"Faith in this sense arises after a man has tried his level best to practise the Christian virtues, and found that he fails, and seen that even if he could he would only be giving back to God what was already God’s own. In other words, he discovers his bankruptcy.... What he [God] cares about is that we should be creatures of a certain kind or quality—the kind of creatures He intended us to be—creatures related to Himself in a certain way. I do not add ‘and related to one another in a certain way’, because that is included: if you are right with Him you will inevitably be right with all your fellow-creatures."[Ch. 12]
What are your thoughts and/or reactions? I really want to know how this passage makes you feel.
What are your thoughts and/or reactions? I really want to know how this passage makes you feel.
2 comments:
I've always found C. S. Lewis' writings to be a little "over my head" intellectually. He was a very, very smart man and an academic. I feel fortunate to just make it through each day intellectually (and at the end of the day thank God that I was able to do so). I'm also pretty simple, not complex, and not much of an academic. All that is to say, I'm not sure that I can shine any new light on these few sentences from Chapter 12 for you. But, without knowing the full context of the sentences before and after these, I will take a stab at what it appears to me he is saying.
Be authentic! If you have faith in God, recognize that you are nothing without Him and without salvation in Christ. Then live an authentic life. A life that is consistent with God and with others He places in your path as you live your life as a follower of Christ.
That's all I have to offer. Hope it helps!
Love you!
I love the quote, Katie. Is this from "Mere Christianity?" Whether it is or not, I get excited about anything Lewis.
My "feelings" on it is this: God didn't make us in order for us to operate on our own. Sometimes going from unbelief to belief can be disappointing because we perhaps had this thought that all of a sudden our lives would change and we would live in perfect virtue in our personal lives and in connection with others. Not so. We realize pretty soon that life isn't too much different on the outside, but that our inner-self is different. We now have Christ in us. But what do we do? Do we conjure up pleasant virtues to please our inner-occupant and to make our outside world more pleasant? I think not again. This only lasts for awhile until like Lewis says, we come up against "bankrupcy". I think what I've taken from this is this: give up. Don't try to keep on keepin on. Relinquish your life to the one who lives inside of you and you'll find HIM moving and talking and loving through you. He said, "I've come to bring life, and MORE abundantly." Now where does abundance come from anyways?
Love you,
Gail
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