Latest / Reformed Thinking / Nice People or New Men | C. S. Lewis

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Nice People or New Men | C. S. Lewis · Reformed Thinking

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Hello, and welcome to Reform Thinking.
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I'm really glad you joined us today.
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We are doing a deep dive into something that, well, it tends
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to haunt anyone who takes their face seriously.
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Yeah. It really does.
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We are looking at a specific chapter from CS Lewis's Mere
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Christianity. It's great to be here.
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And yes, this chapter. Nice people or new men is a
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heavy hitter. Oh, absolutely.
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It's one of those texts that acts like a mirror.
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You think you're reading about other people and then suddenly
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you realize, oh wait, I'm reading about myself.
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It's also the chapter that aggresses what I think is the
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single biggest barrier to entry for the Christian faith.
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The hypocrite objection. Thought on you know how it goes.
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You're talking to a skeptic, or maybe you're just scrolling
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through social media and someone says, look, if Christianity is
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the truth and if the Holy Spirit is supposed to change people,
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right? Why is my atheist neighbor who
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never steps foot in a church so much kinder, more generous, and
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just generally more pleasant than that guy I know who is a
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Deacon at First Baptist? It's the classic nice atheist
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versus the mean Christian dilemma.
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And we have to be honest here. It's a valid question.
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It is. It's not just a straw man that
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skeptics set up to knock down. We see it in reality.
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We see the church split over petty arguments.
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We see believers acting with arrogance or spite.
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Unbelievable spite sometimes. Right.
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And then we look at the secular world and see people doing
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incredible humanitarian work or just being good neighbors.
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It feels like false advertising. Yeah, it does.
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It's like buying a cleaning product that claims to remove
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all stains. You use it and the stain is
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still there. And meanwhile the guy next door
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is using nothing but water and his shirt is cleaner than yours.
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Right. It makes you question the
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product entirely. Yeah.
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So our mission for this deep dives is to take this apart.
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We really need to unpack it. We need to figure out the
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difference between niceness, which Lewis argues is often just
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biological luck, and newness, which is spiritual regeneration.
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And we have to confront a very uncomfortable Reformed reality
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here. God might not be as impressed
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with our natural niceness as we are.
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Let's get into the text, then, Lewis starts, in a surprising
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place for an apologist. He really does.
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He doesn't start by defending the church, he starts by
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agreeing with the critic. He doesn't try to gaslight the
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skeptic at all. He says, look, if a person
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claims to be converted, claims to have been regenerated by the
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Holy Spirit, but their behavior remains snobbish, spiteful,
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envious or ambitious, then the outside world is totally
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justified in being skeptical. He validates the world's
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judgement. Completely in our theological
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tradition, we talk about sectification.
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The ongoing process of becoming holy.
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Right. If you claim justification that
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you've been made right with God, but there is 0 sanctification
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evident in your life, something is terribly wrong.
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Dead faith? Precisely, Lewis says.
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Fine feelings, fresh insights, or a greater interest in
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religion mean nothing unless they make our actual behavior
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better. That is a harsh reality check,
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Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of us
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substitute the culture of church for the change of character.
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All the time. We think because we listen to
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worship music in the car or, you know, because we have the right
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theological books on our shelf, that we're doing the work.
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But Lewis uses this incredible medical analogy.
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He compares it to an illness in a thermometer.
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Unpack that for us. Imagine you have a fever.
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You take a pill, you might tell your spouse, oh I feel a bit
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better, but if the thermometer shows your temperature is still
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going up, then objectively you aren't better.
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The virus is still winning. Exactly in same way, if our
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spiritual fever, our sin nature isn't breaking, then those fine
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feelings we get during a Sunday sermon are just a placebo.
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They aren't the cure. He brings up a slogan from the
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war to illustrate this. Since he was writing this during
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or just after World War 2, everyone in his audience knew
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the posters that said careless talk costs lives.
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Meaning don't gossip about troop movements or ship sailing
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because spies are listening and soldiers will die.
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But Louis flips it. He flips it to careless lives.
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Cost talk. That hits incredibly close to
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home. It puts the burden of proof
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right on us. It means that when we as
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Christians live carelessly, when we are rude to the waiter, when
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we cheat on our taxes, when we lose our temper and traffic, we
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are causing the world to talk. And that talk isn't just gossip.
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No, it's talk that discredits the gospel.
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We are handing ammunition directly to the enemy.
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It reminds me of the scriptural warning about the Gentiles
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blaspheming God because of the behavior of his people.
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We literally become the stumbling block.
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Lewis alludes to the words of Jesus here.
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A tree is known by its fruit. It's the proof of the pudding.
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If the fruit is rotten, you have to assume the tree is diseased.
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So he starts by saying, yes, skeptic, you are right.
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If the behavior doesn't change, you have every right to doubt
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the conversion. He gives the critic the first
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round, but then he pivots. And this is where his intellect
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really shines. It is, he says, that while the
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critic is right to demand change, the way the world judges
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that change is often illogical. Unreasonable, even.
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Because the world wants a binary reality.
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They want a simple spreadsheet. Column A and column B.
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Right. Column A is Christians and they
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should all be 100% virtuous, kind and patient.
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Column B is non Christians and they should all be nasty and
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selfish. But since the data doesn't fit
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that spreadsheet, since we see nice atheists and nasty
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Christians, the world throws up its hands and says the whole
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system is broken. But reality isn't a spreadsheet,
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it's a vector. Lewis introduces the concept of
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people being in motion. This is a crucial point for you
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listening to GRASP. Nobody is static.
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At any given moment, a human soul is moving.
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Think of it like physics. It's not just about your
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position on the graph, it's about your velocity in your
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direction. You might have a person who
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calls themselves a Christian, maybe they are a church elder,
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but internally the needle of their heart is slowly drifting
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away from God. They are becoming more cynical,
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more prideful. Their momentum is moving away.
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Conversely, you might have someone who is currently an
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atheist or a Pagan, but they are slowly moving toward the light.
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Lewis gives that example of the Buddhist which I think we need
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to handle carefully from our reformed perspective.
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We definitely do. He talks about a Buddhist of
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goodwill who is led by God's secret influence.
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Now this isn't Lewis saying all roads lead to heaven.
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We hold to the exclusivity of Christ.
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Right, but what Lewis is describing here is the
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sovereignty of God in drawing a person before they even know who
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is drawing them. We might call this the
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preparatory work of the Spirit, Irresistible grace in its early
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stages. Yes, a person outside the
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visible church might be concentrating on mercy or truth,
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which are God's attributes. They might be stumbling toward
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Christ without knowing His name yet.
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And that person, even if they currently hold the wrong label,
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might be closer to the Kingdom in the posture of their heart
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than the person sitting in the front Pew who is hard hearted
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and stagnant. It completely disrupts our
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labeling system. We want to judge based on the
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jersey someone is wearing. He's on Team Christian.
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He must be good. She's on Team Atheist.
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She must be bad. Lewis says that is useless
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because we are usually relying on stereotypes found in novels
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and newspapers. He calls a book chatter.
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We compare an idealized St. with a villainous atheist, or a
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heroic free thinking atheist with a hypocritical Inquisition
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style Christian. It's fiction, he insists.
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We must come down to brass tacks.
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I love that phrase brass tacks. It means the messy reality of
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the actual people you know. If you want to make a fair
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comparison, you can't compare Christians in general with
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atheists in general. You have to compare a specific
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Christian, let's say your neighbor down the street, with a
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specific atheist you actually know.
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And this leads to his most famous argument in this chapter,
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the toothpaste analogy. The white smile toothpaste
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analogy. This is the part that I think
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unlocks the whole problem. It's simple but incredibly
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effective. Let's walk through it.
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Imagine a brand of toothpaste that claims to improve teeth.
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That's the promise. Now suppose I use it religiously
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twice a day. But I have terrible teeth.
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You inherited soft enamel from your parents.
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Right. I grew up without fluoride, my
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teeth are crooked and I'm prone to cavities, so.
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You're the faithful user. Now look at a healthy young man
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who never uses toothpaste at all.
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He ignores dental hygiene completely, but he has perfect
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genetics. He has rock hard enamel,
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gleaming white teeth, a perfect smile.
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The skeptic looks at you toothpaste user with the bad
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teeth and looks at the non user with the perfect smile and says
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see the toothpaste is a scam. It doesn't work.
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If it works, your teeth will be better than his.
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But that is a massive logic error.
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It really is. The test is not comparing user A
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to non user B. The variables are far too
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different. The test is, are my teeth better
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than they would be if I didn't use the toothpaste?
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That's the key. If I stopped using the
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toothpaste, my teeth might fall out completely.
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The toothpaste is working. It's keeping a disaster from
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becoming a catastrophe. And for the other guy, the one
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with the perfect natural teeth, the question is what would his
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teeth look like if he did start using the toothpaste?
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They might be positively blinding.
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This shifts the entire ground of the argument.
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It makes it personal and relative to the starting point.
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We're not all starting the race from the same line.
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And to illustrate this on a human level, Lewis introduces 2
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characters, Miss Bates and Dick Furkin.
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These are great archetypes. We all know of Miss Bates.
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We do. She's a Christian, a believer.
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But let's be honest, she's hard to be around.
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She has an unkind tongue. She's narrow minded.
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She's the person who is always offended, always complaining,
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maybe a bit neurotic. She has jangled nerves.
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As Lewis puts it, she's essentially a miserable person
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to interact with. And then you have Dick Furkin.
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Dick is the guy everyone likes. He's an unbeliever.
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He has zero interest in God, but he has a Placid temper.
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He's friendly. He's the guy who helps you move
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your couch on a Saturday and doesn't complain.
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He buys the first round of drinks.
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He's naturally nice. The world looks at Miss Bates
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and says she's a Christian, no thanks.
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And looks at Dick and says he's not only seems fine without it.
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They conclude Christianity is nonsense because Dick is clearly
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the better human specimen. But applying the toothpaste
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logic, the question is not is Miss Bates nicer than Dick?
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The question is, is Miss Bates nicer than she would be without
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Christ? That is a terrifying thought, if
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she is that prickly, that judge mental, that neurotic with the
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restraining grace of God in her life.
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Imagine her without it. She might be a monster.
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She might be absolutely unbearable.
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So Christianity might be the only thing keeping Miss Bates
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from being a complete sociopath. Precisely.
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And for Dicks, the question is, what would he be like if he did
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turn to Christ? He's already nice, but imagine
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that natural niceness infused with supernatural charity.
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He could be a St. This leads into the factory
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metaphor, which I think is essential for understanding how
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God judges US versus how we judge each other.
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We judge the product, God judges the effort.
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Let's break down that factory analogy.
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Think of a factory. You have the output with the
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factory produces. That's the visible behavior, the
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niceness we see. And then you have the plant.
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The plant, the machinery, the equipment, the working
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conditions. That's your natural temperament,
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your genetics, your upbringing, your brain chemistry.
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So let's look at Miss Bates as a factory.
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Miss Bates is running a factory that has been through a war.
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The roof is leaking. The machinery is rusted and
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dates back to the 1920's. The workers are on strike.
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It is a total disaster in there. Maybe she had a traumatic
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childhood. Maybe she has a severe chemical
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imbalance. The fact that this factory turns
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out anything at all is a miracle.
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If the manager of that factory which represents her will can
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produce even one decent widget a day, that manager is working
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incredibly hard. They are sweating blood just to
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get that one widget out the door.
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And then there's Dick Furkins Factory.
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Dick is running a state-of-the-art facility.
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Brand new robots, climate control, happy workers, a
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perfect supply chain. He inherited a Ferrari of a
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temperament. So for him to produce high
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output is easy. He can turn out 1000 widgets a
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day while sipping coffee. But, and here's the kicker,
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perhaps the output, while high, is actually lower than it should
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be given the quality of the machinery.
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If he's producing 1000 widgets, maybe he should be producing
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5000. So the manager of Factory B,
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Dick, is actually lazy. He's coasting on the quality of
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the equipment. And the manager of the universe,
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God, judges the management, not just the machinery.
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He knows what raw materials Miss Bates was handed.
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He knows she was given a broken machine.
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He knows Dick was given a first class setup.
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This completely changes how we view people in the pews next to
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us. I might look at a grumpy
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believer and judge them thinking you should be more joyful.
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But God might be saying you have no idea how much effort it took
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for them just to show up today and not scream at someone.
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You have no idea how much grace was required to keep them from
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biting your head off. It calls for profound charity in
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our judgement of others. Wait, let's use a different
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word. It calls for massive charity.
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We simply do not know the handicap they are playing with.
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But this brings up a rather shocking point Lewis makes.
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He says that niceness, the thing we value so highly, the thing we
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want our neighbors to be, is often just biology.
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It's digestion. It sounds reductionist, but he's
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right. Good digestion, stable nerves,
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proper serotonin levels. A lot of what we call virtue is
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actually just good health. If you have a stomach ache or a
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migraine or you didn't sleep, it is much harder to be nice.
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Lewis is making a theological distinction here between nature
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and grace. The Reformed view fits perfectly
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these natural qualities. Dick's friendly disposition, his
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lack of anxiety. These are gifts from God.
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They are part of God's common grace.
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So Dick thinks he is just a good guy.
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He Pats himself on the back for being chill, but actually he is
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enjoying a gift from the God he ignores.
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He is breathing God's air and using God's serotonin to feel
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good about himself while refusing to acknowledge the
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Giver. It costs God nothing to create a
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nice temperament in a human, just like it costs him nothing
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to create a beautiful sunset or good bread.
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These are natural goods. But here is the critical
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distinction. These natural gifts are not the
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same as spiritual life. Lewis makes a stark contrast
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between the cost of creating nice things and the cost of
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converting A rebellious will. Let's.
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Linger on that word cost. To create a Galaxy cost God
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nothing. He speaks and it is to create a
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pleasant personality cost him nothing but to convert a
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rebellious human will to turn a stone heart into a heart of
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flesh that. Cost him the crucifixion.
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That is the price of the new man.
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And he talks about the transients of nature.
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This is sobering for anyone relying on their own good
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temperament, he says. Natural niceness will decompose.
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It's a hard truth. When you die, your digestion
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dies, your hormones die, your nervous system shuts down.
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If your goodness was entirely based on those biological
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factors, it evaporates. It's not eternal.
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It's like a sunset, a beautiful pattern of colors that fades
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when the sun goes down. If your kindness was just a
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result of a good night's sleep and a lack of stress, it won't
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survive the grave. So if Dick Furkin relies on his
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natural niceness, he is relying on something that won't last.
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He's building his house on sand. And there is a paradox of
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ownership here. As long as Dick thinks his
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niceness is his own, Like I'm just a good guy did this, it
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isn't really his. It's just the luck of the draw.
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It only becomes truly his when he realizes it is a gift from
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God and offers it back. Lord, thank you for this
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easygoing temper. I didn't earn it.
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I give it to You to use for Your glory.
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The only things we can keep are the things we freely give to
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God. If we grip them tight, claiming
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them as our own achievement, they turn to dust in our hands.
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This moves us into the discussion of the will.
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Lewis uses the image of a compass needle.
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This is a pivotal moment in the chapter.
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We have talked about the machinery, the nature, but now
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we must talk about the compass needle, the will.
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The machinery is what you are, your psychology, your body.
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The needle is what you choose. The needle is trembling.
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It's trying to find North. God is waiting for one thing.
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Will the needle swing N Will the human will Orient itself toward
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God? And Lewis makes the distinction
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here about coercion. He says God can help it swing,
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but he cannot force it by a mere act of power.
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Wait, simply by an act of brute force?
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If he forced it, it would no longer be a will, it would be a
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machine. This is where we see the
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interplay of God's sovereignty and human agency.
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In our Reformed tradition, we know the will is bound by sin.
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God regenerates the heart, freeing the will so it can
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choose Him. The choice must be real.
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The act of turning is the vital thing.
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So applying this to our characters, the content of their
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nature, nice or nasty, is secondary.
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The direction of the will is primary.
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Right. The question is, will Miss Bates
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offer her nasty nature to God? Will she say, Lord, I am a mess,
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I am anxious, I am judgmental. Take this broken machine and
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drive it for me. That is an offering God accepts.
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And will Dick offer his nice nature and.
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Arguably, it might be harder for Dick to do that.
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Much harder. Why, Yeah.
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Why is it harder for the nice guy to turn to God?
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Because he doesn't feel the need.
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This leads to the section on the spiritual danger of being nice.
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We usually think of niceness as a distinct advantage.
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We want our kids to be nice. We want our neighbors to be
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nice. But Louis warns it can be a
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trap. He reinterprets the famous
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saying of Jesus how hard it is for those with wealth to enter
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the Kingdom. We usually think of
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millionaires, we think of people with massive bank accounts.
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But Louis expands that idea of wealth to include those who have
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an abundance of natural gifts. Well endowed in personality.
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Healthy, popular, If you have sound nerves, a good upbringing,
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you're good looking and people like you, you face a specific
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spiritual danger. Self-sufficiency.
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You don't feel the need for a physician because you don't feel
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sick. You ask why drag God into it?
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You look at your life and it works.
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You're a decent chap. You aren't an alcoholic.
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You don't cheat on your spouse. You pay your bills.
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You mistake that natural luck for spiritual merit.
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You think I'm good when really you're just lucky.
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It's the illusion of independence.
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I have everything I need. Why do I need a savior?
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Lewis even brings up the devil here that stops you in your
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tracks. It does.
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He points out that the devil was an Archangel.
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His natural gifts, intelligence, strength, splendor, charisma
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were far above ours. He was better endowed than any
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human who has ever lived. And yet he fell.
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Why? Because of pride.
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Because of that self-sufficiency.
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So having a better nature doesn't make you closer to God.
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In fact, it might make you a more formidable rebel.
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A nice rebel is still a rebel, and a nice rebel is harder to
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convince of their need for pardon.
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The bank robber knows he's done wrong.
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The philanthropist who ignores God has a harder time seeing his
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sin. On the flip side, there is the
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advantage of the nasty. It sounds backward.
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Why would being nasty, being broken, having a bad temper be
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an advantage? Because the nasty people, the
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poor in spirit, often hit bottom faster.
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Lewis describes them as the lonely, warped, passionate,
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unbalanced people. The people who just can't get
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their act together. The people who are tripped up by
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their own brokenness constantly. When they try to be good, they
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fail immediately. They know their machinery is
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broken. They can't pretend.
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They can't just be nice and get by, so they learn in double
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QuickTime that they need help. It is Christ or nothing.
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That is the phrase Christ or nothing.
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They don't have the luxury of the illusion of
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self-sufficiency. This explains why, historically,
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the Church is full of people who society considers broken or
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undesirable. The Pharisees hated this about
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Jesus. They looked at his disciples,
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fishermen, tax collectors, former prostitutes and turned up
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their noses. They said if there were anything
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in this religious movement, these awful people wouldn't be
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part of it. They expected the Messiah to
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attract the best people, the moral elite, the nice people.
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But Jesus went for the lost sheep.
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The sick need a doctor, not the healthy.
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And if you think you are healthy, you won't go to the
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doctor. That is the tragedy of the nice
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unbeliever. Their very Wellness keeps them
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from the cure. So we have established that
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niceness is not the goal. It is good, like bread or
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sunshine, but it isn't salvation.
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So what is the goal? Lewis moves to the idea of
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complete remaking the wing horse analogy.
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Let's look at this. This is a beautiful but also
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kind of disturbing image. What's the difference between
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improvement and this remaking? The standard view, the world's
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view, is that religion is about improvement.
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It's like taking a horse and teaching it to jump better.
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You want a better, stronger, more obedient horse.
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Self help with a religious veneer a better you.
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Yes, but the Christian view is not about teaching a horse to
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jump better. It is about mutating the horse
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into a winged creature, a Pegasus.
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That is a fundamental change of species.
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It's not just a better horse, it's something else entirely.
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God became manned to turn creatures into sons.
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He wants to produce a new kind of man.
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Not just a nice man, but a new man.
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But here's the visual that really sticks with me.
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The transition period. We love the idea of the winged
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horse soaring, but the biological process of growing
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wings would be horrific. It would be awkward.
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Imagine you are watching a horse turn into a winged creature.
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At first it doesn't look majestic.
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It looks gross. The wings start as lumps on the
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shoulders, right? Big ugly, swelling lumps.
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The horse probably feels pain. It moves awkwardly because it's
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balances off. If you didn't know they were
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going to be wings, you'd look at that horse and say that animal
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is deformed. It was better off before.
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Why did you ruin a perfectly good horse?
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And isn't that what happens with new Christians sometimes?
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Oh, all the time. When the Holy Spirit begins to
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work on a person, things get messy.
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They might become more sensitive to sin, which makes them seem
22:06
anxious or judgmental. They might struggle visibly with
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things they used to ignore. They look awkward compared to
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the sleek natural horse that is the well adjusted atheist.
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The atheist is running the steeplechase perfectly.
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The Christian is stumbling around with lumps on their back.
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But the end game isn't a jumping contest.
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The end game is flight. Once those wings are grown, that
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creature will soar over fences that the natural horse, no
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matter how well trained, could never jump.
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We are playing a completely different game.
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We are trying to win the niceness competition.
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We are undergoing a metamorphosis.
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And that process is messy, slow and often misunderstood by the
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spectators. We have to be patient with the
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lumps. This brings us to the final
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section of our deep dive, The solitude of judgement.
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Lewis pivots from looking at others, Miss Bates, Dick Furkin,
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the hypothetical Buddhist, and turns the camera right onto you,
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the listener. He strips away the distractions.
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He warns US against looking for stupid and unsatisfactory
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Christians to validate our disbelief.
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It's a delay tactic, isn't it? As long as I'm critiquing the
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church, or pointing out the hypocrisies of the pastor or
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complaining about Miss Bates, I don't have to face God myself.
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It is a smokescreen. Speculating about your
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neighbor's soul or relying on book shatter.
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What you read in the papers is useless, Lewis says.
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All of that will fade away. He talks about the anesthetic
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fog of the real world. We think this world, the cars,
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the job, the news, the noise is the hard reality.
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But Lewis says it is a fog. It's a temporary distraction and
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one day it will lift. And when it lifts, you will be
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left with the presence. The presence palpable,
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immediate, unavoidable. You will be alone with him.
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And in that moment, nobody will care what Miss Bates did.
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Nobody will care if the atheist neighbor was nice.
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Lewis writes One soul in the whole creation you do know, and
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it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands.
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That is heavy. It puts a responsibility
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squarely on you. It stops being an intellectual
24:06
debate about sociology and becomes a terrifyingly intimate
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question. What will you say in that
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silence? You cannot point to the
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hypocrites. Then you cannot point to the
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nice atheists. Then it is just you and the Holy
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One. So let's try to synthesize all
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of this. What are the big takeaways for
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you listening today? 1st, we need to distinguish
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between niceness and newness. Niceness is a gift of nature.
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Newness is a work of grace. Don't confuse the two.
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Just because something is shiny doesn't mean it's holy.
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Second, stop judging the management by the machinery.
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Yes, be charitable. You don't know what kind of
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broken equipment your neighbor or the person in the Pew next to
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you is wrestling with. God judges the effort of the
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will, not just the Polish of the personality.
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And 3rd, recognize the danger of your own advantages.
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If you are wealthy and natural gifts, if life is easy for you,
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beware. Do not let your natural goodness
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become a wall that keeps you from God.
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Don't let your niceness be the thing that keeps you from grace.
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And if you are poor, if you are broken and nasty, take heart.
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You are the very people Christ came to save.
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Your brokenness is your admission ticket.
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That is a total reversal of how the world thinks, but it is the
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core of the gospel. It really is.
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I want to leave you with a final thought to Mull over something
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that really struck me as we prepare this deep dive.
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Go ahead. If you are listening to this and
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you consider yourself a nice person, you pay your taxes, you
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help your friends, you are generally well liked, I want you
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to ask yourself, are you using God's own gifts as a defense
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against Him? Are you holding up your niceness
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like a shield saying I don't need grace, look how good I am?
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That is the ultimate tragedy, to use the King's gifts to declare
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independence from the king. And conversely, if you are
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listening and you feel nasty, you feel broken, anxious, maybe
25:54
even ashamed of your behavior, do you realize that you're
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broken? Machinery might be your greatest
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advantage. It might be the very thing that
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drives you into the arms of the only one who can give you wings.
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The lice on the shoulders are just the beginning of the
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flight. Well said.
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Thank you for walking through this with us today.
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It was a pleasure. And thank you to everyone
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listening. We will see you next time on
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Reform thinking.