Sovereignty // C.S. Lewis

This post is a part of the Sovereignty of God Blog Series going on throughout the months of July and August. You can read about the series and see a schedule of the posts here. You can subscribe to all the posts here.

Today’s post is from C.S. Lewis. He is one of the most influential theologians from the past century and longer. His books Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain, and A Grief Observed are 3 books that have greatly influenced me. He is a part of this discussion because for the longest time people have argued over what sovereignty system or camp Lewis puts himself into.

Lucy: “Is he safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

Mrs. Beaver: “That you will, dearie, and make no mistake, if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

Lucy: “Then he isn’t safe.”

Mr. Beaver: “Safe? Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

(The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, 80)

“God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot.

If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.

A world of automata-of creatures that worked like machines-would hardly be worth creating.

The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is that happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other…And for that they must be free.”

(Mere Christianity, 47-48)