There is no middle way

by: Andrew Butler

I heard a sermon this weekend in which the pastor referenced an argument originally made by C. S. Lewis, and I was so affected that I feel obligated to reproduce it for the benefit of others.

“There was a man born among these Jews who claimed to be, or to be the son of, or to be ‘one with’, the Something which is at once the awful hunter of nature and the giver of the moral law. The claim is so shocking—a paradox, and even a horror, which we may easily be lulled into taking too lightly—that only two views of this man are possible. Either he was a raving lunatic of an unusually abominable type, or else He was, and is, precisely what He said. There is no middle way. If the records make the first hypothesis unacceptable, you must submit to the second. And if you do that, all else that is claimed by Christians becomes credible—that this Man, having been killed, was yet alive, and that His death, in some manner incomprehensible to human thought, has effected a real change in our relations to the ‘awful’ and ‘righteous’ Lord, and a change in our favour.”

Furthermore…

“If any message from the core of reality ever were to reach us, we should expect to find in it just that unexpectedness, that willful, dramatic anfractuosity which we find in the Christian faith. It has the master touch—the rough, male taste of reality, not made by us, or, indeed, for us, but hitting us in the face.”

Let us not take this truth too lightly. He is exactly what He said He is. “There is no middle way.” Our relations to the awful and righteous Lord have been changed in our favor. Let us rejoice in that fact. It is my prayer, hope and desire (Paul’s as well: Ephesians 1:15-23) that we will allow the simple nature of the gospel to renew us, refresh us, and reinvigorate us always and forever. 

 I am from Kansas. I love reading, writing, and thinking. I plan on going to law school. Jesus is my satisfaction, validation, affirmation, and chief supply of affection.