Untitled Sermon

“We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity-like perfect charity-will not be attained by merely human efforts. You must ask for God's help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) maybe, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection.”

This excerpt from Mere Christianity falls within C.S. Lewis’ illumination on Christian behavior. It has transformed my way of thinking ever since I read it. C.S. Lewis recognizes that human beings cannot produce true holiness on their own. Sin affects every part of human nature.  So much that even our best intentions are weakened by pride, self-interest, and failure. The repeated need to ask forgiveness reminds us that sin is not simply a series of mistakes but a deeper condition that separates us from God and reveals our inability to save ourselves. It reminds us that the hope of Christianity is that God does not leave us in despair; He provides a Savior in Jesus Christ, whose grace forgives our failures and whose Spirit enables us to keep pursuing righteousness. Therefore, any sin struggle that we face in this life points beyond our own human effort to our continual dependence on God’s mercy, transformation, and saving power.