The Trinity and the Body of Christ

by Charlie W. Starr

In “Counting the Cost,” Lewis says that God “will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or a goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly… His own boundless power and delight and goodness” (p. 176). What is required to become such a creature? Why do you think Lewis has chosen to describe this apotheosis with these images?

Musicians understand the idea of transposing a song from a major key to a minor one. Lewis uses this idea to explain life in heaven. He sees some qualities in human life as “minor key” versions of the major heavenly key. Lewis pictures this idea of “transposition” in Mere Christianity using geometry. A line shows us one dimension of space, a square shows us two dimensions (including the one the line shows), and a cube shows us three (including those in the square). Furthermore a square is made of four lines and a cube is made up of six squares. The higher, more complex object takes up the lower simpler ones into itself.

I apply Lewis this way: Say that the line equals the building blocks of the universe, energy and matter. Say then that the square equals living things like plants and animals which are made up of matter. Say finally that the cube equals human beings; we are made of matter, we are alive, and we have something more that animals don’t have: personality. We think, speak, love, admire beauty, make things, and choose to do right or wrong. We don’t know exactly what the life of God is like in heaven, but, just as man takes matter and life into himself, so God must also take these and personality up into Himself as part of His heavenly life.

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