So I only have two more workdays left here at the credit union. While it’s been a great place to work, I’ll be really happy to be down to only one job and one calling. Since I’m sitting here in the drive thru on this slow Wednesday afternoon, I thought I’d revisit my quick review of the book The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis. I know it’s been a while, but bear with me. The last time we talked about the book, we covered chapter 3, Divine Goodness. Today we’ll be taking a look at chapter 4, On Human Wickedness. As the title subtly implies, this chapter deals with the current fallen state of mankind. Here are some of the points that C.S. Lewis makes about sin and the fall, in no particular order.

  • Often we operate on the misconception that time cancels sin. We think that it isn’t fair for God to punish us to eternal damnation for something we did as a kid, or 20 years ago. Surely “time heals all wounds.” Unfortunatley, that’s not the way it works. If we truly believe that God is outside of time, then our sins are ever present before him, regardless of how long ago they were committed. Only repentence and the blood of Christ gets rid of sin.
  • “The world is a dance in which good, descending from God, is disturbed by evil arising from the creatures, and the resulting conflict is resolved by God’s own assumption of the suffering nature which evil produces. The doctrine of the Fall asserts that the evil which thus makes the fuel or raw material of the second and more complex kind of good is not God’s contribution but man’s”
  • “We are not merely imperfect creatures that need improvement: we are rebels that need lay down their arms”. Â
  • The “pain” which we experience is a direct result of the fall of Adam and Eve. God allows it to happen as a means of trying to get our attention. To get us to “lay down our arms”.
  • The purpose of pain is a direct result of the fall.