The Reason for God

The Reason for God
Tim Keller

"Quoting C.S. Lewis's essay "Is Christianity Hard or Easy?" he depicts normal human striving:

The ordinary idea which we all have is that...we have a natural self with various desires and interests...and we know something called "morality" or "decent behavior" has a claim on the self...We are all hoping that when all the demands of morality and society have been met, the poor natural self will still have some chance, some time, to get on with its own life and do what it likes. In fact, we are very like an honest man paying his taxes. He pays them, but he does hope that there will be enough left over for him to live on.

The Christian way is different--both harder and easier. Christ says, "Give me ALL. I don't want just this much of your time and this much of your money and this much of your work--so that your natural self can have rest. I want you. Not your things. I have come not to torture your natural self...I will give you a new self instead. Hand over the whole natural self--ALL the desires, not just the ones you think wicked but the ones you think innocent--the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead."

Here Lewis works from Kierkegaard's definition of sin. Sin is not simply doing bad things, it is putting good things in the place of God. So the only solution is not simply to change our behavior, but to reorient and center the entire heart and life on God.

The almost impossibly hard thing is to hand over your whole self to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is remain what we call "ourselves" --our personal happiness centered on money or pleasure or ambition--and hoping, despite this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you cannot do. If I am a grass field--all the cutting will keep the grass less but won't produce wheat. If I want wheat...I must be plowed up and re-sown."