In C.S Lewis's essay "The Poison of Subjectivism", Lewis brings up a point that is very important. While the essay is not as simple as many of his other argumentative pieces, it is still very informative.
Lewis cautions us not to subjectify religion. "A theology which goes about to represent our practical reason as radically unsound is heading for disaster." This is one of the most important things I feel we should take away. We have been blessed with the ability to discern what is right and what is wrong. As Christians it is so easy to wallow in our imperfection, an imperfection we were given to over come through Christ, and forget that we have some value as humans to God. Why else would he offer us the gift of salvation if we did not have some redeeming qualities? Allowing the doubts about our own imperfections to prevaid the mind only serves the purposes of the Devil, I submit. As C.S Lewis states, "If we once admit that what God means by "goodness" is sheerly different from what we judge to be good, there is no difference left between pure religion and devil worship." We need to give ourselves some credit.
Today in class there was much controversy over Chapter three, which was about what constitutes as sin in the eyes of God. In regards to the fall and it's effect on sin, as a Moravian I do not subscribe to wallowing in my own built in failiars as a human. I see no point in it. It has been stated that I am flawed and nothing I can do will change that. I look to Christ, as he is the only solution, and squabbling about what we as humans think God considers sin is unproductive to what the heart of the matter truly should be. For all we know, every action we make as believers is a sin in the eyes of God. There is no clear cut answer. All we can do is say, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner", and pray that His goodness will save us. It is not our duty to say, as the Pharisee did in the temple, "Look at that non-believer, every good action he commits is a sin." It is not our place, nor our calling, and will only bring about discord and petty pride into the hearts of those who deem it necessary to entertain such thoughts. All we can do is ask for forgiveness of our own sins, pray for the rod of sin in our eyes to be forgiven, and leave the judgment of our non-christian brother's sin to God.
I know that this post will breed some discontent for some, but I feel it is nessisary to say as it is what has been playing on my heart.
God is goodness and light. Everything else pales in comparison. It is a non-essential.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I like that you point out that we should focus more on essentials and not sweat the small stuff. This is like the senior in our class, Mary I believe, said that all the time we spend bickering about the small stuff that is not important to our faith is time spent, in essence, serving the devil which is why organized religion, while necessary, has some major flaws of which this focus on unimportant details, which even Jesus condemns amongst the pharisees is silly and does not forward God's kingdom
ReplyDeleteWOW!!!! Very nice. I love your thoughts about coming to God and just saying "I am a sinner in need of your grace." I, too, can not wallow in self pity because of my sins. Like I was tell some friends a while back, a person can only feel pity with their sins till they survey the wondrous Cross, where they king of glory died. Further, a person can only wallow in sorrow about the cross, till they look at their savour raise from the Grave to conquer sin and death.
ReplyDelete