PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS
MERE CHRISTIANITY
CHAPTER FOUR: The Perfect Penitent
Introduction
Once more explain Lewis' argument for the existence of God.
Now explain Lewis' argument for the claim that Jesus is God.
Passages in which Christ asserta His deity: John 5:16-18; John 10:30-33; 19:7; John 8.
Paragraph One: First, Lewis accepts Jesus' claim that He is truly God. If this is true, then 2000 years ago God in Jesus entered enemy territory, earth. Why would this earth be considered enemy territory in light of what Lewis has been writing about?
Paragraph Two: According to Lewis what was the purpose of Christ's coming to earth to die and rise again?
Earlier I told you that Christianity may not be true; however, you had better hope it is. All the other religions may offer hope, but Christianity offers confidence. We have an historical basis for our hope and belief.
Paragraph Three: Lewis claims that there is a difference between what happened 2000 years ago and the explanation of what happened 2000 years ago. Explain more fully what he means by that.
According to Lewis the explanation about what happened is not as important as what actually did happen. Just be careful with this though. The explanations about what happened are from the Bible; they are analogies or explanations God has chosen for us to understand what happened 2000 years ago. Do not dismiss them lightly.
Paragraph Four: Lewis uses Eddington and Jeans as examples of the fact being different from the explanation. How does he use them as examples?
Why is Lewis unconcerned that we CANNOT understand fully what happened 2000 years ago?
Is it necessary for a person to understand everything about a certain object if that object is to benefit you? Why or why not, and how does Lewis address this?
Paragraph Five: Although Lewis claims that the fact and the explanations are not one and the same, he still wants to look at one of the explanations of the fact, an explanation of the fact that Christ died and rose again.
Paragraph Six: Lewis is not crazy about the idea that Christ died for us to let us off from the punishment of death UNLESS you add in the element that you had a debt to pay and that Christ paid the debt for you. "It is a matter of common experience that, when one person has got himself into a hole, the trouble of getting him out usually falls on a kind person."
Paragraph Seven: What kind of hole has man gotten himself into? (Is he just an imperfect creature who has accidentally gotten himself into a fix?)
What is the only way we can get ourselves out of the hole?
Why can't we get ourselves out of the hole?
What is the only kind of person needs to repent and what is the only kind of person who can repent? (This is the dilemma.)
Paragraph Eight: Here Lewis describes the significance of repentance. God wants to take us back. Repentance is not necessary for GOD to take you back. Why though do you have to repent before God CAN take you back?
God can only take us back if we come back to Him, that is, repent; yet because we are sinners, we can't repent. We need help. We need to die to ourselves, we need to surrender; God can't help us because He doesn't die and He doesn't surrender. We're in a mess.
Paragraph Nine: What is God's solution to the predicament we're in?
Some claim that it is not fair that it was easy for God to do these things once He became a man. (I'm not sure that is right. The Garden of Gethsemane shows us that it was not quite that easy for Jesus. See also Hebrews 5.) Supposed these people were right though. How does Lewis answer their objections?
An Addendum: Other biblical explanations about the fact of the cross/empty grave:
Book Two
Chapter 4