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)Was C.S. Lewis saying here that everybody is a Christian? No. Was he suggesting that everybody is going to heaven? No. Was he suggesting that since the work of Jesus on the cross includes all mankind, there is no need for us to place our faith in Him? No.
What he is saying is that the work of the cross is finished whether we believe it or not. We "have to appropriate that salvation" but "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."
This is the message that we have the joy of proclaiming to everybody! Not a potential gospel of "what Jesus will do for you" but a pure gospel of what has already been done in the man, Christ Jesus, for every person. Yes, people need to believe and receive it, but we believe because it is true. We don't believe so that it can become true.
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Love it! Very succinct. I think the problem with a lot of people regarding this supposed "universalism view" is really semantics and their view on original sin. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteVery good quote, I can share this with the guys in my Bible study who are starting to come around, but fall back into the status quo so easily
ReplyDeleteReally really good find pastor
ReplyDeleteAMEN!! appropriation is the key
ReplyDeleteA 'few' favourite CSL quotes :)
"No creature that deserved Redemption would need to be redeemed" -CSLewis
"The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him" -CSLewis
"If God thinks this state of war in the universe is a price worth paying for free will, then it is worth paying" -CSLewis
"All God does in the end is give people what they most want, including freedom from Himself. What could be more fair?" -CSLewis
"God willed the free will of men and angels in spite of His knowledge that it could lead in some cases to sin and thence to suffering: i.e., He thought freedom worth creating even at that price."
In his radio broadcast, Lewis indicated that God "gave [humans] free will. He gave them free will because a world of mere automata could never love..."
"Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even agony into a glory" -CSLewis
"Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed and is calling us to His great campaign of sabotage" -CSLewis
"Free will, though it makes evil possible, also makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having" -CSLewis
"Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever?" - CSLewis
Hi Steve...
ReplyDeleteThere are a few lines here that disturb me -
"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."
"IF we WILL only lay ourselves open to the one Man in whom it was fully present"
"We "HAVE to appropriate that salvation" "
These lines show to me the problem i see that is the same problem i had with Baxter Kruger's message - i was very into the Perichoresis ministry for quite a while until a few years ago, but found in the end that although the message seemed so much better on the surface than the traditional gospel it eventually became nothing different. All that has happened is that the goal posts have been shifted back ...but there are still goal posts.
The traditional gospel says something like Jesus has done the work but you have to believe in it to be saved - ie jesus has done 50% or more of the work but our decision for him makes up the other 50%....What i found in the Perichoresis message and now am finding in your message is more like
Jesus did 99% of the work, and all we have to do is the other 1% - See Martin Zender's brilliant book 'The Really Bad Thing About Free Will' for a full explanation of this concept - totally brilliant!! He takes to task lines like those above in his book. Eg has a page that says According to the Salvation by Willpower doctrine "It's not the 99.9999999999% that Jesus does that saves, but the 0.0000000001% that you do that makes salvation real"
It doesen't matter if one says 'Jesus died for you and you can be saved if you do 'add whatever' here OR
Jesus has recociled the whole world - yet you still have to make a decision to make it real...
In the end it's still all up to YOU! I can't handle that pressure.
I pressed Baxter Kruger about this quite abit and he did not want to deal with it.... He always used the line 'God did not makes us robots' - i agree - it's worse than that - we are like clay! When he came to Australia he did not realise that most christians in Australia are dominated more by Arminianism, and not the hyper Calvinisim that he came from...
I and a few others who regularly went to Perichoresis meetings eventually moved on , and while i am more of a believer in Ultimate Reconcilation now i don't want to be described as a dogmatic universalist but more of a very hopeful universalist...
Please dont' see this as an attack on you...i agree with most other stuff you say - just see this part of your message as inconsistent.
Thanks
sammy
I am a new creation in Christ. It's Christ's perfect righteousness, for only Jesus Christ is perfectly righteous; not my imperfect works which are perfectly unrighteous.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Steve.
Hi Steve
ReplyDeleteThanks for adding to the thought! It is 100% Father, Son and Holy Spirit and 100% us! How could this it be otherwise! Every person on this planet is totally 100% involved, included, but can we rest in this, that is the question?
Jesus Christ becomes the stumbling block for those who do not choose to rest! All of this has more to do with the delusion of the dualism of the knowledge of good and evil and how we have become our own judge, critic and jury than to just believe by the faith of Jesus through the Spirit for the Father! To live forgiven, in right standing and without judgment! All of this takes training by the Spirit!
The tentacles of the delusion of right and wrong are deeply engrained in our flesh life, and those who are seeking and searching, asking many questions and who have doubts, (like me) see dimly this new created Zoë life that has been given to all of us in the humanity of Jesus! I just do not get it all! Do You!
We all, including me, need to give it a REST!
It's a joy to have the way to God opened up by Christ's Death and Resurrection and we coming to Him, at the cross and beyond the empty tomb to see ourselves seated in the heavelies! Great blog! Love found a way to redeem me and nothing can separate us from Father's hand! I love C.S. Lewis!
ReplyDeleteI believe that we have to appropriate that salvation through believing and faith (Acts 16:31). We (the whole earth) are not all sons of God. Sonship happens only through belief and faith in the Son of God. Only then do we have a live Spirit.
ReplyDeleteSteveM
ReplyDeleteIn the book i mention above (martin zender's which i highly recommend) that very verse Acts 16:31 is addressed in detail - showing that it's not a passage talking about how to get saved but in context as all the narratives (eg Acts, Matthew etc) are descriptives of the gospel in action. Other people i know will quote John 1:12 'to all who received Him He gave the right to become children of God' - yet this would oppose passages like in Romans 9:16 - it does not depend on man's desire or effort but on God's mercy... the key thing is to divide the word of God rightly - passages like Acts, Mark are implicit in showing the Gospel where as the letters like Romans, Ephesians etc are EXPLICIT - they show how the gospel actually happens.... If not then we can all play bible games back and forth to each other forever because on face value alot of passages seem to contradict each other...
sammy