C. S. Lewis His Life and Writings
Two (somewhat) Contemporaries of Lewis
Holy Week • “Who do you say that I am?” • Nate’s Palm Sunday message about the donkey • Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday •
Holy Week • 1 Corinthians 15: “Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. • “ For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.” •
Holy Week • So who is the One who gathered the disciples together for the Last Supper, who died on a cross and who rose from the dead on Easter morning? • Lewis: “You could have a great prophet preaching his dogmas without bringing in any miracles . . . But you cannot possibly do that with Christianity, because the Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, came into nature, into human nature, descended into his own universe and rose again, bringing nature up with him. It is precisely one great miracle.”
Verses on the Trinity • Matthew 28:19 • Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, • 2 Corinthians 13:14 • May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Verses on the Trinity • Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you. 2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We • remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction .” (1 Thess 1:1-5) • “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor. 13: 14). •
The Historical Reliability of the 4 Gospels • The trilemma: Liar, Lunatic or Lord. • Lewis was aware of a fourth option: the Jesus of history vs early Christian portraits of Jesus as the Son of God. Modern historians think they need to go behind the four Gospels to find the Jesus of history. • The Quest for the Historical Jesus by Albert Schweitzer 1906. • Historical reasoning is based on certain assumptions. If you believe that miracles cannot and do not happen, this will influence how you approach Jesus as a historian. • There are many reasons why we believe that the Gospels are historically reliable and Lewis addresses these issues in number of his writings.
Making and Begetting 1. Theology is not optional. The only choice is between good theology and bad theology. 2. Theology is more like a map of the landscape than an experience of the landscape. Both are important, but if you want to get to Newfoundland, you’d better have a map. 3. Theology is practical. For example, is COVID- 19 God’s judgment on certain people’s sin? 4. The difference between “begotten” and “created”. 5. We have bios (biological) kind of life; in Christ we can experience zoe (spiritual life)
The Three-Personal God • Again, some people think that after this life, or perhaps after several lives, human souls will be “absorbed” into God. But when they try to explain what they mean, they seem to be thinking of our being absorbed into God as one material thing is absorbed into another. They say it is like a drop of water slipping in the sea. But of course that is the end of the drop. It is only the Christians who have any idea of how souls can be taken into the life of God and yet remain themselves – in fact, be very much more themselves than they were before.
The Three-Personal God • Think of a line on a page. It has one dimension – length. • Now think of a square on a page. A square is a two-dimensional shape that is composed of several one-dimensional lines, but is still one object – a square. • Now, think of a cube. A cube is a three-dimensional object is made of six two- dimensional squares. • The squares are still recognizably squares, but they are also part of a greater thing – a cube. Following this logic, God exists as three separate “persons,” yet is also one overarching being, in the same sense that a die consists of six squares, and yet is one three-dimensional shape.
The Three-Personal God • (When a person prayers . . . ) You see what is happening. God is the thing to which he is praying – the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on – the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that God. So that the whole threefold life of the three- personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers.
Arianism • The most prominent alternative to the Trinitarian view advanced by the Council of Nicea was the one proposed by Bishop Arius (250-336). He believed that the Son was a creation of God, the first born of all creation, but a creature nonetheless. • According to Arius, Jesus therefore is neither co-eternal with the Father, nor does he share the same substance • Today that view is still advanced today by the Jehovah Witnesses. • Unitarians also deny the Trinity.
Time and Beyond • God’s eternal nature is the complete, simultaneous and perfect possession of everlasting life. • Since the flow of time — past, present and future---is what we human beings know and experience, it is natural for us to place God in time (God knew yesterday what we do today). But God transcends the flow of time in God’s Eternal Now. •
Time and Beyond • The analogy with an author and the story he/she is writing (6 th paragraph) • The transcendence (greater than we can ever imagine or conceive) and immanence of God (God is closer to us than we are to ourselves — Augustine). The glory and grace of God. The majesty and mercy of God. • Non-competitive relation between God acting and our acting. Many assume that the more God acts, the less we act; and the more we act, the less God acts. Notice both are affirmed here: “Continue to work out your salvation and in fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. •
Good Infection • All sorts of people are fond of repeating the Christian statement that “God is love.” But they seem not to notice that the words “God is love” have no real meaning unless God contains two persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love. • What grows out of the joint life of the Father and Son is a real Person, is in fact the Third of the three Persons who are God.
Good Infection • As the third Person of the Trinity, it might be helpful says Lewis to think of the Spirit as the link between the Father and the Son. • Strictly speaking, the Holy Ghost often refers to the spirit of God present in the world in the time between Christ’s resurrection and the Final Judgment; however, Lewis (following Christian doctrine on the subject), also characterizes the Holy Ghost as the personified relationship between God and Christ — and, perhaps, between all human beings.
Obstinate Toy Soldiers • “The whole purpose for which we exist is to be thus taken into the life of God.” Communion with God, or friendship with God, or fellowship with God. • Creation, fall and redemption: they overlap. We are created good, but we have comprised our created goodness; and hence God seeks to save and restore us through his saving grace. • Two kinds of life within us are opposed: the natural life (fallen life) is “something self -centered, something that wants to be petted and admired, to take advantage of others.” It opposes God’s saving grace. God’s disruptive grace. •
Obstinate Toy Soldiers • The tin soldier and the real soldier: Christians have been awakened to and now participate in the life, death, resurrection and living presence of Jesus. • Christ as representative: he lived the life we should have lived and he died the death we should have died; and it is all a gift. It has all be done for us. • See the last two paragraphs of chapter 5.
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