Tuesday, December 18, 2007

The Glory of God is Man Fully Alive

Did you ever think when you were a child, what fun it would be if your toys could come to life? Well suppose you could really have brought them to life. Imagine turning a tin soldier into a real little man. it would involve turning the tin into flesh. And suppose the tin soldier did not like it. He is not interested in flesh: all he sees is the tin is being spoilt. He thinks you are killing him. He will do everything he can to prevent you. He will not be made into a man if he can help it.
What you would have done about that tin soldier I do not know. But what God did about us was this. The Second Person in God, the Son, became human Himself: was born into the world as an actual man- a real man of particular height, with hair of a particular color, speaking a particular language, weighing so many stone. The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only man but (before that) a baby, and before that a fetus inside a woman's body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.
The result of this was that you now had one man who really was what all men were intended to be: one man in whom the created life, derived from His Mother, allowed itself to be completely and perfectly turned into the begotten life. the natural human creature in Him was taken up fully into the divine Son. Thus in one instance humanity had, so to speak, arrived: had passed into the life of the Christ. And because the the whole difficulty for us is that the natural life has to be, in a sense, 'killed', He chose an earthly career which involved the killing of His human desires at every turn- poverty, misunderstanding from His own family, betrayal,
by one of His intimate friends, being jeered at and manhandled by the Police, and execution by torture. And then, after being thus killed-killed every day in a sense- the human creature in Him, because it was united to the divine Son, came to life again. The Man in Christ rose again: not only the God. That is the whole point. For the first time we saw a real man. One tin soldier- real tin, just like the rest- had come fully and splendidly alive.

from Mere Christianity
and A Year with C.S. Lewis, Daily Readings from His Classic Works

3 comments:

  1. Wow. This is great.

    Such a thought. Jesus gave up so much to save us. More than is imaginable.

    Our pastor just gave a sermon about this a few weeks ago. He read verses describing Heaven...describing Jesus sitting on the throne, and all the angels surrounding Him, singing His praises and worshiping Him. And then (this part was just my pastor's imagination) He gets up, takes off His crown, and places it on His throne. And He goes to earth, knowing the pain He would have to endure, and becomes lowly man.

    It is an unbelievable sacrifice, isn't it?

    Thanks for sharing, Denise!

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  2. What words the Lord gave C.S.Lewis. Thank you Denise for sharing it with us. It's been awhile since I have read Mere Christianity.

    By the way,
    I love seeing your beautiful family picture when I come by. What a beautiful family you all are.

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  3. That was great & so meaningful! Thank you for sharing this with us. What a great analogy too. Merry Christmas Denise!

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