good?
what is 'good'?
slowly reading through "Problem of Pain" by C.S. Lewis. Chapter 5 is "The Fall of Man" and I just finished it. Something cool hit me as I was reviewing the chapter before heading into Chapter 6.
Background info:
The problem of pain is this:
At the end of Chapter 5 we read this: "The thesis of this chapter is simply that man, as a species, spoiled himself, and that good, to us in our present state, must therefore mean primarily remedial or corrective good."(p. 85)
This is so cool to me because we are always confused and we don't understand how God can be good. He does not measure up to our meter of goodness. Why is that? Because we are fallen, so our 'good' or 'fair' to us is not necessarily true goodness or fairness. We wonder and complain why we have to suffer, "It's not fair! Why didn't this happen to someone else? I don't deserve this!" But, no, it is good, it is fair. Just not by our fallen measure of goodness and/or fairness. It is good by the true measure (God's measure) of goodness and fairness.
Isaiah 55:8-9
slowly reading through "Problem of Pain" by C.S. Lewis. Chapter 5 is "The Fall of Man" and I just finished it. Something cool hit me as I was reviewing the chapter before heading into Chapter 6.
Background info:
The problem of pain is this:
"If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both. This is the problem of pain...The possibility of answering it depends on showing that the terms 'good' and 'almighty', and perhaps also the term 'happy', are equivocal..."(p. 16)
At the end of Chapter 5 we read this: "The thesis of this chapter is simply that man, as a species, spoiled himself, and that good, to us in our present state, must therefore mean primarily remedial or corrective good."(p. 85)
This is so cool to me because we are always confused and we don't understand how God can be good. He does not measure up to our meter of goodness. Why is that? Because we are fallen, so our 'good' or 'fair' to us is not necessarily true goodness or fairness. We wonder and complain why we have to suffer, "It's not fair! Why didn't this happen to someone else? I don't deserve this!" But, no, it is good, it is fair. Just not by our fallen measure of goodness and/or fairness. It is good by the true measure (God's measure) of goodness and fairness.
Isaiah 55:8-9
posted by Elias at 11:38
1 Comments:
That's one of my favorite Lewis books. I've been rereading a missions book by Isobel Kuhn, "Nests Above the Abyss" and it hit me how the Lisu believers did not base their "happiness" on physical circumstances or personal success & comfort. They had a clear view of the God of the Bible and He was their focus, the source of their happiness. He was their cleft in the rock. He was the source of their happiness. How much do you think our problem reconciling unhappiness with a good God is based on our cultural expectations and definitions of happiness?
Tim's Mom
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