much more than just following His teachings.  It means that His new life must "be put into us" -- union with Christ.

How did we get our old life?  We derived it from others -- parents, ancestors -- without our consent involving sexual reproduction and birth into this world.  But God did not consult with us to bring us into this world through this strange process.   And the new kind of life -- the Christ life -- is to be spread by God in a way that He has not consulted with us about.

There are three things God uses to spread (to put into us) the Christ-life to us:

1.  Baptism

2.  Faith

3.  Lord's Supper

The Word of God is the essence of all three.  This is the ordinary method and we are to make use of all three.  We may not understand why and how God uses these three, but "we have to take reality as it comes to us:  there is no good jabbering about what it ought to be like or what we should have expected it to be like. 

But whether or not we understand it, we must believe it.  But why?

We believe it on Christ's authority.  But don't be afraid of the word "authority."  We believe most things on the basis of authority -- on reliable people who have seen them and have reported them to us in writings that tell us about them.   Without relying on authority of others we would know almost nothing of the world around us.

But don't mistake these three uses as means that end there.  You must constantly feed your new life and look after it or you will lose it (fall from grace).  [While we as Calvinist do believe that some who profess faith in Christ can walk away from Christ, we believe that they were never truly embracing Christ with biblical faith (fiducia).  But the true believer will never fall away but will preserver to the end because of God's sustaining, persevering grace.]

Lewis is describing the daily sanctification process as distinct from the work of salvation accomplished for us in Christ and at this point he is correct to say that we must daily feed it and look after it.  However, when we do so, we need to be clear that we are not "making" or creating the new life, but "only keeping up a life you got from someone else."

"Even the best Christian that ever lived is not acting on his own steam -- he is only nourishing and protecting a life he could never have acquired by his own efforts."

As Christians we are only able to live the Christian life because of Christ in us.  That means that:

A Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled 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, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out (again cf. Rom. 6:1-11).

This is what distinguishes the Christian from unbelievers who are trying to be good.

The unbeliever hopes that by trying to be good that they will please God, if there is one, and if there's not, then they will at least have the approval of their peers.

But the Christian understands that if there is any good in him at all it is because of the "Christ-life" inside him (union with Christ).  We do not think that God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us. 

What do we mean when we speak of our union with Christ ("in Christ" or "Christ being in us")?

1.  We are not speaking about mere morality -- as if we are just copying Christ (WWJD).

2.  We are not speaking about mere meditation -- we are thinking about Christ.

Rather, we mean that Christ is actually operating through us.  We are the body of Christ and Christ is acting through us.  He is living His heavenly life through this body.

And this explains why God uses physical, tangible "means" to "spread the new life" in us, means like baptism and Holy Communion.  God does not simply transfer Christ's life to us by purely mental acts (belief) -- it is not just the spreading of an idea.

We were never meant to be purely spiritual creatures and God uses material things to give us His Son.  God likes matter.  He invented it.

Possible Objections to Lewis' Argument:

1.  Is it not frightfully unfair that this new life should be confined to people who have heard of Christ and been able to believe in Him?  Or "What about the poor, innocent native who hasn't heard the gospel?" -- See Sproul's Answer.

Lewis says that while we don't know what special arrangements God has in store for those who haven't heard, we do know that no man can be saved except through Christ AND we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him. 

While we may not know right now, we do know how unreasonable it is for you to remain outside of Christ yourself.  And if you are so concerned about reaching those who have not heard, then you need to join the body of Christ to enable it reach them.

2.  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?  Is it that He is not strong enough?

Lewis answers that Christians do believe that he is going to land in force (second coming) but we don't know when that will be.  So why is he delaying his return?  Maybe because he wants to give us the chance to freely join his side before he comes in force.

Many people wonder why God does not interrupt this world openly and directly.  But Lewis wonders if they really understand what is going to happen when he does.  It will be the end of the world as we know it. 

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 strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature.  It will be too late then to choose your side.  There is no use 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 for ever.  We must take it or leave it.