DEVOTIONAL DOCTRINE

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'THE SUNBEAM IN THE TOOL SHED'

                         (This articles prints on to 6 A4 pages)

C.S. Lewis is a very famous Christian writer. He was a professor at Cambridge University, England. He became convinced of the truth of Christianity and became a Christian  in his early thirties. After that he wrote and spoke widely about it - including many series of talks on the BBC. He was in great demand. One of the most popular books he wrote was 'The Lion, the Witch, and Wardrobe' one of a series called 'The Chronicles of Narnia'. These are children's fantasy books but highly respected by adults too - as they read them to their children.

This article concerns an incident one day when C.S. Lewis was in the tool shed in his garden. He noticed a sunbeam shining across the shed. It was showing up the dust particles.  He must have seen the same thing many times before but this time he was captivated by it.

He traced the beam to the crack at the top of the closed door of the shed. But what struck him was that although it appeared to be coming from the crack, it was really coming from a blazing star 90 million miles away! Squinting up the beam carefully so as not to burn his eyes, he followed the beam through the crack in the door, through the leaves of a tree outside and beyond to its magnificent source. Lewis thought to himself how different it was looking along the beam to its source than it was looking at the beam in his tool shed.

As we join Lewis in his tool shed, in our mind's eye, we cannot help but notice that the thin beam is so small and weak by comparison with that great burning nuclear fire that is the sun. Just looking at the beam alone tells us so little about its great source. You have to look along the beam to see that. The little beam is beautiful certainly, but it source is magnificent and awe-inspiring.

Mind Set

What struck Lewis so forcibly was that in his day and for 50 years beforehand anthropologists, philosophers sociologists and psychologists had all been studying experience as if it alone were the true reality of everything. At the same time the people who looked along the beam to seek the source of true reality, religious thinkers included, were being derided or at worst ignored. He went on to write 'Meditation in a Toolshed' which was published in the Coventry Evening Telegraph.

But why is all this of importance to us? Because the mind set within which we think and act as Christians is enormously influential. In John 5 there is a very good example of how a particular 'mind set' can totally change the conclusions that are arrived at. Jesus is talking to people who diligently studied the Scriptures. Excellent! - if only more people did that! But because of their mind set they had completely missed what those Scriptures were really about. In John 5:39,40 Jesus makes a devastating observation.

'You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the same Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life'.

They even read the Scriptures for the right reason - 'to possess eternal life', but because of the mind set with which they read, they did not recognise the very One who could give them that new life!

Now, it is probably impossible for us to think about anything without a mind set of presuppositions. It is very difficult to have a truly 'open mind'.  So it is tremendously important that we try to find the 'right' mind set . How can we possibly do that? Surely as we seek to understand Scripture and its teaching about the Christian life, we must try to discern the mind set in which Scripture itself is presented.

The interaction between the thinking of the world and Christian thinking

C.S.Lewis, in his toolshed and later, was so concerned by the fact that thinkers of all kinds were so taken over by the importance of 'experience'. He saw that as being mesmerised by the sunbeam but forgetting the sun.

Indeed it is true that 100 years ago philosophers came to the conclusion that human experience is the only measure of the value of anything. This is called 'existentialism'. It means that there are no objective values, but each person can create his/ her own set of values to live by, based on the evidence of what pleases them subjectively. This idea arose out of a desire to put people back at the centre of things, to give them an identity. Somehow, by a process as fascinating to contemplate as it is difficult to identify, the existential thinking of philosophers has  become the mind set of the common man in our generation.

In an age when people feel overwhelmed by all that is going on around them, they look for reassurance about themselves. In the absence of the reality of God people subconsciously feel terribly alone and vulnerable, at the mercy of forces greater than themselves. Into this maelstrom of uncertainty comes existentialism and tells them reassuringly that life is about their search for good experiences and fulfilment. It offsets an underlying pessimism about things.

Christians do not live in a capsule, isolated from the thinking of the society around them. It would be very surprising if at least some of the existentialist thinking of the world around us did not get into our Christian thinking, even into our Christian mind set. Indeed over the last 40 years or so we have seen within the Christian Church worldwide an emphasis on 'experience', together with an impatience with careful Scriptural teaching and understanding. The Christian mind and understanding has been assigned a very secondary place to experience, particularly dramatic experience, in the daily Christian walk. It has been said by Christian commentators that in these days, most Christians have very little biblical knowledge 'capital' in their personal spiritual bank. It was as long ago as 1967 that John Stott a leading biblical teacher in the UK (and elsewhere) felt compelled to give his annual address that year to the Inter Varsity Fellowship Conference on the subject "Your Mind Matters" - a particularly  pointed title for an audience of those who one would have thought to be committed to knowing and thinking.

But an important distinction needs to made at this point: we are not discussing the perennial subject of 'heart knowledge' versus 'head knowledge'. It has to be admitted that there can be a difference. On the one hand it is possible to be overtaken by a form of orthodoxy that leads to a dry academic understanding and almost totally emotionless Christian life, more characterised by its critical correctness than by its reflection of the sort of Christian joy Paul talks about. At the opposite extreme it is possible to embrace a form of Christian living that almost totally ignores what the Bible teaches and just goes after every emotional experience there is going, resulting in a form of Christianity alien to the tough  down-to-earth ruggedness of the Apostles. However, here we are not here talking about this matter. We are talking about achieving a truly biblical mind set that enables us to read and understand the Bible with its own perspective.

A biblical mind set

In Col.3: 5 there is a very important use of the word 'therefore'. It says ' Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature ..'. Now in Scripture it is always important to investigate what a 'therefore' is there for (sorry about the pun). In this case - as usual - it refers back, to what Paul has said in the previous four verses of the chapter. So what possibly could be the main focus of those verses that it should be the foundation of a very important conclusion - 'put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature.'

Following the trend in much of modern Christian thinking, we might expect it to be something like 'set your hearts on your daily experiences of what God is doing in your life'. But we find it does not say anything remotely like that! On the contrary it says

                    'Since then you have been raised with Christ,

                            set your hearts an things above,

                                    where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

                    Set your minds on things above

                                    not on earthly things.

                    For you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

                                    When Christ, who is your life, appears

                    then you also will appear with him in glory.'

It is after all this that we get the word 'therefore'.

The focus of these verses is decidedly not on our everyday experiences, is it? According to Paul, we are to set our hearts and minds - where? - on Christ as Lord: where He is, is where our true life is. So the motivation for putting to death our earthly nature is not what we see going on in our lives but what we see Christ has done - 'raised us' (v.1).  Notice the 'since' at the beginning of v.1. Since we have been (past tense) raised, then we set our hearts and minds. In these verses the Christian's attention is to be riveted on Christ in heaven!  Spiritually we are to be extraverts not introverts.

THEN will follow the lived obedience demanded by vs. 5-17, both individually and corporately in the Church.

Here is another example. At the beginning of Hebrews 12 the writer encourages Christians to 'throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles' - but what for? So that we can run the race of life with perseverance. (Note the background picture of the runner divesting himself of all encumbrances, even unnecessary clothing, in order to run well.)

How is this to be achieved? By looking at the experiences of our lives? No. In v.2 we find

            'Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,

                        who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning it shame,

            and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.'

Then to make sure we haven't missed the point (v.3)

        'Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men

            so that you do not lose heart.'

Isn't this the same focus as Col.3:1-5?

We were told there, to ...                      set our hearts and minds on things above where Christ is

And now to ....                                       fix our eyes on Jesus

and to .....                                               consider him

Isn't there a pattern -  mind set - appearing here?

Let's try somewhere else.

Look at 2 Cor.4:18. Paul and his friends are having a very hard time, they need encouragement. So where do they look for encouragement? To their daily experiences? Not likely! So where do they look? With the eye of faith they fix there gaze on Christ - unseen - but at God's right hand.

        'So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.'

Those who live their Christian lives by the encouragement of their own experiences, whatever they might be, might claim to have a wonderful time when things are going well, but what do they do when things don't go quite so well or are plainly awful - as they are sometimes?  Often Christians appear to be reluctant to admit that things ever go wrong in their lives or that they sometimes find living the Christian life just tough. Perhaps they feel to do so would be letting Christ down. But it could be more-honouring to Christ to admit that things can be tough but that He sees us through. We must not be just fair-weather Christians.

It would seem that Paul's intention is that we should have our concentration on Christ, not on ourselves. In the New testament we are constantly asked to look back to the Cross or forward to the Second Coming, both of which are about Christ, not us. There is a perfect example of this in Rom.8. Why is it that in v.37 Paul can say we are 'more than conquerors'? Is he referring to our everyday experience - implying what some call 'the victory life'. In v.38 Paul asserts that nothing 'will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'  How can he know that? The answer to both our questions ( 'why' and 'how') can be found in the preceding verses. In vs.18-21 he has been speaking of the glory that is to come (-in the meantime the creation groans) and in vs.31-34 of the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ - as the only basis for our security. Do the persecuted and martyred Christians of today (Or any age) experientially feel like conquerors as their captors mistreat and torture them. No of course not. Their victory is hidden in Christ, as their life is according to Col.3:3.

So does the Christian life matter at all? Yes, of course it does. But it would appear that the mind set of Scripture requires is to concentrate on Christ - as Lord - and not on our own performance, which will always be disappointing. It is rather like what people say about happiness: it is not found by pursuing it. So the Christian life God wants is driven by our hearts and minds and eyes being set and fixed on Christ.

Let's put it this way:

Is our Christian life perfect?                                                                   No, of course it isn't.

Was Christ life perfect?                                                                        Yes, it was.

Is what God did for us in Christ complete and perfect?                    Yes, it is.

Well, then, why do we fix our eyes so steadfastly on our life and experience - incomplete and imperfect as it is - instead of upon Christ's complete and perfect nature, life and work on our behalf? Our experiences may be good, even very good, but Christ and His experience for us is the best. We should concentrate on His experiences not our own. When we look at our own performance as Christians we are always disappointed (if we are honest), but when we look at Christ's 'performance' we are always encouraged and strengthened. (Is it a coincidence that often those who depend on their good experiences to keep them going, appear not to be convinced that they should ardently study the Bible - or seem to sit light to the teaching of the Bible?)

Just one more example, and it is from Christ Himself. In Luke 10 we read of how He sent out the seventy disciples in pairs to preach the Kingdom of God. In v.17 we see that they returned with joy to say that they were even able to cast out demons in Jesus' name. Wouldn't that have been exciting. If we had had that experience we would have been over the moon about it. But what does Jesus say? In v.20 it is recorded that He said 'However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.' There it is again. The same mind set as we have seen in Paul. Jesus turns their eyes from the marvellous subjective experience they had to the even greater objective fact through faith they were reconciled to the Father. That really is quite marked, isn't it?

Back to the sunbeam

I wonder if I have made the parallel that being pre-occupied with our subjective experience is like looking at the sunbeam, whereas fixing our eyes on Christ is like looking along the sunbeam to its magnificent source? The beam in the tool shed is limited, weak and dusty. The source of the beam is wonderful and powerful.

Perhaps in recent decades we have done too much looking at the sunbeam and too little looking along it. Of course the mediatorial role of Christ is significant here. If we really look at the sun we burn our eyes. So would it be if we could really look at God in all His majesty, glory and purity. But Christ came to mediate between us. He mediated the glory of God to us so that we could bear it. Thus does Paul urge us to fix our eyes on Christ.

We need to assess whether experiential thinking has turned us away from being serious students of the Bible. Have we been neglecting to even read our Bibles day by day? Have we joined the many Christians who have come to regard doctrine - the principles of what we believe - as tiresome and unnecessary? In his second letter to Timothy, Paul urges him to' Watch your life and doctrine closely. persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.' (2 Tim.4:16). The Titus he says 'You must teach in accord with sound doctrine.' (Titus 2:1). Describing the desirable qualities of an overseer in the church, he says '... he can encourage others by sound doctrine.' (Titus 1:9).

Regrettably, it has to be said, 'doctrine' has a very poor image in some quarters these days. Nobody wants to know. The mention of it is met with groans. What a shame that things should come to this! Surely no one actually thinks that it doesn't matter what we believe, do they? To study and think about what we believe is one of the most rewarding things we can do. It is so liberating. It is not a matter of being 'clever' for these things are discerned spiritually: they depend much more on having an open mind to the spirit of God teaching us from Scripture, than from human intellect or intelligence.

We must remember that The Gospel, which is God's supreme work in Christ for us, and something to which we contributed nothing (except our sin!), is the key to understanding the whole Bible. Do use other articles on this website to develop your understanding of this issue. The pages 'Doctrine for Everyone' and 'Bible Overviews' particularly will help you in this quest.

Let's close with another verse that displays the biblical mind set that we have identified - Heb.3:1b -

'fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.'

and the Psalmist wrote (Ps.141:8)

'But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign Lord; in you I take refuge.'

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