A Surpassing Love

Bryan Chapell on the grace of the gospel, at last June's Advance.

C. S. Lewis: Masturbation

A 1956 letter responding to Keith Masson, a young American.

3/6/56
Magdalene College
Cambridge

Dear Mr Masson -

. . . . I agree that the stuff about 'wastage of vital fluids' is rubbish. For me the real evil of masturbation would be that it takes an appetite which, in lawful use, leads the individual out of himself to complete (and correct) his own personality in that of another (and finally in children and even grandchildren) and turns it back: send the man back into the prison of himself, there to keep a harem of imaginary brides. And this harem, once admitted, works against his ever getting out and really uniting with a real woman. For the harem is always accessible, always subservient, calls for no sacrifices or adjustments, and can be endowed with erotic and psychological attractions which no real woman can rival. Among those shadowy brides he is always adored, always the perfect lover: no demand is made on his unselfishness, no mortification ever imposed on his vanity.

In the end, they become merely the medium through which he increasingly adores himself. Do read Charles Williams' Descent into Hell and study the character of Mr. Wentworth. And it is not only the faculty of love which is thus sterilized, forced back on itself, but also the faculty of imagination.

The true exercise of imagination, in my view, is (a) To help us to understand other people (b) To respond to, and, some of us, to produce, art. But it has also a bad use: to provide for us, in shadowy form, a substitute for virtues, successes, distinctions etc. which ought to be sought outside in the real world--e.g. picturing all I'd do if I were rich instead of earning and saving. Masturbation involves this abuse of imagination in erotic matters . . . and thereby encourages a similar abuse of it in all spheres. After all, almost the main work of life is to come out of our selves, out of the little, dark prison we are all born in. Masturbation is to be avoided as all things are to be avoided which retard this process. The danger is that of coming to love the prison.

Yours
C. S. Lewis

--Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis: Vol 3 (Cambridge University Press, 2007), 758-59; emphasis original

The Book of James and the Gospel

It's often thought that Paul addressed the problem of legalism, James the problem of license. Paul corrected those who made too much of rules, James those who made too little of rules. Paul said works don't save you; James said works must be part of Christian living, or it's only dead faith.

Fair enough, and helpful. Most deeply, though, both Paul and James were confronting people into whose hearts the gospel had not yet sunk deeply enough. Both were writing to those who were doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.

Here's how our friend Adolf puts it.

James directs the word of repentance toward the righteous: not toward obvious sinners who were condemned already by the Law, but toward that kind of godlessness that portrayed itself as piety. He addresses himself not to those who were not able to hear the word but to those who heard it eagerly without doing it; not to those who failed to believe but rather to those who had high praise for faith, but a corpse-like faith lacking obedience; not to those who lacked wisdom but to the wise; not to those who never prayed but to those whose prayer was despicable in the sight of God. . . . Jesus' struggle [was] against transforming religion into rebellion against God. (Adolf Schlatter, The Theology of the Apostles, p. 96)

'Transforming religion into rebellion.'

!

How to Pray before You Pray

For a soul to know its wants, its infirmities, is a heavenly discovery. He that has this assistance, his prayer is more than half made before he begins to pray. He . . . unloads himself on the Lord Christ. . . . Without this, prayer is not prayer.

--John Owen, Communion with God, 198

More Good Blogging

Darrin Patrick, pastor of The Journey in St. Louis, is blogging. Good stuff today on meditating on Scripture to get happy in the Lord.

Owen: His All-Conquering Desirableness

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. --Prov 3:13-15

. . . your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made for us wisdom . . . --1 Cor 1:30

John Owen writes:

Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God, the eternal Wisdom of the Father. . . . He and his ways are better than silver and gold, rubies, and all desirable things; as in the gospel he likens himself to the 'pearl in the field,' which when the merchant finds, he sells all that he has, to purchase. All goes for Christ; all righteousness without him, all ways of religion, all goes for that one pearl. The glory of his Deity, the excellency of his person, his all-conquering desirableness, ineffable love, wonderful undertaking, unspeakable condescensions, effectual mediation, complete righteousness, lie in their eyes, ravish their hearts, fill their affections, and possess their souls.

--Communion with God, 221

Schlatter: Transferring the Aim

Adolf Schlatter (1852-1938), The History of the Christ, p. 298:

Jesus demanded from the disciples the renunciation of exhibition of their strength and assertion of their significance, not only in their dealings with God but also in their dealings with one another. . . . The self-admiration that considered one's own religious conduct to be superior and that enjoyed and exhibited it was considered by him to be sin in the case of his own followers just as in Judaism. . . . This rule had greatest significance for the disciples' common life, since a religious community acts differently depending on whether it exhibits its worship and admires its ethical achievements or whether it transfers the aim of its longing from itself to God and thus protects against self-admiration.

A lesson to be re-learned, over and over.

Help in Learning Wisdom

I'm in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes these days. Learning tons--make that, learning little that's new, relearning tons I'd forgotten--about wise living. For two extremely illuminating sermon series that have just begun on these books, check out Ray Ortlund in Nashville, who's just begun Proverbs, and Zack Eswine in St. Louis, who's just begun Ecclesiastes.

Loads of help here.

Circumstances: A Means, not an End

A good word from John Ortberg.

HT: Buzzard

John Owen and the Affective Love of God

In a word, there is not the meanest, the weakest, the poorest believer on the earth, but Christ prizes him more than all the world besides. (John Owen, Communion with God, 218)

The main way God is growing me in Spring 2010 is by teaching me of the affective, intensely personal nature of Christ's love for me. John Owen has been the crucial helper.

I come from a (Reformed) theological tradition, one I love and wouldn't trade for anything, in which we often portray God as being 'satisfied,' his justice vindicated, his wrath turned away, in Christ's atoning work.

That is unspeakably precious. God helping me, I would die for it.

But God's affection for his people is sometimes less clearly articulated. The motivation of love is often included, but it's still easy for us to emphasize the satisfaction-of-justice to the neglect of the sheer love of Christ, the endearing tender-heartedness, the flowing mercy, the 'when Jesus looked on her he had compassion,' the 'Jesus wept,' the undiluted affection of Christ. Zephaniah 3 captures it best: God rejoices over us with singing--consider it--with loud exultation (see this book). The nature of the transaction in all its glorious exactness must not dampen our sense of the sheer explosiveness of his hesed, his lovingkindness. Indeed, the two are mutually reinforcing.

My sense is that many believers today cherish and champion the transaction wrought in the atonement while harboring secret doubts that God is truly happy over them. They do not doubt that God is now obliged to love them; to fail to do so would be unfair, in light of the cross. But they continue to doubt whether God enjoys loving them. Does God, in Christ, begrudgingly love or eagerly love? Sure, we're no longer condemned; but, at the least, God's lips are pursed, right?

The picture of the father in the prodigal son answers such doubts. Picking up his robe, running, putting his ring on him, embracing, kissing, throwing a party. The sheer exultation of the father--of the Father--over his miserable, foolish son makes us blush. Feel uncomfortable. Awkward. Our lips speak Luke 15; our hearts smirk.

That resistance to God's indomitable affection is sin that should be repented of. If you're going to be an atheist, fine. At least you won't be two-minded. If you're going to be a Christian, be a Christian all the way. No more inner cowering. No more suspicions of his love. Be liberated. His love doesn't slouch; it sprints. 'And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran . . .' (Lk 15:20)

John Owen was, according to Roger Nicole, the greatest theologian ever to write in the English language. Including Jonathan Edwards. And what I did not know till recent weeks is that the greatest Protestant, English-writing thinker had a greater sense of God's fatherly affection than anyone I've read--including, I think, Edwards.

To hell with the doubts. That's where they belong. He loves us. Each one. And he enjoys loving us.