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Is Christianity Hard or Easy? | C. S. Lewis · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reform thinking. It's great to be back.
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I want to start today by talking about a very specific feeling, a
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feeling I think pretty much everyone listening has probably
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wrestled with. Maybe even this morning.
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It's that tension, you know, that friction between trying to
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be good, doing all the right things, checking the moral
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boxes, and what the gospel actually calls us to.
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It can feel like such a heavyweight.
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It really is the classic struggle, isn't it?
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And honestly, I think for a lot of people, it's the very reason
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they get burned out on Christianity.
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Oh, for sure. We start to see the Christian
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life as this huge, impossible list of demands we have to meet.
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And it just feels, well, it feels exhausting, like you're
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always falling short. That's the word exhausting.
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Feels like a debt you can never quite pay off.
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And that brings us right to our source material.
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For this deep dive, we're opening up CS Lewis again.
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Good. Specifically, a chapter for Mere
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Christianity with the title Is Christianity Hard or Easy?
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Which is such a provocative title.
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It is because your first instinct is to say, well, it has
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to be one or the other. You want a straight answer so
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you can, you know, brace yourself for whatever's coming.
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Exactly, but Lewis of course does not give a straight answer.
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No, he refuses to simplify it. He says the reality is much more
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complex. So here's the hook, the question
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I want to pose to you and to everyone listening Is the
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Christian life supposed to be this matter of difficult,
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grinding drudgery where we just grit our teeth and try to be
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better people? Or is it supposed to feel light
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and joyful? Lewis's argument is that it's
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actually both and also neither, in a way that just completely
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contradicts our natural intuition.
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And this text is so crucial because it gets right to the
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heart of the difference between what Lewis calls ordinary
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morality and the actual work of Christ.
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This isn't about behavior modification.
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It's not self help. It's not just, you know, being a
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slightly nicer person. What we're talking about is a
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complete structural change of the human person from our
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perspective, a reformed perspective.
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We call this regeneration. We call it sanctification.
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OK, so let's unpack this. Lewis starts by identifying
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where most of us begin our thinking.
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He calls it the ordinary idea of morality.
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What's the What's the default setting for the human mind here?
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The default setting is the ordinary self.
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That's the term he uses before we can really grasp the full
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Christian picture. We all start with our ordinary
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self, right at the center of the universe, right?
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Me. Exactly.
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Me, My desires, my interests, my personality.
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That's the baseline reality. This is my territory, my life.
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And then morality shows up. Yes, and we perceive morality
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or, you know, the good of society or maybe God's law as
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this external thing, an outside force that makes claims on us.
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It feels like an intrusion. It does.
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It feels like it's interfering with the me.
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It's an intrusion on my atomic. It's like a stranger walking
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into your house and telling you what to do.
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And Lewis gives these really concrete examples.
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He says, OK, the ordinary self wants to do certain things.
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Maybe it's a bit of gossip, or holding on to money, or some
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kind of lustful thought. Things that feel natural to that
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self. Yes, but then morality steps in
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and says Nope, that's wrong. So you have to give it up and it
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feels like you're losing something, like you're being
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robbed. And the flip side is also true.
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There are things the self has absolutely no interest in doing,
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like say, being charitable to someone you dislike or showing
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patience to a really difficult family member.
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But morality says you must do this, it's the right thing.
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So we have to force ourselves. We end up constantly fighting
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against our own natural grain. And this whole mindset leads to
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what Lewis calls the taxpayer analogy.
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I absolutely love this image because it's so so relatable.
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It's incredibly vivid. So he says, imagine an honest
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man paying his taxes. He does it.
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He follows the law. He writes the check.
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But what's going on in his head? Well, he does it.
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What's his actual mindset? His mindset is all about
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calculation. He's thinking, OK, I hope that
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after I pay the government what it demands, there will be enough
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leftover for me to live on. Yeah.
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For my real life. Exactly.
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He sees his income as fundamentally his own and the
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tax is just this necessary evil he have to deduct from it.
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He wants to pay the absolute minimum required to stay out of
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jail. And then keep the rest for
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himself, for his own plans and his own enjoyment.
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And that is precisely how we apply this to God.
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Oh. It's a perfect parallel.
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It is the mindset is OK, I have my life which belongs to me and
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I'll pay God or morality or whatever it's due.
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I'll give God his percentage. Maybe it's 10% of my income,
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right? The ties or a couple hours on a
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Sunday morning, Yeah, or a certain amount of being nice
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that I have to dispense during the week.
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Right. But the rest, well, they're 90%,
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Yeah, the other 6 1/2 days, that's mine.
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That's my private property to do with as I please.
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We basically see God as a creditor, A cosmic IRS agent.
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We. Do we see ourselves as these
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independent operators just trying to keep a portion of our
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lives private, away from his influence?
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We just want to clear the debt so we can get back to our real
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business doing what we want. And Louis just cuts right
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through that and says it's a massive theological error.
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It is because it completely misunderstands our relationship
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to the Creator. You are not an independent
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contractor negotiating a deal with God.
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You're a creature. He made you.
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Every single breath you take is a gift from Him.
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The ground you stand on is His. So the whole idea of my life is
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flawed from the start. It is, but even just on a
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practical level, Lewis says this taxpayer approach is a complete
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disaster. It just doesn't work.
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He says it only ever leads to two possible outcomes and
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neither of them is good. So what happens when you try to
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live this taxpayer life? OK, so the first outcome is that
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you just give up, you quit you. Default on the loan.
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You do you realize you can't pay the tax?
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The demands of conscience are just too high.
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Rules are too strict. So you just stop trying to be
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good altogether, You say Forget it.
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If I can't be perfect, I might as well just be a rebel and do
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what I want. I.
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Think a lot of people end up there, yeah.
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And the second outcome? The second outcome is that you
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become unhappy. Not just a little unhappy.
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Incredibly, deeply unhappy. This is the part that I find so
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interesting. Why?
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Why does trying to be good in this specific way, this taxpayer
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way, guarantee misery? It's.
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Because of the way conscience works, Lewis argues that the
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more you obey your conscience, the more it actually demands of
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you. Oh.
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It's not a fixed tax rate. It's not a fixed rate at all,
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it's a progressive tax. So if you're operating from that
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ordinary self, that self is being constantly starved.
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It's being Hanford and worried and nagged at every single turn.
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So it just gets angrier and angrier.
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Of course it does. It feels like it's being robbed
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of its life, its pleasures, it's very identity.
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You're essentially dragging this ordinary self along kicking and
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screaming, trying force it to be holy, and it resents every
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single step. And this is what produces the
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martyr complex. Yes, the martyr.
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And we all know this person. Or, if we're honest, we've
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probably been this person at some point, the one who's always
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living for others, but does it with a deep theatrical sigh.
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Oh yes, the person who says, well, I guess I'll do the dishes
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again with this heavy town. I do everything around here and
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nobody ever appreciates it. They're always discontented.
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They're always keeping score, wondering why nobody sees how
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much they're sacrificing. They're making a public
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spectacle of their own supposed goodness.
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And Lewis makes this incredibly sharp observation here.
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He says this person, this martyr, actually becomes a
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greater pest to everyone around them than if they just stayed
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frankly selfish. That's a real sting in the tail,
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isn't it? It is the idea that honest,
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straightforward selfishness might actually be less socially
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damaging than this kind of self-righteous, unhappy
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goodness. But it's true, if you think
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about it, the frankly selfish person is at least enjoying
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themselves, and they're not trying to make you feel guilty
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about it. But the unhappy martyr, they
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spread gloom and guilt wherever they go it.
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Just highlights the total futility of the taxpayer model.
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You can't just suppress the natural self indefinitely and
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expect it not to turn toxic. And it flies in the face of our
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own theology. The Westminster Shorter
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Catechism asks what is the chief end of man?
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And the answer isn't to be miserable for God.
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It's to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
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The martyr isn't enjoying God, they're enduring him.
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OK, so if the taxpayer model is the wrong way, the ordinary way
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that leads to ruin, what's the alternative?
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What is Christ actually asking for if it's not our taxes?
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Christ's demand is total. It's not a percentage.
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It's all or nothing. Lewis summarizes the voice of
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Christ as saying something like, look, I don't want so much of
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your time and so much of your money and so much of your work.
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I want you I. Want you?
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That just changes the entire frame of reference, doesn't.
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It's not a transaction anymore. Not at all.
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And this is the critical point. Christ is not interested in
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tormenting the natural self. He's not trying to whip it into
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shape or discipline it into submission.
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He wants to kill. It he wants to kill it.
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Lewis uses some really aggressive analogies here to
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make this point. He brings up dentistry and,
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well, nobody likes going to the dentist.
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Right. And his point is if you go to a
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dentist with a bad toothache, what you probably want is for
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them to just stop the pain. Maybe drill it a bit, put a
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crown on it? Some maintenance work?
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You want to keep the tooth, you just want it to stop hurting.
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You want relief, not surgery. Exactly.
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But Christ is the kind of dentist who looks at the X-ray
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and says no, I'm not going to drill it, I'm not going to crown
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it, I'm going to have it out. He wants to pull the tooth, get
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rid of the source of the infection completely.
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And he uses the tree analogy too, which is just a stark
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Christ doesn't want to just prune a branch here or there to
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make the tree look a bit tidier. He wants the whole tree down.
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The whole tree down. He wants to clear the ground and
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start fresh. If you really let that sink in,
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it's terrifying. It sounds so destructive.
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It is destructive, but only to the old self.
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It's the demand for, as Lewis puts it, the whole outfit.
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We have to hand over the entire natural self and notice the
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detail he includes here. Not just the wicked desires.
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Not just the wicked desires, but the innocent ones too.
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Everything. OK, that's a sticking point for
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me. Why the innocent ones?
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I get handing over my anger or my greed, those are obviously
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weeds in the garden. But why does my love for a hobby
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or my enjoyment of a simple comfort?
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Why does that have to go on the chopping block too?
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Because if those things still belong to the natural self, they
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are still part of the old corrupt structure.
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They're part of the taxpayers little stash that he's trying to
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keep for himself. So it's about Lordship.
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It's entirely about lordship. If you keep the nice parts of
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your life under your own control, you are still the God
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of that little domain. But, and this is the crucial
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turn in the whole argument, he doesn't just take, he offers an
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exchange. I will give you a new self
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instead. In fact, I will give you myself,
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and this resonates so deeply with the Reformed understanding
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of union with Christ. This is not self improvement,
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it's self replacement. Galatians 2.20.
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I have been crucified with Christ.
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It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
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It's his life, His will, His desire is becoming ours.
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We don't just try to act like Him, we begin to share in His
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very life. So we move from this, this
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really terrifying demand of give me everything, to this
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incredible promise of a new life.
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And this brings us right to the central paradox of the whole
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chapter. Is this path harder or is it
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easier? Lewis argues it's both, and he
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starts by looking at Scripture, where you see this exact same
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paradox in the words of Jesus himself, right?
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On the one hand, Jesus says take up your cross.
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Which, as Lewis points out, implies death.
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A horrible death, he says. It's like being beaten to death
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in a concentration camp. It's the ultimate difficulty.
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It is the end of you. But then, almost in the next
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breath, Jesus says my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
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So how can both of those things be true?
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How can something be a cross, an instrument of torture and
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execution, and also be a light burden?
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That's the Riddle. And Lewis resolved this by
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saying it all depends on how you approach the task.
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It's about the method you choose.
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He uses the LA Z boy analogy. This one really took me back to
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my school days. It's a perfect illustration.
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Every teacher in the world has said this.
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The laziest boy always ends up doing the most work.
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So let's picture it. You have two students and they
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have to learn a geometry proposition.
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The hard worker sits down and puts in the effort to actually
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understand it. Which takes work in the moment.
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It requires mental focus. It's probably a bit
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uncomfortable for 10-15 minutes. But then you have the lazy boy.
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He doesn't want to do that mental heavy lifting of
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understanding the logic, He just tries to memorize the shape of
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the answer. He's just parroting it because
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for that specific moment it feels like less effort.
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He's taking what he thinks is the shortcut.
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But then what happened six months later when the final exam
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comes around? That's it.
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The boy who took the time to understand it, he just breezes
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through. He sees the logic, he gets it.
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He might even enjoy solving the problem because he grasps the
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underlying principle. But the lazy boy.
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He's now facing hours and hours of miserable, soul crushing
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drudgery trying to cram this disconnected information into
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his head. His initial laziness has
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resulted in far more work in the long, long run.
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The shortcut was actually the long hard way around.
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And Lewis says this is exactly what happens in the spiritual
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life. He also uses this great analogy
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from battle or from mountain climbing to talk about courage.
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The idea of pluck, as he calls it.
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Right. In a dangerous situation, he
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says, the thing that requires the most courage, the thing that
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looks the hardest and scariest in the moment, is often actually
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the safest option. So if you're climbing a mountain
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and you come to a tricky spot and you funk it, you hesitate,
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you get scared, you try to take what looks like an easier, less
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steep path. You often find yourself in a far
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more dangerous position a few hours later.
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You get stuck on a ledge you can't get down from.
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You run out of daylight. The.
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Cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing.
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Yeah, that's such a powerful line.
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It reminds me of, you know, handling a powerful animal like
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a horse. If you're timid and fearful,
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you're actually more likely to get hurt.
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That's a great example. So applying this to our faith,
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total surrender to Christ feels terrible.
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It feels like jumping off a Cliff, Lewis says.
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It feels almost impossible. But it's actually easier than
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the alternative. It's infinitely easier than the
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alternative, which is what we were just talking about, the
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taxpayer model trying to be good while remaining our old natural
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selves. Lewis argues that this
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compromise is literally impossible.
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It is we are trying to keep our own personal happiness as the
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main goal, while also trying to be good.
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We want to let our mind and our heart go their own way, you
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know, centered on money or pleasure or ambition or
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approval, and yet somehow at the same time behave honestly and
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humbly and charitably. We want the fruit without
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changing the roots. And Christ himself warned us,
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this can't be done. A Thistle cannot produce figs.
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It's just an agricultural reality.
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You can't trick nature. That's such a great way to put
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it. If I have a field that is
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nothing but grass, I can work really, really hard on it.
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I can cut the grass every day. I can keep it perfectly short,
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make it look like a pristine putting green.
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But it's still grass. It's still.
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Grass. It will never, ever produce a
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stalk of wheat. Correct.
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And to get wheat you can't just improve the grass.
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The ground must be, as Lewis says, plowed up and re sewn.
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The entire root system has to be ripped out and replaced with
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something new. Which connects right back to the
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idea that the natural self must be replaced, not just improved.
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Yes, trying to force a grass field to act like a wheat field
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is an endless, exhausting, impossible labor.
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But being a wheat field that produces wheat, That's natural,
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that's easy. In a sense, it grows out of the
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very nature of the plant. So total surrender, allowing
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ourselves to be plowed up and become that wheat field that is
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the easy yoke, even though the plowing itself is violent and
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painful. Precisely.
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Being a Christian in the long run is easier than trying to be
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a good person without Christ. It's the difference between
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pretending to be something you're not and actually becoming
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it. Now this is all very
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theological, it's high level stuff.
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But Lewis being Lewis, brings it right down to the most
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practical, mundane moment of our day, the moment your alarm clock
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goes off. The daily practice.
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The battlefield of the morning. I love this description.
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He talks about waking up. He says the second you become
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conscious, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you
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like wild animals. Don't we all feel that before
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your feet even touch the floor? The anxieties though, I want
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this, that I need to do that. The plans, the fears, the self
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preservation instinct, it all just hits you.
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It's an assault. It's the natural self
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immediately trying to assert its dominance over the day.
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Yes, and Lewis says the very first job of every single day is
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simply shoving them all back. It's an active, conscious act of
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defense. You have to push back those wild
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animals so that you can create a little bit of quiet space to
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listen to that other voice. The voice of Christ, yes.
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You have to intentionally take the other point of view.
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You have to let that larger, stronger, quieter life come
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flowing in. You have to reorient yourself
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and remember who you belong to before the day swallows you up.
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He describes it as standing back from all your natural fussings
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and frettings coming in out of the wind.
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It sounds like a daily recalibration.
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And he's realistic about it, he admits.
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We can probably only do it for a few moments at first.
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It's not like you achieve some instant, permanent state of Zen.
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But he says that from those moments, the new life begins to
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spread. It's like a good infection.
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It is. It starts in those quiet,
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intentional moments in the morning, and then it starts to
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spread out and influence the rest of your day.
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He distinguishes this kind of deep change from just a surface
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application. Use the analogy of paint versus
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dye. Yes, the ordinary morality, the
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taxpayer model, that's like paint.
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You lay it on the surface of something, it covers the
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outside. It might look nice for a while,
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but underneath the material is exactly the same as it was
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before. And it can chip off, you can
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peel, it creates this hard shell that might just be hiding rot on
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the inside. But the Christian life, the new
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life in Christ, is a dye. It soaks right through.
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It, it soaks right through, it changes the very color and
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composition of the fabric itself from the inside out.
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And Lewis is so emphatic here. He says Christ never talked in
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vague, idealistic gas. When Jesus said be perfect, he
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meant it. He meant the full treatment.
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He meant the dye soaking through every single fiber of our being.
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Yes, because he intends to actually make us into creatures
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that can stand in the presence of a holy God without being
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consumed. It's not a metaphor, it's a real
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transformation. And that leads us to what is
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maybe the most famous image in this whole chapter, and possibly
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one of Lewis's best ever the egg.
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The. Egg and the bird, it's a
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masterpiece. He says we are like eggs at
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present. And an egg is a perfectly fine
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thing to be. There's nothing inherently wrong
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with being an egg. It has its own integrity, its
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own purpose. But, and this is the whole
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point, you cannot go on indefinitely being just an
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ordinary decent egg. You must hatch or you will go
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bad. That is the ultimatum.
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There is no permanent stable status quo for an egg.
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And this brings the whole hard versus easy paradox into perfect
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focus. It is hard for an egg to turn
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into a bird. It's a violent, scary,
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destructive process for the egg itself.
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The shell has to break. The egg must cease to be an egg.
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But. But it is impossible for an egg
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to learn to fly while it remains an egg.
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I just love that image. You can just picture a little
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egg on the ground, straining, flapping imaginary wings, maybe
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cracking its shell a little bit from the effort, trying with all
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its might to be a bird without actually changing its
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fundamental nature. And that is a perfect picture of
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us. When we try to be good without
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surrendering to Christ, we are eggs trying to fly.
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We're ridiculous, we look foolish, we exhaust ourselves,
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and we just make a mess. Lewis says we have to undergo
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the change of species. We must be hatched.
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This is regeneration. This is what it means to be born
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again. So we have this deep internal
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change, the dye soaking in the egg hatching.
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But then Lewis does something fascinating.
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He zooms way out. He starts to look at the purpose
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of our major institutions. He talks about the state and the
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church. And this is where he really
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flips our usual priorities upside down.
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It's a brilliant pivot. He just cuts through centuries
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of political philosophy in a very Lewis way.
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He asks is a very simple question.
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What is the state for? What is government actually
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there to do? And his answer is so
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surprisingly humble. He says the state exists simply
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to promote and protect ordinary happiness.
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He gives these incredibly cozy, mundane examples a husband and
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wife chatting over the fire at the end of the day, a few
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friends playing darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his room
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or digging in his garden. It's so grounded, so human.
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It is. And then he makes this
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incredibly bold claim. He says all the big stuff, the
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laws, the parliaments, the armies, the courts, the police,
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the whole economic system, all of it is a complete waste of
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time unless it exists to support and protect those simple
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moments. The grandeur of the state is
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just a servant to the ordinary happiness of its citizens.
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Exactly. The state is the fence, the
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people and their simple joys are the garden inside, and the fence
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only has value for the sake of the garden.
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So the state is just the scaffolding, but then he
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contrasts this with the church. And the church, he says, is
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completely different. The church has one singular
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object. It is not there just to make
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people nice or to make society more comfortable.
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It's one purpose is to draw men into Christ, to make them little
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Christ's little Christ, which is the literal meaning of the word
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Christian. And Lewis says, if the church is
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not doing this, if it is not actively turning eggs into
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birds, then all the cathedrals, all the missions, all the
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sermons, and even the Bible itself are a complete waste of
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time. Wow, that's a staggering
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statement to say even the Bible is a waste of time if it doesn't
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lead to this transformation. Because God became man for no
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other purpose. The incarnation wasn't an
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academic exercise or a philosophical statement.
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It was a rescue mission to create these little Christ's.
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If the medicine isn't actually curing the patient, then the
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bottle and the label are useless.
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We're not just meant to read the menu, were meant to eat the
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meal. And Lewis pushes this idea even
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further. He says the entire universe was
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made for this purpose. He goes to the cosmic scope.
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The Bible says that the whole universe was made for Christ.
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And then Louis starts to speculate a bit, and he's very
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clear that it's just a guess about how the rest of nature
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fits into this grand plan. He talks about animals, doesn't.
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He he does, he notes that, you know, we have no idea about life
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on other planets millions of miles away, but here on Earth,
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we can see how the higher animals like our dogs or cats
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are drawn up into man. Through love, right?
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My dog becomes more than just a wild animal because he's in a
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relationship with me. He becomes nearly human in some
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of his habits and his affections.
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He gets a little bit civilized. And even dead things and plants
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are drawn up into man when we study them or use them or
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appreciate their beauty. We elevate nature by interacting
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with it. So the big speculation is that
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when man fully enters into Christ, when we are all finally
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hatched, we bring the rest of nature along with us.
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We're the bridge. That's a guess.
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It's a beautiful, beautiful thought that we are, in a sense,
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the priests of creation. And when we are finally
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restored, the whole bad dream of the fallen world will be over.
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It will finally be mourning. The whole of creation is
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groaning, waiting for the eggs to hatch.
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It's right there in Romans 8. The creation waits with eager
23:34
longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
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So let's try to bring this all together.
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What does this mean for us right now?
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Let's summarize the key takeaways, because we've covered
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a lot of ground. I think the first thing is we
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have to realize that the Christian life isn't just a job
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or a special exercise we do on the side.
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It's the whole thing. You can't compartmentalize it
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right? And the taxpayer method, trying
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to give God a slice of the pie while keeping the rest for
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ourselves, It only leads to misery.
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Yeah, it creates that grumbling, unhappy martyr who, as Lewis
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says, is worse than a selfish person.
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We have to stop trying to pay God off.
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And second, total surrender is the only way forward.
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It's the only way to avoid the impossible, exhausting task of
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trying to be a good natural self.
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You simply cannot teach an egg to fly.
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It's not in its nature. We must be plowed up moving from
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grass to wheat. We must be hatched, moving from
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egg to bird, and that requires a death of the old self, a real
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death. And while that surrender feels
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harder, feels more terrifying in the moment, like jumping off
24:33
that Cliff, it is actually the easier yoke in the long run.
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It's the only way that actually works because it's the only way
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that aligns us with reality as God created it.
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I want to leave our listener with a thought to Mull over for
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the rest of the day, for the rest of the week.
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Think about tomorrow morning. Think about that exact moment
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when the alarm rings and you wake up.
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The wild animals. Yes, the wild animals of your
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own wishes and hopes and fears rushing at you.
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The anxiety of the day, the To Do List.
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It really is a battleground, that first moment.
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And the question is this, are you going to spend your day
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trying to teach an egg to fly? Are you going to try and wrestle
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those animals into submission with your own willpower, which
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is the hard, impossible way? Or are you willing to crack the
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shell? Are you willing to do that first
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hard job of shoving them back and letting that larger,
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stronger, quieter life come in and take over?
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That really is the daily question.
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The shell feels safe, but it's a tomb if you stay in it too long.
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The only way out is through the breaking.
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Thank you for listening to Reformed Thinking.
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We hope this deep dive helps you with the wild animals of your
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own week. Until next time.