The Obstinate Toy Soldiers | C. S. Lewis

Deep Dive into Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis - The Obstinate Toy SoldiersC.S. Lewis argues that the Son of God became a man for the specific purpose of enabling humans to become sons of God. He describes the current state of humanity as a conflict between our natural, self-centered life and the spiritual life. Our natural life resists this higher life because the transformation feels like a kind of death, much like a tin soldier might view being turned into a real man as the spoiling of his tin nature.To overcome this resistance, the Eternal Being entered creation as a real human being, an act Lewis likens to a human voluntarily becoming a slug or crab. Through this incarnation, created life was perfectly transformed into begotten life within one individual. This process required the complete submission and "killing" of natural desires, leading to physical death and subsequent resurrection, where the human creature in Christ came fully alive.Lewis clarifies that unlike separate tin soldiers, human beings are deeply interconnected, resembling a single growing tree when viewed across time. Consequently, Christ's transformation does not just affect one isolated unit but influences the entire human mass, similar to how a single drop can change the taste or color of a whole glass of water. This change impacts all of humanity, including those who lived before Christ.Ultimately, the difficult work of passing from biological life to spiritual life has been accomplished for us. Humanity is saved in principle, and individuals need only to lay themselves open to Christ to "catch" this new life, a process Lewis calls a "good infection". He concludes that while there are many formulas to describe this salvation, such as Christ defeating death or dying for sins, they are all true and should not be a cause for quarreling.Reformed Theologian GPT: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-XXwzX1gnv-reformed-theologianYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@ReformedExplainerSpotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1t5dz4vEgvHqUknYQfwpRI?si=e-tDRFR2Qf6By1sAcMdkdwhttps://buymeacoffee.com/edi2730