Chapter 4: Good Infection

I. Analogies for the begetting of the Son
    A. The stacked books from forever
        1. The position of the upper book is caused by the lower book.
        2. There was never a time when this was not so.
        3. Causes need not precede effects.
        4. There was never a time before the Son was begotten by the Father.
    B. Imagination
        1. No time passes between the will to imagine and the picture appears in the imagination.
        2. Cause and effect can be simultaneous.
        3. The Son constantly streams from the Father, like heat or light.
II. Understanding the Father and the Son
    A. The Son is the self-expression of the Father, what the Father has to say.
    B. Hermeneutical caveat
        1. Analogies are helpful in understanding particular points, but analogies may also distort.
        3. One must always return to the words of Scripture.
    C. Father and Son best describe the relationship between these two Person.
    D. The relationship is one of love.
III. On love
    A. Two parties are required for love.
    B. Distortions of “God is love”
        1. “Love is God”?
        2. Love must be treated with great respect.
        3. Christians mean that a living, dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever.
        4. Everything has been created as a consequence.
IV. The Spirit
    A. The activity of the Father and the Son is like a drama or a dance.
    B. This activity produces the Holy Spirit, a Third Person.
    C. The analogy of camaraderie
        1. Among a dynamic group grows an understanding we call a “spirit”.
        2. With God, this is a real Person.
    D. The Spirit acts through us.
V. Entering the dance
    A. The three-person drama of love is to be played out in us.
    B. Peace, joy, and eternal life are to be found only in God.
    C. To ‘catch’ them, like a ‘good infection’, we must enter into God.
    D. Once united with God, how could anyone die?
VI. Becoming a little Christ
    A. We are made, not begotten, and having only Bios, not Zoe, must die.
    B. Christianity offers an opportunity to share in the life of Christ.
    C. We thus share in a life that was begotten, not made.
    D. Then we can become sons of God.
    E. Jesus came to spread His kind of life, a kind of ‘good infection’.
    F. The ultimate goal of becoming a Christian is to become a little Christ.

Discussion Questions: (pp. 172-177)
    1. Why does John use ‘the Word’ (logos) for Christ in John 1:1? (pp. 173-174)
    2. Give an instance of the ‘dance’ Lewis writes about. (p.176)
    3. What is Christlikeness? (p. 177)