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God’s Righteousness
Lewis is a big supporter of the notion that all human beings have within them a twinge of the Divine spark that helps us recognize the difference between right and wrong behavior. There are some differences to be sure, just like there are differences in people who have the ability to be muscially inclined, but all human beings have the ability to appreciate music. In the same way, all humanity has the ability to know right from wrong. What Lewis call the basic "human nature". We may disagree how many wives a man may have, but we have never disagreed that he should have any woman at any time regardless of the feelings of others.
Why should this be so? Because, Lewis suggest, our lives are NOT governed by the survival of the fittest but by the deeper Spirit that speak to us about right and wrong. But if we know what is right and what is wrong, then how well do we live by what we know?
Not very well. We expect the goodness of God to exact punishment on those we determine are evil (Hitler and Stalin for example), but let us off for the lesser crimes of greed, apathy, and racism. "God," Lewis writes, "is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies."
What can we do about this predicament? Are you ready to face God for the life you've been living?
You say that Lewis believes each person has the “Divine spark that helps him determine the difference between right and wrong.” You go on to mention Hitler and Stalin as human beings for whom we would “exact punishment” for the “wrong” atrocities that each committed. If, as Lewis suggests, these two men had within them the Divine spark to discern “right” from “wrong,” why did they choose to do and be so wrong?
What is it, perhaps who is it, that causes any man (woman) to do “wrong” when he or she knows what is the “right” thing to do?
In “Mere Christianity,” Lewis says, “We are in a terrible fix…if there does exist an absolute goodness, it must hate most of what we do.” Does God HATE?
If God does not hate, which I suspect He doesn’t since He is love personified, then what three words would you use to indicate the way He reacts to “what we do”?
Still in “Mere Christianity,” Lewis says, “If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless again.” Is it? Is “our case” hopeless? If it is not hopeless, then how and why is it not hopeless? What must we do — each of us – to keep “our case” from being hopeless?
Also…what is the answer so that we do not make “ourselves enemies to that goodness every day”? What must we do so that “God is [our] comfort…[not] the supreme terror” so that “He is our…ally, [not our enemy]” so that He is the “great safety…[not] the great danger”?
Wow, great questions Cyndi! Here’s my take on the discussion…
We make God our ally and remove him as our enemy by accepting his freely-given gift of Grace. Otherwise, there is nothing we can do to prevent ourselves from being “enemies to that goodness every day.” We can never live up to his perfect, holy standard. Part of the GOSPEL Journey video series we watched with the youth last year discussed how the Ten Commandments are not really so much rules for us to follow as a reminder that there is nothing we can do to EARN God’s favor. That’s not to say we can live in anarchy and expect perfect forgiveness, but that we can do our very best and still not reach the standard God sets…thus reminding us how much we need Him and how our ONLY means of salvation is to accept His grace through faith.
If there was anything we could do other than accept grace to earn God’s favor, there was no reason for Jesus to suffer and die…God could have sent any prophet to admonish us to do good deeds, but instead he came to earth himself, lived a fully human life among us, and endured the Cross to atone for the sins for which we are utterly unable to atone ourselves.
Certainly, we are saved by grace through faith for more than just to reserve our seat in Heaven. Once we receive God’s gift of grace, we are compelled to respond in how we act and live. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph. 2:10 NIV)
Once we accept grace, we are living in God’s kingdom…”on Earth as it is in Heaven…” not as it WILL BE in Heaven, but as it IS in Heaven. We are already living in His kingdom…eternal life doesn’t begin the day we die, it begins the day we accept Christ.
To me, this is what keeps our case from being hopeless. Responding in faith to grace received by faith is where our hope lies. We don’t do good works to glorify or sanctify ourselves, we do them to glorify God.
Sorry for rambling there…hope this all makes sense. I find the whole notion of grace by faith, and faith without good works being dead to be one of the most difficult concepts to grasp myself, and it is really something that you see young people struggling with. It almost seems like a “bait and switch” scheme at times. That’s why I really like coming back to that verse in Ephesians…that we are saved by grace IN ORDER to do good works.
Why do people choose darkness over light? Why did Hitler and Stalin become so evil if they have the divine spark within them?
I would simply say FEAR
When Adam and Eve ate the apple, the first emotion they felt afterwards was not jubulation over their new found wisdom they have been promised, but utter fear and terror. And so they hid.
Most people, I believe, are hiding even today, or perhaps better, they are running away as fast as they can. We spend more time working, playing, and entertaining ourselves in order to avoid the painful reality of our lives.
In order to justify ourselves, we often do the most horrendous things to seek power, security, and possessions. But we are always haunted by the divine spark that reminds us of the futility of it all.
Lewis says that we desperately need to believe in an absolute goodness in order for the universe to be tolerable. But we are making this goodness our enemy because of the bad things we do. The situation is truly hopeless. There is really nothing we can do to make up for the mess we’ve made of our lives. God really does “hate” the evil that we do to one another and His wrath is stopped only by his Grace.
Since there is nothing we can do, God did it for us in the person of Jesus. Jesus took our punishment and for those who believe in Him, he gave the right to become children of God. Jesus is the answer, the hope, and the meaning of life.
WOW!, kettle, we are lost truly lost, aren’t we? Your explanation in the first box causes me to conjure in my mind’s eye the image of thousands of ants scurrying about the sidewalk after their anthill has been destroyed; and they are lost having no idea where to go, what to look for, what to hope to find. We are those ants! “The situation is truly hopeless.”
Until my reading and rereading of your comments in both boxes, I don’t think I have ever truly understood the scope of God’s Grace. I don’t think I have ever truly understood the magnanimity of His saving Grace. Oh, what fools we are and how we deceive ourselves. We can do absolutely nothing to save ourselves, yet we think we control our lives and our destiny. We don’t! How we deceived ourselves and how easily we are deceived. We are lost sheep, aren’t we? Praise God for the Good Shepherd. “What a mess we have made of our lives since the beginning of time; the situation is truly hopeless.” That is until God steps in. WOW! What God “did for us in the person of Jesus.” Thank you, kettle, for helping me see that. Thank you for painting the total picture for me so that I can but shake my head in total amazement while praising God for His perfect love and His “Amazing Grace.”
kettle, still referring to your comments in the two boxes.
You say that “we spend…time…to avoid the painful reality of our lives.” The obvious answer to my question is that you are still talking about the hopelessness of our lives and our inability to control anything let alone our destiny. But…Is there another “painful reality to our lives” that you have not addressed yet thinking about?
Also, kettle, where does the Bible and our studying the Word and our knowing God and His expectations for us fall into all of this? If we are already saved by His Grace and the fact that Christ paid our sin-debt in full when He was crucified, then why have the Bible? What is its purpose in this “hopeless” existence of ours?
Grace is God’s gifts to transform our lives from fear to an awareness of God’s love and purpose. This gift is meant to lead us further in a relationship with God through the Scriptures that reveal who God is and what our purpose is. As redeemed forgive people, we should want to go deeper in our relationship with God.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Galatians 5:1
“You were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” Galatians 5:13