George MacDonald and C. S. Lewis (5)

 

From Andrew Murray’s Introduction to William Law:

 

“I confess that in all my reading I have never found anyone who has so helped me in understanding the Scripture truth of the work of the Holy Spirit. And it is because I know of no one who has put certain aspects of needed truth with the same clearness, that I cannot but think that he is a messenger from God to call His Church to give the blessed Spirit the place of honour that belongs to Him.”

 

“…all true religion in heaven and earth, consists in nothing but an absolute and unalterable dependence upon God, and how the highest blessedness is nothing but the most complete surrender to let this blessed God do His work.”

 

Here again we see a similarity in Murray’s approach to William Law and C. S. Lewis’s approach to George MacDonald.

 

Lewis said that he was not a theologian, I’m not sure in what sense he meant that, or why he made the statement – he was certainly a critical thinker, he knew the Church Fathers who laid the theological groundwork for our faith by articulating its cardinal doctrines from Scripture. He knew ancient Greek and Latin; he read the New Testament in Greek and reviewed the translation work of J. B. Phillips at Phillips’s request. Sometimes I think Lewis may have used “I’m not a theologian” to give himself a pass not to move beyond Mere Christianity, at least a pass in not making public statements about certain doctrines and practices. Of course I really don’t know what Lewis meant, but functionally I consider him a first rate theologian.

 

Murray could not give himself a pass by saying that he wasn’t a theologian, for he was trained in theology and was a leader in the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa. It was as a pastor, a theologian, and a leader in his denomination that he writes the following in his Introduction to Law:

 

“In some respects no two men differ more than John Calvin and William Law…And yet no one reminds me more of Calvin than Law. Calvin’s theology had but one thought, the glory of God, and our absolute dependence upon Him. The shape this principle took in his teaching of the Predestinating Sovereignty of Grace, Law utterly rejects. And yet, I have nowhere met a teacher who, from another side, has opened up this same truth of the Glory of God and our absolute dependence on Him, as Law.”

 

“Often the thought has come to me of seeing Calvin and Law in heaven, very near each other, side by side, in deepest prostration, special witnesses to that absolute dependence which alone can bring God the glory due to His name.”

 

Murray was a Reformed pastor and leader, his roots were in Scottish Presbyterianism and the Dutch Reformed church, his immediate audience was his Reformed denomination – as such he addressed the elephant in the room, the differences between John Calvin and William Law. Murray saw them reconciled in Jesus Christ – they were both seeking the glory of God.

 

C. S. Lewis also saw the glory of God in George MacDonald – MacDonald was pointing to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and MacDonald’s glorious expression of God overshadowed those areas in which MacDonald may have displayed an imperfect understanding.

 

And here is the critical thing to remember, MacDonald and Law were centered on the Person of Jesus Christ and the Good News about Him. They were centered on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There may have been areas of their thinking that did not align with orthodoxy, but in practice, in their love for God and love for people, they were often more orthodox than those who were orthodox.

 

Over the years people have often recommended “Christian” teachers and authors to me who are not centered on Jesus Christ and His glory. They are focused on the supreme “self” and not Almighty God. They are positive thinkers; they teach ten or twelve or twenty principles that promise to make our lives better. They sell us the idea of having our best lives now. They dangle success and health and wealth in front of us. They will equip us to manipulate God to answer our prayers. They often caricature the Cross and the Atonement and our need for repentance, confession, new birth, and obedient discipleship.

 

If our lives are not centered in Jesus Christ then we will not discern false teaching, for we will not have ears to hear and eyes to see, we will not have a sensitivity to the Voice of our Good Shepherd. George MacDonald and William Law teach us to hear this Voice, they teach us to live in deep daily relationship with the holy Trinity, and how to live with one another in Christ.

 

Believing and articulating orthodox doctrine is no substitute for living in fellowship with Jesus Christ – if we are truly born of the Holy Spirit then we are to live in, and by, and through, the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ.

 

There is beauty is Christocentric doctrine; as Dorothy L. Sayers said, the beauty is in the dogma. We see this beauty as we are in Jesus Christ. Outside of the Bible I know of no beauty greater than the Nicene Creed – but this beauty is the beauty of Christ, and of the Father and of the Holy Spirit and of the communion of saints. This is a sacramental beauty that comes to me in God’s glory – it never fades, its glory ever increases.

 

Lewis and Murray, two critical thinkers, can teach us to look for Jesus in others within the tent of Mere Christianity; they can teach us that the centrality of Jesus Christ, as He is revealed in the Bible, is the core of Christianity, indeed, Jesus Christ is Christianity. Murray and Lewis knew there is such a thing a lifeless orthodoxy, both Law and MacDonald challenged misconceptions about God in their teaching and writing as they pointed to a vibrant life in the Holy Spirit and in deep communion with the Father and the Son.

 

In our next reflection, the Lord willing, I hope to share some things I’ve observed in life regarding the above, and then we’ll come back to Lewis and MacDonald.