Chapter 8: Is Christianity Hard or Easy?

I. Putting on Christ vs. Morality
    A. A moral code limits behavior but leaves the natural man unchanged.
        1. By following conscience, one has little left for self.
        2. Bitterness or frustration will follow, unless one gives up.
    B. By contrast, Christ demands the whole self, which is both harder and easier.
        1. “Take up your cross and follow me.”
        2. “My yoke is easy.”
        3. Granting Christ less than the whole self is like hanging on to personal desires while trying to be good.
        4. The laziest person works the hardest in the end.
        5. Analogy to a field that must be plowed and sown to produce a crop.
II. The new kind of life
    A. Worldly demands compete with the new life.
    B. At first, the new life only prevails for moments.
    C. The new life ultimately results in perfection.
    D. The analogy of the egg—compromise is impossible.
III. The ultimate purpose
    A. Christianity exists solely to turn people into “little christs”.
    B. Just as the State exists to guarantee ordinary happiness, so God’s Church exists to draw men to Christ.
    C. We are to become part of the gift Christ offers to His Father.

Discussion Questions: (pp. 195-200)
    1. How much of our own desires and aims can we keep? (pp. 195-196)
    2. How does the “all or nothing” character of Christianity make it hard? Easy? How does the Bible speak of the “all or nothing”? (Matt. 6:24, Rom. 14:23) (pp. 197-198)
    3. What should the Church’s program be? (p. 199)