(Rev. Jaehoon Lee) This is Chapter 7 of Book 4
'Let's Pretend'
Let's begin
Last time,
we discussed the Triune God
The purpose, or the goal
of the Triune God's work
(Human bios ➔ God's zoe) is granting us
His eternal life
Chapter 7 applies this logic
So how can we accept
this work of salvation by the Triune God?
When we receive Jesus,
or accept Jesus as our Lord and our God,
or believe in Him,
this faith
of Jesus as our Savior
has to include this logic
that we discussed
What do we believe in?
When we accept Jesus as the Savior,
what is happening inside us?
The Triune God transformed the bios life
to a zoe life, from biological to eternal
Faith is what we allow God to work in us
Faith is yielding, allowing, accepting,
and following God to transform us
Therefore, it is
not something we do within ourselves
The work of the Triune God
should be accepted so that
it can work as our faith
This acceptance
may be misunderstood as
that we decide things
Our free will within us
could reject this work
until the end of time
(Free will can reject) Since God created us with free will,
if we reject the salvation
and do not accept it,
then it will not be within us
This is also why
God treats us personally
The title of Chapter 7
'Let's Pretend'
And it does not mean fabricating
a situation or attitude deceitfully
This pretension means participating in
making the things promised to us
in faith
so that the promise, the vision could happen a reality
This requires our participation in faith
That's the meaning behind 'Let's Pretend'
Lewis takes two familiar stories
as examples in this chapter
First is 'Beauty and the Beast'
A beauty has married a beast,
and the beast turns into a man
It's a fairytale story,
but it would be marvelous
if it happens in reality,
that a beast turns into a gentleman
It will be very touching
Lewis says that this is what happens
when we have faith in Jesus
The corrupt, beast-like nature within us due to sin
(Faith: Beast/Sinner ➔Man/Son) transforms us into a being before God
There is another story
Since he is a literature scholar,
I myself am not too familiar with this story
Someone who has been wearing a mask,
and later that face becomes his own face
This means,
when we believe in Jesus
It shows the kind of pretension
that we need in our Christian life
This isn't a pretension
where the bad drives away the good
The good drives away
the bad in this pretension
Therefore, in this chapter,
Lewis claims that
living in faith of Jesus Christ
means retaining the hope
to become like Him one day,
enrobed in Him, pretending like Him
And it will come true to us one day
It is hard for us to accept this
because this requires the faith
in the work of Jesus Christ
through the Triune God
(Faith in God➔Pretension as His children becomes our reality) Accepting Jesus as my Lord and God,
believing that His cross has fully cleansed my sins,
and knowing that the Holy Spirit resides
assures us that this promise can indeed become a reality within us
Therefore, God has seen
that we'd become like Jesus Christ
when He chose us and saved us
It is something we must fulfill each day
('...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling' [Phil. 2:12]) Working out our salvation
('...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling' [Phil. 2:12]) is hoping for and striving toward this transformation
to be like Jesus, and it will take place one day
Here's another example
This is an example of
what changes within us
as the good drives away the b ad
When children do a role-play,
they act like adults
They do housework in the kitchen,
which is just a toy kitchen
They act like they're at work,
in a business meeting,
making a contract
and building things
Children act like adults in this role-play
But what is it in essence?
Children are unable to
work like real adults, either in business or household
However,
is this necessarily hypocrisy?
This is not a mere child's play
As children act like adults,
they soon become adults themselves
That is how they become 'real' adults
It is like us becoming like Christ
It is as if children act like adults in their role-play,
which soon becomes their reality
As we try to live like Christ,
it is not something
hypocritically distant
As we stand in faith, work hard in Him
to strive for realizing the promise
in our daily lives,
what can happen is
that Jesus Christ works in us,
transforming us
to be more like Christ
Let me read out
a quote for you
This is what Lewis says in the chapter
'A child grows into an adult by pretending to act like one'
'Similarly, when we begin to put on the appearance of Christ,
the Son of God, Christ Himself starts to transform
our pretense into reality beside us'
'The true Son of God stands by us
and begins to change us into beings like Himself'
'He fills us with His own zoe, or eternal life,
and turns us from mere tin soldiers into living human beings'
‘Christ works primarily through people'
'Each person can be a mirror or bearer of Christ for others'
What we do
is to accept God's work
that happens within us
It is yielding, obeying, and acknowledging
The amazing thing is,
that promise will manifest within us,
revealing the power of God at work,
transforming us
to be like Christ
Another quote says,
'God looks upon us as though we were "little Christs",
and Christ, being by our side, begins to shape us into real little Christs
The baby cannot yet understand their mother's language
(Baby: Cannot understand (Human)) However the mother keeps talking to them like they are an adult
(Mother: Treats the baby like an adult (Pretend like Christ)) Then, the child, by hearing and repeating what they hear,
(Understands and speaks (Little Christ)) gradually learns language and starts to speak like an adult
A baby may not
be able to speak properly
in correct grammar,
but their parents cannot
mirror this nonsense language
That won't help the baby,
and they won't communicate
The baby may be babbling
and expressing nonsense,
but the parents continue
to 'pretend' that the language is intact
That's how the baby
learns the language
As the children of God,
obeying the things
that God tells us
is learning the language of Heaven
as well as being like Christ
This requires ceaseless training,
devotion, yielding and obeying in faith
That's how this
will be happening in us
Book 4 Beyond Personality, or First Steps in Understanding the Trinity Chapter 8 Is Christianity Hard or Easy?
This chapter is titled, 'Is Christianity Hard or Easy?'
Our life in faith,
is it hard or easy?
It is both ways
How is it hard?
It's because
we cannot do it with our ability
Then how is it easy?
That’s because it’s not about following
a set of fixed rules
step by step
Let's take painting a portrait
But instead of having rules on how to draw that person,
it'll be much easier to have a photo of the person
The ears should look like this,
the eyes should look like that,
and the hair should look like this
Rather than following
these rules to paint one,
It is much easier
to paint based on a photograph
to paint that person
Morality, to us,
is like this list of rules
Should, must, have to,
to live our life
Following them
is very difficult
However, simply
copying a photograph
is much easier
That's how being like Christ is both easy and hard
Nevertheless,
what is the easiest way?
(Christ accomplishes everything (grants a new self)) It is easy because Christ within m accomplishes all of these things fully
(The personal cross (the death of the natural self)) What is difficult for us is that we must completely die to ourselves
We must fully crucify our own selves on the cross
Without crucifying
ourselves,
such work cannot be done
In this way,
Christianity is both hard and easy
That's the point Lewis claims
in this chapter
Let me quote an important paragraph from Chapter 8
'The Church exists to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs'
'Without this, cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are a waste of time'
'God became Man for no other purpose'
'It is even doubtful, you know, whether
the whole universe was created for any other purpose'
The Church exists solely to lead people to Jesus Christ and transform them into 'little Christs'
(God's Plan (Son)) the Triune God planned,
(Jesus' Atonement (The Cross)) Jesus fulfilled it on earth,
(Death of Ego (Our Cross)) and requires us to deny ourselves at the foot of the cross
For those who renounce themselves, the power of the Triune God is present,
working within them to live out eternal life
This is the gospel,
the blessing
that followers of Jesus gets
Book 4 Beyond Personality, or First Steps in Understanding the Trinity
Chapter 7: Let’s Pretend 1. The Meaning of Pretending Crafting a false attitude or situation (X) Actively participating in what is promised to us so it becomes real (O)
2. Belief in the Triune God Believing in the Triune God makes our “pretending” as God’s children real
Child and Adult Child (Human) ➔ Play (in hope to be like Jesus) ➔ Adult (Becoming more like Jesus)
Chapter 8: Is Christianity Hard or Easy? 1. Living Like Jesus
2. The Natural Self vs. the New Self Self-Cross (Death of the natural self) ➔ Jesus completes the work (Grants us the new self)
3. The Church’s Purpose The church exists solely to shape individuals into 'little Christs'