C.S. Lewis on the Atonement: Part 9 (Pain)

The invocation of pain in the process of purification and sanctification paves the way for us to briefly address how Lewis’ healing metaphor of salvation and atonement may attend to the issue of theodicy (i.e., the problem of evil/pain/suffering). Bridging the gap between sanctification and theodicy we can see that in many cases God’s healing work of sanctification in our lives (including the pain it incurs) brings such “pain” and “suffering” into new light and may (at least) begin to respond to the classical “problem of pain, evil, and suffering.” Indeed, is our doctrine of the atonement and of salvation worth anything if somehow it does not respond to the problem of evil (though we might not fully comprehend how it does so)?

Lewis’ theodicy is really a merging of the Augustinian defense, which appeals to free will by tracing all pain and suffering in the world to the abuse of human freedom existent from the fall, and the Irenaean (“soul-making”) approach, which appeals to the “immaturity” or “imperfection” of the original humanity and the fact that God designed this world as an environment for spiritual formation and growth.[i] There are different types of pain we experience, many of which Lewis attributed to the “hand of God” (whether that meant by actively causing or passively permitting). This notion of the “hand(s) of God” has been embedded through this entire metaphor because it is the language of God, the Surgeon. Indeed, this was the very idea that haunted Lewis’ mind when he wrestled with the reality of pain. It did not raise in his mind the possibility that God does not exist; much more troubling than such a fear is the possibility that God is not good, but is a sort of “Cosmic Sadist.”[ii] The truth of the pain he and his wife experienced was evident; this caused him to raise the question whether God is a “vet or a vivisector.”[iii] Is God cutting to heal or does God sadistically gain pleasure by cutting so deeply?

We can begin to respond by going back to the dual-role of the atoning Incarnation of Christ as undoing the wrong that had been done and injecting a new type of life better than the old. Accordingly, the difference, when it comes to our suffering, lies in whether the pain experienced is of the body growing or stretching beyond its present boundaries and limits or whether it is one of amputation, whereby something is in need of removal, or perhaps a combination of the two. In either (or both) cases, we have a picture of a good God, a “divine dentist who will not stop drilling until the job is done,” and a “supernatural surgeon who will not cease cutting until the malignancy is removed.”[iv]

The other thing the Incarnation tells us in response to evil and suffering is that our answer to the theological problem of pain is not merely philosophical and based on explanation but is rooted in a person, an empathetic participation and action done in body. As said elsewhere, what is the Incarnation if it is not God empathizing with humanity? In Christ, God takes the problem of pain, evil, and suffering and responds not merely by positing an apology, but by living one. At our hands, Christ has suffered an unjust death and has tasted every suffering we endure, including loneliness and death.

Earlier I pointed out that in The Problem of Pain, Lewis affirms that God made us to love us. To love us means that he has our best interest at heart and wants, in every circumstance and situation, to make us into the type of persons he wants us to become. This process, should we submit to it, will invoke pain! This brings us even to the point of death, the type of suffering usually referred to when the problem of evil arises in conversation. Lewis, however, points out that even this suffering, with its seeming finality, is just another weapon in the armor (reminder of Christus Victor and battlefield imagery), medicine in the cabinet, and scalpel in the hands of the divine surgeon who will not stop cutting until we are fully healed.[v] He also reminds us that death is the means through which Christ accomplished our redemption. Death is the means by which God, in Christ, kills death![vi]

...to be concluded...

References:
[i] Burson & Walls, Lewis & Schaeffer, 203, 206.
[ii] Lewis, A Grief Observed, 444.
[iii] Ibid., 453.
[iv] Burson & Walls, Lewis & Schaeffer, 207.
[v] Lewis, Miracles, 281.
[vi] Lewis, Mere Christianity, 104.