Chapter 5: The Practical Conclusion

I. New life via biology
II. Acquiring the Christ-life
    A. Via baptism, belief, and Holy Communion
    B. True on Jesus' authority
        1. Authority is the most common source of knowledge.
        2. Authority is necessary to life.
III. Imitation of Christ the main means
    A. Baptism, belief, & communion are useful but not sufficient.
    B. Christ-life enables repentance.
        1. Christ-life is not the same as trying to be good.
        2. Christ-life is the source of good.
    C. "In Christ" and "Christ in you"
        1. Believers constitute the physically present body of Christ.
        2. Christ operates in the world through this body.
IV. What about the heathen?
    A. None can be saved except through Christ.
    B. No information on those who do not know Him by name.
    C. This uncertainty is no reason to reject His salvation.
V. Why does not God simply defeat Satan and the wicked, and just clean up the whole mess?
    A. He will, but we don't know when.
    B. He is granting more people the opportunity to join His side voluntarily.
    C. When He does come, the time for voluntarily joining His side will be over.

Discussion Questions: (pp. 60-65)
    1. If belief is a means of acquiring the Christ-life, how do we acquire belief? (p. 61) See Romans 10:4.
    2. Are there abuses of arguments from authority? (p. 62) How can we distinguish them from valid ones?
    3. Can you think of other obstacles to faith, such as, the divisions in the church, or the seeming contradictions between the Bible and science? What would Lewis's response to them be?