Through the Lens with C.S. LewisDecember 2012

“We are, not metaphorically but in very truth, a Divine work of art, something that God is making, and therefore something with which He will not be satisfied until it has a certain character.”

The Problem of Pain

Ch 3, “Divine Goodness”

Mere ChristianityBook Four“Beyond Personality: or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity”

Making and BegettingTo beget is:To create is:

What is the fundamental difference between the two?

Why does it matter?

God of God,Light of Light,Lo, he abhors not the Virgin's womb;Very God,Begotten, not created:

Second verse of “O Come All Ye Faithful”

Bios and Zoe

Bios:LifeAnimal life (biology)Natural lifeMust be sustained by external forces (air, water, food)

Zoe:LifeBreathe of lifeExistence beyond the physicalVitalitySoulEnergySpirit (pneuma in Greek)Self-sustaining and eternal

Bios and Zoe (87)

“Bios has, to be sure, a certain shadowy or symbolic resemblance to Zoe: but only the sort of resemblance there is between a photo and a place, or a statue and a man.”

Why does it matter?Why should we aspire to Zoe life?

The Three-Personal God

Did this illustration help you envision the nature of the Triune God?

COULD YOU HAVE GUESSED?

…as you advance to more real and more complicated levels, you do not leave behind you the things you found on the simpler levels: you still have them, but combined in new ways—ways you could not imagine if you knew only the simpler levels. (89)

What is the purpose of trying to create an illustration of the Tri-unity of God that we can comprehend?

What is REALLY important? (89)

How can one be pulled into the Zoe and still remain himself?

Why is Lewis so focused on the need for believers to go to church? (90)

Time and Beyond Time

At the same moment. (91)

How do you respond to the idea that you really ARE alone with God? (92)

What does it mean that God is “too completely and utterly real to have” a history?

Does Lewis’s explanation of God being outside of time help with the quandary of predestination and free will?

Good Infection (91-96)

How do we get confused about the Father coming before the Son?

How can there be a cause that doesn’t come before the effect?

Does the idea that “God is Love” really necessitate at least two persons?

How is God more like a dance than anything else we can imagine?

Toy Soldiers (97-100)The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a foetus inside a woman’s body.

How did the Incarnation change the formula for acquiring Zoe and a life beyond Bios?

Two Notes

One Two

Why did God create rather than beget us? (99)

Individuals DO matter (100)

Let’s Pretend (101-103)

Why is “pretend” important?

…you are putting yourself in the place of a son of God. To put it bluntly, you are dressing up as Christ. If you like, you are pretending….You are not being like The Son of God, whose will and interests are at one with those of the Father: you are…doomed to death. So that, in a way, this dressing up as Christ is a piece of outrageous cheek… (101)

How does God turn us from tin to flesh?

How does He use other people to assist us in the transition?

What is the danger of relying on human hands?

As we begin the transformation into “new creatures”, what do we discover? (103)

Hard or Easy? (104-106)

How is Christianity both harder and easier than trying to meet the moral standard using the natural man as the starting point?

What is the result of playing Sinatra?

HOW IS IT SO TERRIBLE TO HAND OVER OUT WHOLE SELVES WHEN THE ETERNAL REWARD IS SO GREAT?

Did anyone else read this and say “wow”?

Christ says ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your

money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half measures are any good….Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.’ (104)

How can God command us to be perfect?

What is the purpose of the Church? (106)

What is the purpose of the Incarnation?

How does this idea connect to the challenge I gave you a couple of weeks ago?

HOW DO YOU COUNT THE COST?

That is why He warned people to 'count the cost' before

becoming Christians. 'Make no mistake,' He says, 'if you let

me, I will make you perfect. The moment you put yourself

in My hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or

other, than that. You have free will, and if you choose, you

can push Me away. But if you do not push Me away,

understand that I am going to see this job through.

Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life,

whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after

death, whatever it costs Me. I will never rest, not let you

rest, until you are literally perfect--until My Father can say

without reservation that He is well pleased with you, as He

said He was well pleased with Me. This I can do and will

do. but I will not do anything less.’

Philippians 1:6There has never

been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

So, who chooses the desired outcome?But the question is not what we

intended ourselves to be, but what He intended us to be when He made us. (108)

But all the time He knew His plan for us and was determined to carry it out.

To submit to it is not conceit or megalomania; it is obedience.

The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said. (109)

Nice People or New Men? (110-114)

Christ told us to judge by results.But how?By what standard?How do we do so without making Christianity unbelievable to the outside world?

For mere improvement is not redemption…God became man to turn creatures into sons….Why is it so hard to imagine becoming something “other?”

New Men (115-118)

We are being changed from being creatures of God to being sons of God. How profound is that?

How does knowing that make you think about your future?Or your present?

How will it change your prayer life?How will it change your attitude toward others?How will it change your reaction to circumstances?

There is so much of Him that millions and millions of ‘little Christs’, all different, will still be too few to express Him fully.(118)

IT IS WORTH THE PRICE

Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will really be yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.

HOMEWORK

Read The Great Divorce (313-362)Create an artistic rendering of some place discussed in the book.Prepare a presentation for your artwork.No essay this week.