Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the Sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Welcome back to the show. This week we're looking at one of my favorite books from one of my favorite authors of all time, and that's Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. So specifically, we're going to dig into some passages from the book that really cut to the heart of a man and center everything on the gospel of Jesus Christ. So yesterday we talked about natural law, as we've seen in book one, chapter three of Mere Christianity. And I posed some questions at the end there. What are we supposed to do with the natural law of God? Like how are we supposed to perform now? And can we be perfect? And today we're going to discuss that as we look at the cost of perfection. And in order to do that, let's read the following passage from Book 4, chapter 8 of Mere Christianity. The Christian way is different, harder and easier. Christ says, Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self but to kill it. No half measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth or crown it or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent, as well as the ones you think wicked, the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you myself, my own will shall become yours. And guys, that's the deal. That's God's final offer. All of Christ for all of you. But this doesn't really jive with our modern sensibilities, does it? Right? Because we live in a time in history and culture where everything, like absolutely everything, revolves around us, our desires, our comfort, our aspirations, who we choose to have sex with, the political party that serves our needs best, how we identify, how our immutable characteristics either elevates or lowers us on the victim power hierarchy, right? And you can just go into a lot of churches in the West, actually, and you get the same thing, don't you? The songs seem to always be about how God is just so into us, right? The sermons are very short on scriptural truths, but very long on life lessons that always seem to circle back to God being our little cosmic genie that gives us everything we want because we're so awesome. You see, it's just, you know, the very air that we breathe. What about Lewis's point? That the Christian way is different, somehow easier and harder at the same time. And further, what about this offer? All of you for all of Christ, to which I would add for all of time, right? Well, Jesus had this discussion with his apostles and disciples while he was on this earth. So let's actually go to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16, starting at verse 24. Then Jesus told his disciples, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. I mean, Jesus really puts it on the bottom shelf for the apostles, right? Even so, do you think they got it? I mean, do you think they understood? I mean, evidently the, you know, evidence is pretty clear that no, they didn't really understand it. The apostles were constantly confused by Jesus' teachings and parables, and they stepped out a line all the time. I mean, just before this section, Jesus told his disciples that he would suffer under the chief priests and scribes, he would be killed, and he would rise from the dead after three days, to which Peter said that would never happen, which caused Jesus to severely rebuke him, saying, Get behind me, Satan. And then apparently all the apostles just forgot that when what Jesus predicted actually happened. And again, we really do have to take it easy on the apostles. They seem to be confused literally all the time, but all of us would have been as well. We have to be very honest about that. But God makes Himself explicitly clear throughout Scripture. What does it take to make it to heaven? Perfection. How can we judge whether or not we've attained perfection? The natural law and moral law of God. Is it possible to perfectly follow the natural law and moral law of God? No. So how can we be made perfect before a righteous and just and holy Father God? The perfect righteousness of Christ. And what is the cost of this perfection? All of us, every last part of us, every thought, every deed, all of us for all of Christ. So if the claim is that Jesus of Nazareth is the only way to perfection, don't we need to make sure that he is who he says he is? More on that tomorrow.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.