Mere Christianity - Book Four - Let's Pretend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Four

 

 

Beyond Personality:

Or First Steps In The Doctrine Of The Trinity

 

 

 

 

7. Let's Pretend

     May I once again start  by putting two pictures, or two stories rather,
into your minds? one is  the story you  have all read called Beauty and  the
Beast. The girl, you remember,  had to marry a  monster for some reason. And
she did. She kissed it as if it were a man. And then, much to her relief, it
really turned into a man and all went well. The other story is about someone
who had to wear a mask; a mask which made him look much nicer than he really
was. He had to wear it for  year.  And  when he took it off he found his own
face had grown to fit it. He was  now really  beautiful.  What had begun  as
disguise had become a reality. I think both these stories may (in a fanciful
way,  of course)  help to illustrate what I have to say in this chapter.  Up
till  now, I have been trying to describe  facts-what God is and what He has
done. Now I want  to talk about practice-what do we do next? What difference
does  all this  theology make? It can start  making a difference tonight. If
you are interested enough to have read thus  far you are probably interested
enough to  make a  shot at saying your prayers: and, whatever  else you say,
you will probably say the Lord's Prayer.

     Its  very  first words are Our Father. Do you now  see what those words
mean? They mean quite frankly, that you are putting yourself in the place of
a son of God. To put it bluntly, you are dressing up as Christ. If you like,
you  are  pretending.  Because, of  course, the  moment you realise what the
words mean, you  realise  that you  are not a son of God.  You are not being
like The Son of God, whose will and interests are at  one with those  of the
Father: you  are a bundle of self-centred fears,  hopes, greeds, jealousies,
and self-conceit,  all doomed to death.  So that, in a way, this dressing up
as Christ is a piece of outrageous cheek.  But  the odd thing is that He has
ordered us to do it.

     Why? What is the good of pretending  to be what you are not? Well, even
on the human  level, you know, there are two kinds of pretending. There is a
bad kind, where the pretence is  there instead of  the real thing; as when a
man pretends he is  going  to help  you instead of  really  helping you. But
there  is also a good  kind,  where the pretence leads up to the real thing.
When you are not feeling particularly friendly but know you ought to be, the
best thing you can do, very often, is to put on a friendly manner and behave
as if you  were a nicer person than you  actually are. And in a few minutes,
as we have all noticed, you will be really feeling friendlier than you were.
Very often the only way to get a quality in  reality is to start behaving as
if you had it  already.  That is why children's games are so important. They
are  always  pretending to be grown-ups-playing soldiers,  playing shop. But
all the time, they are hardening their muscles and sharpening their wits, so
that the pretence of being grown-up helps them to grow up in earnest.

     Now, the moment  you realise "Here I am, dressing up as Christ," it  is
extremely  likely that you will  see at once some way in which  at that very
moment the pretence could be made less of a pretence  and more of a reality.
You will find several  things going on in your mind which would not be going
on there  if  you were really a son  of  God.  Well,  stop  them. Or you may
realise  that, instead  of saying your  prayers, you ought to be  downstairs
writing a letter, or helping your wife to wash-up. Well, go and do it.

     You  see what  is happening. The Christ Himself, the Son of God who  is
man  (just like you) and God (just like His Father) is actually at your side
and  is  already  at that  moment  beginning to turn  your  pretence into  a
reality. This  is not  merely a fancy  way of saying that your conscience is
telling you  what  to do. If  you simply ask your  conscience, you  get  one
result:  if you  remember that you are  dressing  up as  Christ,  you get  a
different one. There are lots of things which your conscience might not call
definitely wrong (specially things in  your mind)  but which you will see at
once you cannot go on doing if you are seriously trying to  be like  Christ.
For you are no longer thinking  simply about right and wrong; you are trying
to  catch  the  good  infection  from  a Person. It is more like  painting a
portrait than like  obeying  a set of rules. And the odd thing is that while
in one way it  is much harder than keeping  rules,  in another way it is far
easier.

     The real Son of  God is at your side.  He is beginning to turn you into
the same kind of thing as Himself. He is beginning, so to speak, to "inject"
His kind of life  and thought, His Zoe, into you; beginning  to turn the tin
soldier into a live man. The part of  you that does not like it  is the part
that is still tin.

     Some of you may feel that this is very unlike your  own experience. You
may say "I've  never had  the sense  of being helped by an invisible Christ,
but I often have been helped by other human beings." That is rather like the
woman in the first war who said that if there were a bread shortage it would
not bother  her  house because they always ate toast. If there is  no  bread
there will be no toast. If there were no help from Christ, there would be no
help from other human beings. He works on us in all sorts of  ways: not only
through what we think our "religious life." He works through Nature, through
our  own bodies, through books, sometimes through experiences which seem (at
the time) anti-Christian. When a young man who has been going to church in a
routine way honestly realises that he does not  believe in  Christianity and
stops going-provided he does it for honesty's sake and not just to annoy his
parents-the spirit of Christ is probably nearer to him then than it ever was
before. But above all, He works on us through each other.

     Men  are mirrors,  or "carriers"  of Christ  to  other  men.  Sometimes
unconscious carriers. This "good infection" can be carried by those who have
not got it themselves. People  who were not Christians themselves  helped me
to  Christianity.  But usually it is those  who know Him  that bring  Him to
others. That is why the Church, the whole body of Christians showing  Him to
one another, is so important.  You might  say  that when  two Christians are
following Christ together there is not  twice as  much Christianity as  when
they are apart, but sixteen times as much.

     But do  not forget this. At first it is  natural for a baby to take its
mother's  milk without knowing  its mother. It  is equally natural for us to
see the man who helps us without seeing  Christ behind him. But we  must not
remain babies. We must go on to recognise the  real Giver. It is madness not
to. Because, if we  do not, we shall be relying on human beings. And that is
going to let us down. The best of them will  make mistakes; all of them will
die. We must  be thankful  to all the  people  who  have helped  us, we must
honour  them  and love them. But never, never  pin your whole  faith on  any
human being: not if he  is the best and wisest in the whole world. There are
lots of nice things you can do with sand; but do not try building a house on
it.

     And now we begin to see  what  it is that  the New Testament is  always
talking about. It talks about Christians  "being born again"; it talks about
them "putting on  Christ";  about Christ "being  formed  in us";  about  our
coming to "have the mind of Christ."

     Put  right out  of your head the idea that these are only fancy ways of
saying  that Christians  are to read what Christ said and  try to  carry  it
out-as a man may read what Plato or Marx said and try  to carry it out. They
mean something much  more than  that. They mean  that a real Person, Christ,
here and now, in that  very room where you are saying your prayers, is doing
things to  you.  It is not a  question of a good man who died  two  thousand
years ago. It is a living Man, still as much a man as you, and still as much
God as He was when He created the world, really  coming and interfering with
your very self; killing the old natural  self  in you and  replacing it with
the  kind  of  self  He has. At first,  only for moments.  Then  for  longer
periods. Finally, if all goes well, turning you permanently into a different
sort  of  thing; into  a new little Christ, a being  which, in its own small
way,  has the  same  kind of  life as God; which  shares in His power,  joy,
knowledge and eternity. And soon we make two other discoveries.

     (1)  We  begin  to notice,  besides  our  particular  sinful acts,  our
sinfulness; begin to be alarmed not only about what we do, but about what we
are. This may sound rather difficult, so I will try to make it clear from my
own case. When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of
the day, nine  times out of ten the  most  obvious  one is  some sin against
charity; I have sulked  or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the
excuse  that immediately  springs to my mind is that the provocation was  so
sudden and unexpected: I was caught off my guard, I had  not time to collect
myself.  Now  that may  be  an extenuating  circumstance  as  regards  those
particular  acts: they would obviously be worse if they had  been deliberate
and premeditated. on the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken
off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what
pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there
are rats  in  a cellar you  are most  likely  to see them if you go  in very
suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them
from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make
me an ill-tempered man: it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I  am. The
rats are  always there  in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily
they will have taken  cover before you switch  on  the light. Apparently the
rats of resentment and vindictiveness are always  there in  the cellar of my
soul. Now that cellar is out of reach of  my conscious will.  I can  to some
extent control my acts: I have no direct control over my temperament. And if
(as I said before) what we are matters even more than what we do-if, indeed,
what we do matters chiefly as evidence of what  we are-then it  follows that
the change which I most  need to undergo  is a  change  that my  own direct,
voluntary  efforts cannot bring  about  And this applies to  my good actions
too. How many of  them were done for the right  motive? How many for fear of
public opinion,  or a desire to show off? How  many from a sort of obstinacy
or sense of superiority which, in different circumstances, might equally had
led to some very bad act? But I cannot, by direct moral effort,  give myself
new motives. After the first few steps in the Christian life we realise that
everything which really needs  to  be done in our  souls can be done only by
God. And that brings  us to  something which has been  very misleading in my
language up to now.

     (2)  I  have been talking  as  if it  were  we  who  did everything. In
reality, of course, it is God who does everything. We, at most, allow  it to
be done to us.  In a  sense  you  might  even say it  is God  who  does  the
pretending. The Three-Personal God,  so to speak, sees before Him in  fact a
self-centred, greedy, grumbling, rebellious human animal.  But  He says "Let
us pretend that this is not  a mere creature, but our Son. It is like Christ
in so far as it is  a Man, for He became Man. Let us pretend that it is also
like Him in  Spirit. Let us treat it as if it  were what  in fact it is not.
Let us pretend in order to make the pretence  into a reality."  God looks at
you  as  if  you were a  little Christ: Christ stands beside you to turn you
into one. I daresay this idea of a divine make-believe sounds rather strange
at  first. But,  is it so strange  really? Is not that how  the higher thing
always raises the lower? A mother teaches her baby to  talk by talking to it
as if it understood long before it really does. We treat our dogs as if they
were "almost  human":  that is why they really become "almost  human" in the
end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lewis uses two stories to illustrate the concept of Christian New Birth.

1. According to Lewis, what do the words "our Father" which open the Lords prayer mean?
2. What good is there for a person to pretend by dressing up like Christ?
3. How does Christ turn our pretense into reality? How is this different from listening to our conscience?
4. How does "good infection" work through people? Why should we not pin our whole faith on any human being?
5. Is Christianity simply a matter of reading what Christ said and trying to carry it out?
6. What are the two discoveries which Lewis made as he began to be transformed by Christ

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two pictures:

• Beauty and the Beast
• A masked man

This is a discussion about practice, the things we do as Christians.

• When we say "Father," we are pretending to be sons of God.
  • We are 'dressing up' as Christ
  • We find it absurd
  • We also find that we are instructed to do this
• Why pretend?
  • We often find that when we pretend to be better than we are, we end up being better than we were
  • Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already.
  • This is why children's games are important -- they forge the characteristics we want them to have as adults.
• When we 'dress up as Christ,' when we pray...
  • We will usually have some failure of our own come to mind
  • If that failure is something we should be doing instead of praying, we should get up and go do it -- now
• This is how God shapes us through our prayer life
  • Our conscious would answer any question one way
  • Our 'putting on Christ' will lead us to a different asnwer
  • Attempting to 'put on Christ' leads us to "more like painting a portrait than like obeying a set of rules."
  • "And the odd thing is that while in one way it is much harder than keeping rules, in another way it is far easier."
• The real Son of God is at our side
  • He is turning us into something like Himself
  • He is 'injecting' his Zoe into us: the tin coming to life
  • The part of us that does not like it is the part that is still 'tin'
• Some people may feel like this "Jesus beside us" has never happened
  • That other people have helped them, but not an invisible Christ
  • Illustration of the woman who wasn't worried about a bread shortage because her family always ate toast!
  • Christ very often helps us by helping other people help us
  • "He works through Nature, through our own bodies, through books, sometimes through experiences which seem (at the time) anti-Christian."
  • Mostly Christ works in us by working on us through each other
• Men are 'mirrors' or 'carriers' of Christ to other men
  • Sometimes unconsciously
  • Sometimes unwittingly through unbelievers
  • This is why the Church (the whole body of believers) is so important
• It is natural for 'babies' and you believers to not see Christ working through the people who help them
  • But we must not remain babies
  • We must start to see the Real Helper/Giver
  • If we don't realize that it is Christ helping us through others, we are heading for disaster
    • All people fail, stumble, die
    • We must be thankful for those God worked through in our lives, thank them, honor them, love them
    • "But never, never pin your whole faith on any human being: not if he is the best and wisest in the whole world. There are lots of nice things you can do with sand: but do not try building a house on it."
• Now we are starting to see what the New Testament is saying
  • Christians are born again
  • we 'put on Christ'
  • Christ is 'formed in us'
  • we should have the 'mind of Christ'
• These are not fanciful words

Put right out of your head the idea that these are only fancy ways of saying that Christians are to read what Christ said and try to carry it out - as a man may read what Plato or Marx said and try to carry it out. They mean something much more than that. They mean that a real Person, Christ, here and now, in that very room where you are saying your prayers, is doing things to you. It is not a question of a good man who died two thousand years ago. It is a living Man, still as much a man as you, and still as much God as He was when He created the world, really coming and interfering with your very self; killing the old natural self in you and replacing it with the kind of self He has. At first, only for moments. Then for longer periods. Finally, if all goes well, turning you permanently into a different sort of thing; into a new little Christ, a being which, in its own small way, has the same kind of life as God; which shares in His power, joy, knowledge and eternity. And soon we make two other discoveries.

• 1) We begin to be alarmed at not only what we do, but what we are -- sinners
  • We always have excuses for our failings

  • Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am.

  • The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light. Apparently the rats of resentment and vindictiveness are always there in the cellar of my soul.

  • The cellar is our unconscious will
  • While we have some control over our actions; we have no direct control over our temperament
  • If what we are is more important than what we do, what we do is the evidence of what we are (!)
  • So, the changes we need to make, or need made, are beyond our voluntary efforts...

  • And this applies to my good actions too. How many of them were done for the right motive? How many for fear of public opinion, or a desire to show off? How many from a sort of obstinacy or sense of superiority which, in different circumstances, might equally have led to some very bad act?

  • But we can't give ourselves new motives

  • After the first few steps in the Christian life we realise that everything which really needs to be done in our souls can be done only by God.

• 2) Up untili now, Lewis has been speaking largely as if we did all of the doing
  • In reality, God must do everything and anything
  • We 'allow' it to be done to us (human responsibility meets divine sovereignty)

  • In a sense you might even say it is God who does the pretending. The Three-Personal God, so to speak, sees before Him in fact a self-centred, greedy, grumbling, rebellious human animal. But He says `Let us pretend that this is not a mere creature, but our Son. It is like Christ in so far as it is a Man, for He became Man. Let us pretend that it is also like Him in Spirit. Let us treat it as if it were what in fact it is not. Let us pretend in order to make the pretence into a reality.' God looks at you as if you were a little Christ: Christ stands beside you to turn you into one. I daresay this idea of a divine make-believe sounds rather strange at first. But, is it so strange really? Is not that how the higher thing always raises the lower? A mother teaches her baby to talk by talking to it as if it understood long before it really does. We treat our dogs as if they were 'almost human': that is why they really become `almost human' in the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://lib.ru/LEWISCL/mere_engl.txt 

http://www.opendiscipleship.org/Mere_Christianity_leaders_notes

http://www.gordy-stith.com/Mere%20Christianity/mere_christianity_study_guide.htm