Integrated Essay

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” This idea must be remembered whenever people approach pagans with the Gospel, but we must also be careful when approaching a brother with disputes and ideas in the Church. C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, offers this thought about the disputes within the Church, “the questions which divide Christians from one another often involve points of high Theology or even of ecclesiastical history.”(1) Since this paper addresses many doctrinal beliefs and theories that many are conflicted about, it is necessary to first address the dangers of a paper such as this one. Also, since pride may trip many while discussing topics such as these, this essay much be approached with humility and an open mind (and I sincerely hope that this essay was written entirely with just that).
C.S. Lewis wrote an article entitled “We Have No Right to Happiness;” the article dwells on just that matter, and the title sums up the main point of the article. One could go further to say, however, that we have no right to happiness because we do not know how to pursue happiness. Our finite minds will move toward finite things of this world, rather then moving toward the infinite joys of the infinite, and infinitely personal, God. Cornelius Plantinga Jr. addresses a similar concept in his book Engaging God’s World (3) and, in the first chapter of the book, on creation. Plantinga references Lewis in this chapter to make the point that the mortals of this earth desire not too much but too little. That God created man to experience Him, but we are content with pursuing money, sex, and fame (comparable by Lewis to mud in comparison to Heaven). Man has no right to happiness because man does not know what will make him happy.
Man does not know rightly what will make him happy, but a saved man does know what will bring him joy. Man does not necessarily have the right to joy, but man is called to joy: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4) Joy could be defined, as Calvin College Professor Paulo F. Ribeiro would say, as Jesus and you with nothing in between, or perhaps more accurately defined as the promise of Jesus and you with nothing in between. The thought that we have no right to happiness may bring to thought the common idea in the Christian Reformed Church of total depravity. Plantinga addresses total depravity when talking about the fall, saying that man can do nothing without God. The concept of total depravity could be viewed in many different ways, but it does not stand alone. Without common grace, total depravity would not make the least bit of sense. The idea of common grace is that God gives his grace to everyone: the oxygen we breath, the food we eat, or even the things we enjoy are all gifts from God that he need not give us.
The issues that lie in the matters of common grace and total depravity are not by any means how we define them. In all seriousness, you do not need to have a concrete definition or belief around these two ideas to be saved; however, you do need the building blocks of them. That said, it would be arrogant to believe that one understands every intricate detail behind the ideas of common grace and total depravity. In 1 Corinthians 1:20, Paul goes on to say “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” In order to discuss topics such as these, we must hold strong to the foundation of our beliefs, but we also must discuss to search for truth, not to prove ourselves right. C.S. Lewis in his article entitled “Bulverism” says this, “Assume that your opponent is wrong, and then explain his error, and the world will be at your feet. Attempt to prove that he is wrong or (worse still) try to find out whether he is wrong or right, and the national dynamism of our age will thrust you to the wall.”(4) We must shape our idea of discussion around the facts that God makes foolish the wisdom of the wise, and that we must search for truth. We must approach these discussions with the humility to search for the truth, even if the truth might be contrary to what you believe.
All this said to approach, once again, the idea that we have no right to happiness, even if someone holds a contrasting view, bear with me as we search for the truth. Lewis, in this article, uses the example of a married man who divorces his wife for another woman. A colleague of Lewis told him, “after all, he has the right to be happy.” Lewis contradicts this by saying that if happiness is circumstantial (based on money, job, family...) then one would ultimately always long for happiness, or always long for “something more.” So a man may leave his wife in pursuit of happiness, but he will not be satisfied by that nor by the next thing. By the time he were to achieve all his goals in life, how many people would he have stepped on, how many people would he have denied the right to happiness? And even then, would he be happy?
My father divorced my mother when I was very young. He told her, “I’m just not happy.” So he left her, and my family, in pursuit of his happiness. He has been pursuing happiness now, with no regard to those around him, for over ten years, and I can attest to his misery. Lewis compares the “right to happiness” with being six feet tall. A man may think he has a right to be six feet tall, but he does not know how to attain it. A man may pursue every option possible to attempt to make himself six feet tall and not grow an inch. Happiness alludes people much like height alludes a short man.
The ideas expressed thus far regarding our right to happiness have been purely based on logic and offer a message to pagans and Christians alike, but Christians have a much higher calling of happiness that many call joy. Christians are called to be Christlike, to follow the example of the Messiah - indeed Christians have no rights. Christ, being entirely man and entirely God, chose to demean himself to the status of a man; he forfeited his godly rights and became flesh. Accordingly, Christians have no rights. Not only do Christians lack the right to happiness, but the right to daily bread, the right to the air we breath. Ultimately, in accordance with the idea of total depravity and common grace, not even the pagans have a right to anything, but Christians ought to know that they lack the right to anything.
With the thought that humans have no right to anything, one could think that God ultimately is not good, but that is far from true. Many pagans view God as a powerful dictator with his list of rules simply waiting for someone to mess up; this also is a folly view. Plantinga addresses this thought when addressing the ten commandments. The ten commandments are not a set of rules intended to limit man, but rather a set of instructions on how to achieve shalom. Imagine, as Plantinga suggests, what the world would be for a day if everyone followed the ten commandments. God has always provided for his people: during the plague in Europe there existed one community that was not affected. This community was a Jewish community, following Mosaic law: washing their hands before eating, and burying their waste. God gave his people these laws to protect them, not to limit them. God removed our “right” to happiness (and everything else) to protect us.
“God is not merely good, but goodness; goodness is not merely divine, but God.”(5) Lewis said this in his sermon “The Weight of Glory,” addressing the thought of whether God created goodness or if goodness was simply around already. The conclusion Lewis came to is that neither could be entirely true, but the truth must have a little of both. As Christians, we are not called to fully understand perfectly the idea of goodness and God, but we are called to acknowledge that God is good, that God is love; as Christians, we are not called to fully understand perfectly common grace, total depravity, or the fact that we have no right to happiness; we are not called to understand perfectly the reason why God created us; we are not called to understand perfectly God. But we are called to acknowledge that God exists; we are called to live for God. Because we are not intended to understand these concepts, we must not go out of our way to achieve understanding of them. Because we were not intended to know what makes us happy, we cannot pursue our own happiness.










Works used:

1: C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
2: C.S. Lewis, “We Have No Right to Happiness”
3: Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Engaging God’s World.
4: C.S. Lewis, “Bulverism” From God in the Dock
5. C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”