We are no turning the corner and getting into the “home stretch” of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. In this chapter, Lewis provides an analogy that might seem quite simple, but actually is quite profound, having its roots in great Christian thinkers like Irenaeus of Lyons and great Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. The analogy stems from the fundamental theological points Lewis made earlier in Book 4 in regards to the Trinity, and the concepts of Bios and Zoe.
Lewis points out that at present, the two types of life (Bios and Zoe) are not only different, but are utterly opposed to one another: Bios—the natural life inside us—tends to be self-centered; it’s basically an immature kind of life. Zoe—the supernatural life God wants for us—is the goal of creation from the beginning: it is the fully Trinitarian, fully mature life in Christ. This current life on earth, therefore, is one in which we in our natural/Bios selves are being challenged to be transformed into the supernatural/Zoe creatures God wills for us. We as naturally immature creatures, though, don’t like change: we want the pay-off, but don’t like the work that is necessary—sort of like what the sin of Adam was: he didn’t want to achieve wisdom and the likeness of God according to God’s timetable; he wanted it now—and hence the immature Adam sinned.
In any case, back to Lewis: he takes us back to our childhood, when we had dolls, or GI Joes, or in Lewis’ case, tin soldiers. Every child has fantasied about what it would be like if his toys came to life. Pretty cool, eh? Well Lewis says, “Look at it from your doll’s perspective—it wouldn’t seem so cool it the doll as you were in the midst of changing it into a real person—taking off the tin, or the plastic, and replacing it with real flesh, etc.!” In reality, from the doll’s perspective, it would seem you were killing it—doing away with the only kind of existence it had ever known. And quite naturally, the doll would probably resist, because it wouldn’t understand what was going on.
That, Lewis suggests, is what the process of salvation—the process of being transformed from a Bios creature to a Zoe creature—is like. That, in actuality, gives us a whole different perspective on the suffering we go through in this world. And that helps us understand the significance of Christ, for in Christ, God became biological/natural man—a tin soldier, if you will—and allowed himself to suffer the kind of transformation from a Bios creature to a Zoe creature, so that we—being the biological/natural “tin soldiers” that we are—could see and get an understanding of what was going on and what would be necessary to become Zoe creatures who can take part in the very life of God.
Or simply put: in Christ we see what is necessary in order for a tin soldier to become a real man: it not only explains Christ’s suffering, it also explains the necessity of suffering in this life as well.
Lewis then makes a final point in regards to where the tin soldier analogy breaks down. Yes, in Christ, God became “one tin soldier” in order to show us other “tin soldiers” how to become real men. But it doesn’t end there. In the analogy, each tin soldier remains separate. In reality though, humanity in interconnected: individuals that we are, we are still nonetheless part of one another on a biological level (isn’t that what evolution essentially points to, by the way?). Therefore, that should give us a glimpse to what is meant in the Bible that all will be one in Christ, so that God will be all in all; or that the Church is the body of Christ. Yes, it is metaphorical, but it points to a deeper reality regarding God’s relationship to all of creation.
In any case, the basic analogy in this chapter is simple: if you want to understand the out-working of salvation in history—both the history of the world and each individual’s personal history—the “tin soldier becomes a real man” is hard to beat. It certainly has kept things in perspective for me, especially when I’ve gone through periods of suffering.
