C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity: The Practical Conclusion (Warning: Lewis Likes Evolution!)

Having explained the Christian understanding of the atonement in the previous chapter, Lewis puts forth what he feels is the “practical conclusion” to all of this in the final chapter of Book 2. I mean, okay, the atonement states that through Christ’s death and resurrection, that we have the opportunity to be put back “in the right” with God. But for what purpose?

In this chapter, Lewis ingeniously links “what happens next” with….wait for it….the fact of evolution! YES! It’s the sort of chapter that would cause young earth creationists to set their hair on fire and run for the hills! Their beloved C.S. Lewis—the man who gave us The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe; the man who gave us Aslan and Narnia—that man accepted the theory of evolution! No doubt Ken Ham would warn us that Lewis, along with J.R.R. Tolkien, were “compromised Christians” who were a threat to our children. Alas…what is one to do?

I think I’ll keep Lewis and Tolkien, and forgo pork products. Ah, but I digress…

Lewis starts the chapter by stating what should be the obvious, but what often times is overlooked, even by Christians: “The Christian belief is that if we somehow share in the humility and suffering of Christ we shall also share in His conquest of death and find a new life after we have died and in it become perfect, and perfectly happy, creatures.”

Now on paper that sounds all wonderfully poetic. In real life though, think about what Lewis has just said. Let me put it another way: you can never get resurrection unless you first undergo crucifixion. The problem with so many people is that we want the payoff of eternal life, but we really don’t like that whole “pick up your cross and follow me” part. But the fact is, there is no other way. That doesn’t mean you have to be literally crucified or martyred. But it does mean that if you sincerely are committed to following Christ, you will have to undergo a kind of death, and it can come in many forms.

And I’ve found that it isn’t necessarily a one time “over and done with” thing either. As long as you are alive in this world, there will be countless times that you realize that a part of you must die. You might lose a career, lose a marriage, lose a loved one…the injustices of this world that nail you up on your own existential cross—God allows those things to happen for the sole purpose of getting you in that proverbial tomb, to where you have died to yet another part of yourself, so that he can then bring about countless resurrections little by little—and they act as a foretaste of the Ultimate Resurrection when Christ returns.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Lewis’ point is simple: if you follow Christ, be prepared for suffering, because it is through that suffering that new life will appear.

Lewis and Evolution

Now let’s get into how Lewis uses evolution! Lewis states that many people have speculated as to what the “next step in evolution” might be that will take mere man to a step upward and onward. When will a “new kind of man” appear on the scene, so to speak. Lewis’ answer is that Christianity testifies to the fact that this “next step” has already happened in the person of Jesus.

Evolution is like that, Lewis explains. It is full of unexpected twists and turns, acts in ways you would have never guessed, and on a genetic level, works through that really bizarre thing we call sex. God is pretty creative, isn’t he?

Well Lewis says that whereas natural life was conveyed by means of evolution through the biological act of sex, this new kind of “Christ-life” is conveyed by different means, namely three things. First, there is baptism; second, there is belief (or faith); and third, there is Communion. He doesn’t get into how or why different denominations emphasize one thing above the others, but he does insist that all three are essential.

Some might object to calling baptism or communion “essential,” by claiming they would thus become “works” to merit salvation. Well Lewis doesn’t bother getting into that kind of debate. He keeps it simple: Jesus told his followers to do these things, so if you are a follower of Christ, you should do them. You do them and believe they are vital because you are going off the authority of Christ himself.

I remember when I was baptized at 16—it was the summer in which I read Mere Christianity for the first time, and was convinced that Christianity was true. Did I “feel” anything when I got baptized? No. It was actually quite anticlimactic. I can’t even remember which one of the pastors at my church baptized me. From my perspective, my baptism meant very little. But I was obedient to what Christ wanted his followers to do. That’s what’s important.

The Christian

So what impact does deciding to follow Christ have on one’s day-to-day life? Does it mean that the Christian is now perfect, and that he doesn’t screw up? Of course not. But Lewis explains it in a different, and very profound way. The Christian now has the “Christ-life” inside him, and that “Christ-life” is constantly giving him the ability to pick himself up when he falls, and is constantly repairing him all along the way.

The Christian, therefore, in the long run does become quite good, but he is not “becoming good” in order to win Christ’s favor. It is the “Christ-life” inside him that is slowly, through day-to-day death-resurrection moments, making him a good person…slowly re-making him into the image of Christ, and hence the image of God. He gives quite a good analogy in this regard: “Just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but because bright because the sun shines on it.” So, if you’re a Christian who really loves botany…there’s your analogy!

The Christian Body

Lewis then takes it another step further—it’s a step that most American, hyper-individualized Christians often neglect: Christ isn’t just acting within individual Christians. He states, “the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through with Christ acts—we are his fingers and muscles, the cells of his body.” He then states that the Christian-communal life—that is, the Life of the Church—is like evolution. The new “Christ-life” is spread through Church practices like baptism and communion, as well as an individual Christian’s faith.

This is something extremely important to grasp, that quite frankly, most Christians fail to do. Lewis calls the reality of Christ’s resurrection-life within the life of the Church as “super-biological fact.” What that means is that God uses material things like bread and wine to spread the new kind of life that is in Christ. And that life is not some ethereal, disembodied kind of life. Spiritual life is united to the material world, it transforms it, it redeems it—it re-creates it. In Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit, “the heavens” and “the earth” are combined, and the corruptible material life is taken up into Christ’s body (i.e. the Church) and transformed and redeemed.

Does that sound pretty out there? Well, welcome to the Christian faith! It is about the renewal and re-creation of God’s entire created order, and the Church is that “super-biological organism” through which he God’s works his will to redeem his creation.

My Own Thought: Evolution and Salvation in the Church

The way that Lewis uses the theory of evolution to illustrate the way in which Christ’s resurrection-life is spread in the life of the Church is, for me, genius. When you think of it, it makes complete sense. All throughout the Bible we find verses that tell us how “the heavens and the earth” declare God’s glory. What does that mean, other than that the natural created order reflects truths about God and his ways.

So what does evolution tells us about the natural world? It actually tells us two things: (1) it accounts for the wide variety of life in the natural world—all the various kinds of life throughout the world is simply breathtaking; (2) it also testifies that along with all that variety of life, everything in natural (even humans) share a biological unity.

Evolution in the natural world, therefore, actually reflects a deeper spiritual reality that we find in salvation in Christ: (1) there is a wide variety of personalities, gifts, and abilities within the Church, yet (2) there is a shared unity in Christ. Simply put, the theory of evolution that explains life in the natural world is a reflection of the deeper reality of the life of the supernatural world, where the material world of nature is taken up into the very life of God in Christ.

Consider what Paul is saying in Colossians 1:15-20. No, he’s not talking about the modern theory of evolution, but he is talking about how the entire created order is united in Christ: ¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; ¹⁶in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers, all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.¹⁸He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.  ¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

And then again, in I Corinthians 15, in which Paul talks about the final outcome of the resurrection, he says in 15:28, “When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.”

Resurrection and re-creation. The unity and diversity of the biological world, as explained by evolutionary theory, testifies to the unity and diversity in Christ. Let that sink in.

It shouldn’t surprise us that a theory about life in the natural world should serve as a reflection of the reality of the life of the supernatural world. Perhaps there is a way I could say it better, I don’t know. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the tragedy of Ken Ham’s crusade against evolution is that he is completely preventing Christians from creatively using what is being discovered about the natural world to help illuminate the Spiritual realities that are revealed in Christ. Instead of using the testimony of the natural world to help reconcile all creation to Christ, Ken Ham is declaring war on the very creation that God loves and is redeeming. We need to see that everything in the created order can be used to declare God’s glory…even evolution.

What About Those Who Have Never Heard of Christ?

As if the whole “evolution points to new life in Christ” thing wasn’t enough, Lewis also throws in another doozy that is bound to make many Evangelicals squirm: What about those people who have never heard of Christ? Are they just automatically going to hell? Whereas many well-meaning Christians say something like, “Well, Romans says that all men are without excuse, so…” then they trail off, not really wanting to say, “…so yeah, they’re going to hell.”

Well, Lewis doesn’t say that. He says something quite insightful: “The truth is God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him.”

Now please note what Lewis is not saying: he’s not saying that “everyone automatically goes to heaven.” What he is saying is that he’s not going to condemn everyone who has never heard of Christ to hell. He expands on this thought later in the book. Basically he is speculating that it is possible that people who have never heard of Christ, yet who are sincerely seeking the truth about God, can be saved through Christ, even though they have never heard of Jesus of Nazareth. Basically that Christ can save everyone who puts his faith in God, in as much as God has revealed Himself to that person.

When you think about it, isn’t that the same position men like Moses and Abraham were in? They had never heard of Jesus of Nazareth, but they put their faith in God based on what had been revealed to them at the time. We all believe Moses and Abraham are “saved,” and it is because of the work of Christ. So if it works for them, why would it not work for others who have never heard of Christ either? It makes sense to me.

Conclusion

By the end of Book 2, Lewis has explained the significance of the atonement, and he has pointed to the fact that salvation is not just something for the individual. It is not just a “I get to go to heaven” card. Individual salvation is really just the beginning of God’s greater “re-creation project.” It involves becoming part of the Body of Christ, the Church, and as a community helping spread Christ’s life to the rest of all creation.

When you get your eyes of yourself and realize that the Gospel envelopes the salvation of the entire created order, your worldview goes through a radical transformation. Everything in the natural world is to be offered up to God so that He can redeem it and sanctify it, and bring it under the Lordship of Christ. There is no “sacred” vs. “secular” because all of creation is just waiting for us to make it sacred. We need to keep that Spiritual Evolution goes until Christ is all in all.