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.

All right, this week we're looking at one of my favorite books from one of my

favorite authors of all time, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. So specifically, we're going to dig into

some passages from the book that aim straight at a man's heart and are anchored in the gospel of Jesus

Christ. So far this week, we've looked at the natural law, the cost of perfection,

and yesterday we got into Lewis's trilema concerning Jesus, that he is either a liar, a lunatic, or

Lord. And specifically, we talk about how Jesus didn't really leave the door open to speculation

on this point. He didn't let people think of him as a great moral teacher or some guru.

He explicitly claimed to be God and claimed that perfect righteousness came through belief in him only.

Today we are going to count the cost of belief in Jesus. And in order to do that, let's read the

following passage from book four chapter 10 of mere Christianity.

He meant what he said. Those who put themselves in his hands will become perfect, as he is

perfect. Perfect in love, wisdom, joy, beauty, and immortality. The change will not be completed

in this life, for death is an important part of the treatment. How far the change will

have gone before death in any particular Christian is uncertain. I think this is the right

moment to consider a question which is often asked. If Christianity is true, why are not all

Christians obviously nicer than all non-Christians? What lies behind that question is partly something very

reasonable and partly something that is not reasonable at all. The reasonable part is this.

If conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a man's outward actions, if he continues to be

just as snobbish or spiteful or envious or ambitious as he was before, then I think we must

suspect that his conversion was largely imaginary. And after one's original conversion, every time one

thinks one has made an advance, that is the test to apply, find feelings, new insights, greater

...