S1E39 – MC B4C9 – “Counting the cost”

In this episode we explore what Jesus meant when he said “Be ye perfect”…

S1E39: Counting the cost (Download)

Show Notes

• Quote-of-the-week:

“Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.”

The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

• Matt shared his dreams of developing an English accent.

The drink-of-the-week: Wyder’s Cider, Pearsecco

• I talked a little bit about my appearance on The Lamp-Post Listener, a podcast about the Chronicles of Narnia. I was invited on to discuss the chapter of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” where Aslan brings the stone statues back to life. On the show I explained that this was an image of Pentecost, but here I went on to also compare it to “The Harrowing of Hades”, when Christ descended to the dead to bring those in Sheol to Heaven.

• In today’s episode we will be focussing on these words of Jesus:

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”

Matthew 5:48

Lewis says that many people misunderstand this saying:

“Some people seem to think this means ‘Unless you are perfect, I will not help you’; and as we cannot be perfect…our position is hopeless”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

Instead, he says that it means something quite different:

“I think He meant ‘The only help I will give is help to become perfect. You may want something less: but I will give you nothing less’”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

Jack draws upon his hatred of the dentist to provide an analogy:

“When I was a child I often had toothache, and I knew that if I went to my mother she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother – at least, not till the pain became very bad… I did not doubt she would give me the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else… I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want… And I knew those dentists; I knew they started fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache… if you gave them an inch they took an ell”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

I explained that “an ell” is 45 inches. Lewis explains the analogy:

“Our Lord is like the dentists. If you give Him an inch, He will take an ell. Dozens of people go to Him to be cured of some one particular sin which they are ashamed of (like masturbation or physical cowardice) or which is obviously spoiling daily life (like bad temper or drunkenness). Well, He will cure it all right: but He will not stop there. That may be all you asked; but if once you call Him in, He will give you the full treatment”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

Jack says that this is why Jesus gives two stories in Luke 14:25-33 about being prepared to go the distance: a man building a tower and a king contemplating war.

• The central point in this chapter is that, if you allow Jesus in, He will keep working on you until He has made you perfect:

“…Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death, whatever it costs Me, I will never rest, nor let you rest, until you are literally perfect – until my Father can say…that He is well pleased with you, as He said He was well pleased with me. This I can do and will do. But I will not do anything less.’”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

Matt tied this in with Lewis’ famous sermon “The Weight of Glory”.

• However, this doesn’t mean that God is displeased with our first preliminary, stumbling steps:

“…[God] will, in the long run, be satisfied with nothing less than absolute perfection, will also be delighted with the first feeble, stumbling effort you make tomorrow to do the simplest duty…every father is pleased at the baby’s first attempt to walk: no father would be satisfied with anything less than a firm, free, manly walk in a grown-up son…God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

• It is still aided every step of the way by grace:

“Each time you fall He will pick you up again. And He knows perfectly well that your own efforts are never going to bring you anywhere near perfection”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

• The only person who can stop this transformation in Matt…is Matt!

“…you must realise from the outset that the goal towards which He is beginning to guide you is absolute perfection; and no power in the whole universe, except you yourself, can prevent Him from taking you to that goal”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

The temptation is to abort this transformation when we feel that we have become “good enough”:

“…when Christ has enabled us to overcome one or two sins that were an obvious nuisance, are inclined to feel (though we do not out it into words) that we are now good enough”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

However, we’re not the one’s in charge – He is the Creator, we are the creatures:

“He is the painter, we are only the picture”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

…and He wants to make us Saints!

• If we are to progress, we must keep two truths in balance:

“On the one hand we must never imagine that our own unaided efforts can be relied on to carry us even through the next twenty-four hours as “decent” people… On the other hand, no possible degree of holiness or heroism which has ever been recorded of the greatest saints is beyond what He is determined to produce in every one of us in the end”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

In talking about free will and grace, Matt commented that he’s going to a talk on 9th November at the New York C.S. Lewis Society entitled “C.S. Lewis on the Relationship Between Grace and Good Works: Calvinist or Roman Catholic?”

• I quoted Leon Bloy:

“The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.”

Leon Bloy

• Lewis then makes an interesting comment:

“The job will not be completed in this life: but He means to get us as far as possible before death”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

Lewis is indicating here that the transformation may continue after death. I believe that Lewis wrote this because he believed in Purgatory, despite being a Protestant. He explains it further in “Letters to Malcom”:

“Our souls demand Purgatory, don’t they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us: ‘It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy’? Should we not reply, ‘With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I’d rather be cleaned first.’ ‘It may hurt, you know’ – ‘Even so, sir.’

“I assume that the process of purification will normally involve suffering. Partly from tradition; partly because most real good that has been done me in this life has involved it. But I don’t think the suffering is the purpose of the purgation… The treatment given will be the one required, whether it hurts little or much.

“My favorite image on this matter comes from the dentist’s chair. I hope that when the tooth of life is drawn and I am ‘coming round’,’ a voice will say, ‘Rinse your mouth out with this.’ This will be Purgatory. The rinsing may take longer than I can now imagine. The taste of this may be more fiery and astringent than my present sensibility could endure. But . . . it will [not] be disgusting and unhallowed.”

C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcom

I summarized Lewis’ logic by explaining that, even at the end of life we will probably not be perfectly holy. However, “nothing unclean can enter Heaven” (Revelation 21:27). Therefore, something must happen to us prior to spending eternity in Heaven. This completion of the purification, we call “Purgatory”. 

I also told the story of two Christian family members who were not on speaking terms. If one died prior to reconciliation, something would have to happen to them before they could worship before the same throne in Heaven (otherwise Heaven wouldn’t remain “Heaven” for very long).

• An important part of this transformation is suffering:

“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” 

The Problem of Pain

However, for the newly-born Christian, suffering after conversion may cause some consternation:

“When a man turns to Christ and seems to be getting on pretty well…, he often feels that it would now be natural if things went fairly smoothly. When troubles come along – illnesses, money troubles, new kinds of temptation – he is disappointed. These things, he feels, might have been necessary to rouse him and make him repent in his bad old days; but why now?”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

…but Lewis explains that suffering is an important tool in the hands of the Divine Surgeon:

“Because God is forcing him on, or up, to a higher level: putting him into situations where he will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving, than he ever dreamed of being before. It seems to us all unnecessary: but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing He means to make of us”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

• Lewis draws upon an image from his master, George MacDonald:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing…. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of… You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

• Lewis summarizes the chapter:

If we let Him… He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 9)

• As usual, I ended the episode with an iTunes review:

If you’ve ever wanted to start a side hustle, a means of making some money on the side, to provide an outlet for your creativity to shine, do yourself a favour and listen to Side Hustle School. Every morning there is a short episode (under ten minutes) telling the story of someone gaining a little more independence (and money) for themselves through launching a side-hustle. Even though I personally don’t have a strong desire to start a side hustle, I listen to this podcast every day to help inspire me to step out into the world, to take some risks and grow in creativity.

iTunes Review of Side Hustle School