The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good.’
Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis
I think it is right here that those who believe themselves to be Christians and those who are Christians part ways; we part on the fork in the road that forces us to choose to kill or not kill our natural self.
I know this in me, because I was one who believed I was a Christian for many years of my life while I lived fully in my natural self. I have lived in both worlds. I hope that by the time I work through this post, my meaning about this parting of the ways will have been made clear.
It isn’t just a part of Christianity to become a real son of God; it is the whole of it. It isn’t a question of living morally or being good – those will be results, but they are not the root. We hope that when we meet all of the demands of Christ (live morally; do good), there will be room left for our natural man. But it doesn’t work this way......
It isn’t impossible. He will make us creatures who can obey that command.
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.
So much for Lewis. The rest is me.
The hill seems too high, too massive to climb. Be ye perfect?! I will take door B:
Matthew 7: 13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
What does it mean to be a Christian? There are some fundamental things which we must believe, of this there is no doubt. But even the devil believes these things. So, what is the difference?
It is the choice of gate. The Christian chooses the narrow gate. I believe the way to enter that gate is to repent. To repent does not mean we are instantaneously perfect – the way, once we enter, is difficult. It is a journey.
It is here, right here, at the choice of the gate and the decision to repent, that those who believe themselves to be Christians and those who are Christians part ways. To take the narrow gate is to kill our natural self; it is to repent.
If a “Christian” finds his way easy, knowingly or not, he has taken the wide gate and a broad way; there has been no repentance. Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord… and all that. To repent, to decide to kill our natural self, brings pain, brings difficulty, as Jesus said.
But when we enter the narrow gate…well, this opens the way for Christ to work in us, just as Lewis has described. And if Christ isn’t working in us, there is no salvation.