Part Three: The Shocking Alternative

Last time when blogging in this series I expressed the view Lewis brings up in Mere Christianity, that an evil power has made himself the Prince of this World. In the next chapter Lewis brings up some questions: is this God's will? If not, how can something happen that is contrary to the will of God?

When you say someone has a will, you mean that they intend for an instance to follow a certain way. Lewis gives the example of a mother to a child. She says, 'I want you to clean your room to learn to tidy it for yourself'. However, later when the mother checks on the status of the room, she finds the teddy bear laying face-down on the floor, clothes strewn all over, and ink spilled on the desk. She prefers the child to be tidy, but the child is free to disobey. The options are made voluntary but the child chooses to not fulfill the mother's will, though the will is still made possible. This is how it is with God. We are all created with free will. We can either choose wrong or right. In the world, free will is what makes evil possible. People choose what they do. We are in control of our actions, and we either choose to harm or help. Why did God give us free will then, if the outcome would indeed be evil? Free will is the only thing that also makes possible love or joy, and it makes them worth having. 


A very, very important question can now be asked, one that is the center of sin and falling and thus redemption and salvation. How did the Dark Power, and for that matter how does all of humanity, fall or sin? Lewis says, 'The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of putting yourself first-wanting to be the centre-wanting to be God, in fact. That was the sin of Satan, the Dark Power, and that was the sin that he taught the human race'. When we sin, we are simply saying that we can be our own masters, that we can invent some sort of happiness for ourselves outside of the goodness that is God. Out of these attempts comes what our world has defined as human history-money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery-all because man has tried to make happiness apart from God. Without God humanity does not have real or true goodness. There is not peace apart from God. It does not exist. There is not power, breath, or life apart from the God that is the source of it all.


So, what did God do? He choose a specific group of people, the Jews, and through revealing Himself to them showed that He was God, the only God, and that He cares about right and wrong. Then comes the biggest shock of the story of Christianity: God sent Jesus Christ to the fallen world. This man came and claimed to be God, which, when understood properly, is the most shocking statement to ever leave the mouth of any human being. Why is this so shocking? Christ, as a Jew himself, claimed to be the God understood by the Jews at that time; He claimed to be the Being that was and is outside of the world, and He wasn't claiming to simply be a part of God, but indeed He claimed to be God, and to further matters, He claimed to forgive sins. He didn't forgive just sins against Him, as we as people are able to do, but He forgave sins against another man too. He forgave all sins. What do we make of a man who says that he forgives you for hurting someone else? Lewis says, 'Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of this conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did'. He behaved as if He had the authority to forgive. He behaved as though He were God, which makes perfect sense if He really were God, who's love is wounded by every sin that humanity commits. The strange part of all of this is found in the character of Christ. He was humble and meek, though this is different than weak. What men are naturally humble and meek? It is not in the nature of man. It was the nature of Christ. As I'm typing this, I am overwhelmed by this truth, that a God would be so loving to come to the land of the selfish and of the conceited and broken to show His loving, humble, and meek spirit and being. Why do we say that Christ was simply a good and moral teacher? He was and is much more. As much as I don't like to admit it, I have said this before. I've said that Jesus simply taught good virtues, was a good example, and can be thought of as a good moral teacher. I used to think there was no way to say that He was divine. When looking at His character though there can be no denying that He was and is so much more than we can even grasp. His characteristics went against that of man. He was humble, forgiving, slow to anger, rich in love, meek, a friend, welcoming, virtuous, and above all selfless. What sort of being besides God can have all of these attributes? Humanity naturally is quite the opposite of these characteristics. Man alone is conceited, vengeful, temperamental, short in love, rough, easily a foe, preferable to isolation, and selfish. Now, there are people who are good and are not Christians, of course. These people are not wholly good though, for no one is. I'm not. You're not. We can all agree that people are imperfect, every one. The minute we know we have a self we tend to put it first in ways that are not godly, for God is not selfish, not in the ways that man is. He is selfish in holy ways, wanting His children to love Him, jealous for His bride, the church, but what's more is that God is rightfully Himself. He has every right to want or demand whatever He wants. He is God. What right do we have? We are not God. Jesus Christ was and is the God that is good and the source of all hope and joy. His very nature and characteristics displayed the glory of God. Who are we to dispute this? This leaves us with some options: ignore the goodness displayed in Christ and refuse to call Him God, call Him a fool or something worse, or fall at His feet calling Him Lord and God.