Back to series
October 2008
Why are our churches so shallow today and our lives so entangled in the world and its values? Perhaps a large part of the answer is that we do not take sin seriously enough. One hears very little preaching about sin these days, and when we do take notice of our personal sins, we often regard them simply as mistakes, errors, or accidents.
The insights of C.S. Lewis about this problem are sobering and as relevant today as when he first penned them.
Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. Until we really feel this assumption of His to be true, though we are part of the world He came to save, we are not part of the audience to whom His words are addressed. We lack the first condition for understanding what He is talking about. And when men attempt to be Christians without this preliminary consciousness of sin, the result is almost bound to be a certain resentment against God as to one who is always making impossible demands and always inexplicably angry.
Most of us have at times felt a secret sympathy with the dying farmer who replied to the Vicar’s dissertation on repentance by asking, “What harm have I ever done Him?” There is the real rub. The worst we have done to God is to leave Him alone—why can’t He return the compliment? Why not live and let live?
What call had He, of all beings, to be “angry”? It’s easy for Him to be good!
Now at the moment when a man feels real guilt—moments too rare in our lives—all these blasphemies vanish away. Much, we may feel, can be excused to human infirmities: but not this—this incredibly mean and ugly action which none of our friends would have done, which even such a thorough-going little rotter as X would have been ashamed of, which we would not for the world allow to be published. At such a moment we really do know that our character, as revealed in this action, is, and ought to be, hateful to all good men, and, if there are powers above man, to them. A God who did not regard this with unappeasable distaste would not be a good being. We cannot even wish for such a God—it is like wishing that every nose in the universe were abolished, that the smell of hay or roses or the sea should never again delight any creature, because our own breath happens to stink.
When we merely say that we are bad, the “wrath” of God seems a barbarous doctrine; as soon as we perceive our badness, it appears inevitable, a mere corollary from God’s goodness. To keep ever before us the insight derived from such a moment as I have been describing, to learn to detect the same real inexcusable corruption under more and more of its complex disguises, is therefore indispensable to a real understanding of the Christian faith.1
One of the great objects of prayer should be for conviction of our sins and for a repentant heart. It is a prayer that is soon answered, clears the barriers that keep us from intimacy with God, and leaves joy in its wake.
1C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), pp. 50-52.
COPYRIGHT: This publication is published by C.S. Lewis Institute; 8001 Braddock Road, Suite 301; Springfield, VA 22151. Portions of the publication may be reproduced for noncommercial, local church or ministry use without prior permission. Electronic copies of the PDF files may be duplicated and transmitted via e-mail for personal and church use. Articles may not be modified without prior written permission of the Institute. For questions, contact the Institute: 703.914.5602 or email us.
-
Recent Podcasts
Reasons for God – Dr. Kathleen Noller’s Story
by Jana Harmon, Kathleen Noller on December 6, 2024Kathleen grew up in a loving, immigrant household...Read More
-
The Road Back – Trevor Lancon’s Story
by Trevor Lancon, Jana Harmon on November 15, 2024
-
From Politics to Pampers
by Michelle Morgan Knott, Aimee Riegert on November 15, 2024
-
Recent Publications
How Artists and Their Art Can Point Us to the Creator
by Russ Ramsey on December 2, 2024"... if you say that you want to...Read More
-
Will You Be Ready?
by Thomas A. Tarrants on October 23, 2024
-
Should Christians Be Involved with Politics?
by Kerry A. Knott on October 1, 2024
0
All Booked
0.00
All Booked
0.00
All Booked
23169
ADVENT CALENDAR: The Amazing Prophecies Fulfilled by the Birth of Jesus Christ
https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/?event=advent-calendar-the-amazing-prophecies-fulfilled-by-the-birth-of-jesus-christ&event_date=2024-12-10®=1
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr
2024-12-10
Next coming event
Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
ADVENT CALENDAR: The Amazing Prophecies Fulfilled by the Birth of Jesus Christ
On December 10, 2024 at 6:00 amSpeakers
C.S. Lewis Institute
Author
Team Members
C.S. Lewis Institute
Author
C.S. Lewis Institute, in the legacy of C.S. Lewis, works to develop wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ who will articulate, defend, share, and live their faith in personal and public life. Founded in 1976 by Dr. James Houston and James R. Hiskey, the Institute provides leading teachers who address important issues of the day from the perspective of Biblical orthodoxy, while also providing discipleship for individuals in small groups.