Living out the Christ-life

Recently, I've been listening to a recording of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis in the car and occasionally at work (I think I listened to it three or four times this past week, because my iPod is set to begin a playlist over again once it completes it so I just kept listening to the book over again), and a lot of different things have caught my attention, made me think, and challenged my actions and attitudes. One in particular is Lewis's argument that Christian morality (as opposed to other systems of morality) is not in its essence about following a list of rules and laws, but is rather about becoming like a specific person - namely, Christ. Therefore, when one is attempting to discern whether a particular course of action is moral, the best question to ask is not "is this action right or wrong?" but "is this action something that Christ would do?" Obviously moral laws and standards are a great help to this: if something is clearly forbidden by the standards in the Bible, then it isn't going to be something Christ would do, and doing it isn't going to help us emulate Christ and become more like Him.

But this different perspective goes both deeper and higher than the moral laws. There are many things (small, everyday, trivial things) that are not strictly wrong but that are not in the spirit of Jesus Christ, and choosing to do them, though it may not bother our consciences at all, will not help us grow into the Christ-life (to borrow one of my favorite Lewisian words) God is giving us. So this desire to emulate Christ pushes us higher than the moral law does on its own. In addition, in seeking to be like Christ we find that it is not enough to change our actions: we must also change our attitudes and thoughts; no, we must go further still - we must change the very essence of who we are. So we are cut far deeper by this need to become like Christ than we ever were by the moral law alone (and it can cut quite deep!).

However, I also find it incredibly encouraging. To become like Christ in character as well as in outward action, I must become a better person than I ever guessed just from studying the laws and standards that attempt to define righteous behavior, and I continually found myself falling short of those laws alone. And here I see my whole self falling short of being like Him, knowing that no matter how much I perfect my actions, words, and behaviors there will still be sinful thoughts and uncontrolled emotions in the depth of my being that I will never be able to eradicate. You might ask, at this point, why I say I find this encouraging! It is simply this: when I see that the law (which I can delude myself into thinking I am able to obey, if I try hard enough) is only a shallow and superficial veneer over the whole depth and glorious height of perfection to which we are called in being like Christ, my pride has to fall back and I am free to rest upon the grace of my Lord. Do you see how it works? Only when we realize that we are unable to reach the heights to which we are called will we begin to rely on God's grace, and it is only when we begin to rely on His grace that we begin to experience the great freedom and power of being His child. He has made us for glory, and He will lead us there in Christ, by making us like Christ, by drawing us deeper into the knowledge of Christ.