C. S. Lewis Said What?
Amazing that our “filters”through which we read books and Scripture that keep us from seeing what is in plain sight. I guess it’s just too audacious for us to take in so we don’t see it. How many times have I read C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity and not really seen this paragraph!
“What, then, is the difference which He has made to the whole human mass? It is just this; that the business of becoming a son of God, of being turned from a created thing into a begotten thing, of passing over from the temporary biological life into timeless ‘spiritual’ life, has been done for us. Humanity is already ‘saved’ in principle. We individuals have to appropriate that salvation. But the really tough work–the bit we could not have done for ourselves–has been done for us. We have not got to try to climb up into spiritual life by our own efforts; it has already come down into the human race. If we will only lay ourselves open to the one Man in whom it was fully present, and who, in spite of being God, is also a real man, He will do it in us and for us. Remember what I said about ‘good infection’ One of our own race has this new life: if we get close to Him we shall catch it from Him.” – Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis, pp. 156-157
C. S. Lewis also said this in Mere Christianity:
So, what is repentance? Listen to this thought-provoking statement from the late author C.S. Lewis:
“Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track, and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor—that is the only way out of a hole. This process of surrender, this movement full astern, is what Christians call repentance.”
Thanks for the comment. Repentance is a deep and radical change of mind that transforms what we see as real and true. It is a very humbling experience to realize that what we were basing our life on as the “truth” is a lie. It often brings with it deep feelings of feeling foolish. The depth of our remorse is not a measure of the degree of our repentance, If it does not change our life’s orientation, then all the sadness, sorrow and remorse in the world is just so much emotion. The key is that repenting is more about waking up to what Christ has already done than a pre-condition of Christ doing something as a result. Like the Elder Brother’s blindness to what he already had was the problem, not changing his father’s mind about his acceptance.