4 Lessons Learned from Mere Christianity
“You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. ”
The imaginative and beloved Oxford and Cambridge professor, C. S. Lewis, has forever left his mark on Christianity.
Born into the Church of Ireland, C. S. Lewis denounced the faith and held to a form of atheism until he started building a friendship with his college, the legendary novelist J. R. R. Tolkien. He came to believe in Theism in 1929 and finally Christianity in 1931 at the age of 32.
This is week 35 of 52 in the Tim Challies 2020 reading challenge, and my task was to read a book from a deceased author. I chose Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis as this was the first Christian book I ever remember reading on my own, apart from the bible that is.
Mere Christianity started as a series of BBC radio broadcasts during the middle of the violence and atrocities of World War II. The opening address starts with these words.
"Everyone has heard people quarreling." (p. 17).
Lewis's goal through these short 10-15 minute radio broadcasts is to communicate the reason and message of Christianity. He does this, not as a seasoned pastor, or even a professor of theology. Rather he is a lay leader in the Church of England. But he utilizes his experience as a former atheist to inform his tactics for communicating Christianity to those who may be skeptics if not openly opposed to the faith.
As this is my fourth time reading Mere Christianity, I will provide four highlights from this reading!
1. Natural Law of Human Nature
“It seems, then, we are forced to believe in a real Right and Wrong.” (p. 20)
Lewis is a classical apologist, meaning, he believes the human mind can be persuaded by reason to see the truth of God. Naturally, this stems from his own experience within the university and his conversations with J. R. R. Tolkien. As such, he starts with his listeners, now readers, by introducing them to the universal natural law of man that exposes its commonalities.
“First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do no in fact behave in that way. They know the law of nature; they break it.” (p. 21).
Lewis argues against the majority of objections skillfully. Utilizing the atrocities seen in World War II, he provides a practical living example that things are not right. But he says we don't even need the war. We don't even need the rawness of lawlessness. All we need is to look into ourselves.
What we see is that something is compelling us to behave in a certain way, and we often do not adhere to it.
2. Simple Religion
“Atheism turns out to be too simple… it is no good asking for a simple religion. After all, real things are not simple.” (p. 47).
Thom Rainer’s book Post-Quarantine Church is fresh on my mind, and in it he alludes to his other popular work, Simple Church. But for Lewis, there is so such thing as the Simple Church, even as he is writing under a book with the title Mere Christianity.
That is because Christianity and the Church are real. They are not simple because they are real. Real things are complex and most of the time quite difficult to understand and grasp in their intricacies.
While reading this section over again, my mind felt some peace at the simple acknowledgment of the complexity of Christianity.
I watched a church's welcome video this week where the Lead Pastors, a man and wife, introduced the church as being a powerful place to find God's awesome plan for your life. The video followed all business rules being 2 minutes or less, multiple scenes breaks 5-7 seconds apart, strong colors, and exciting background music.
I felt overwhelmingly sad. Because the church was pictured as something simple. Like just another addition to your ever-busier subscription based life.
Christians should not be afraid of embracing the complexities of God's truth.
3. Mere Christianity at its Merest
“We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. This is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed.” (p. 59).
While embracing Christianity’s complexities, we must seek to acknowledge the beauty in certain simplicities.
However, I actually do not agree with C. S. Lewis’ statement above. I do not think that the message he has put forth here is the essence of Christianity and what must be believed. Because within his definition is the absence of several significant points.
The first is Jesus as Lord. There is no Christianity where there is no mention of Jesus as Lord. Believing in Jesus’ substitutionary atonement without believing in his rightful complete authority over your life as King is simply not Christianity.
The second is Jesus’ resurrection. Without the resurrection, the accomplishment in his death is unconfirmed. There is no way in telling if he was a lunatic, a liar, or Lord, as the three options often credited to C. S. Lewis go, without the solidification of the resurrection.
In the Merest form then, Christianity must include the Lordship and Resurrection of Christ in addition to his sacrificial death.
4. The Great Sin
“The Great Sin… The vice I am talking of is Price or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility.” (p. 109).
As I read this section, my body sank deep into the old purple recliner that held my ashamed form. I have never thought of myself as prideful. I think it is easy for people to confuse confidence with pride. However, as Lewis graciously illuminates, it appears it is equally as easy to confuse oneself with the same distinctions.
Lewis & Tolkien
“I pointed out a moment ago that the more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others… The point is that each people’s pride is in competition with every one else’s pride” (p. 110).
Pride is a destructive sin, something that somewhere along the way I have allowed to creep into my heart. Lewis argues that our daily choices work like compound interest toward our future. Each daily decision is setting yourself up for exponential results in the future.
My favorite analogy of sin is a snowball. You can pack snow in your hands to the size of a baseball. If you throw it, the effect is relatively benign unless you hit an unsuspecting person in their exposed face! But if you take that same baseball size snowball, and roll it down a hill of fresh sticky snow, something happens. It grows exponentially with every rotation. Pretty soon that snowball is the size of a Volkswagen, and with enough speed it can be incredibly destructive.
Breaking up sin in our lives looks like daily repentance. Its choosing to smash the snowball before it can start rolling. It is choosing to turn to Christ and trust in his power to overcome evil with good each and every day.
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John Owen came from Welsh descent, was educated at Queens College, and became a renowned Puritan theologian, Oxford professor, and passionate pastor who lived from 1616 to 1683. In 1647, he wrote the exhaustive treatise The Death of Death defending Limited or Definite Atonement against the Arminian view of Universal Atonement or Unlimited Atonement.