“We have not got Zoe or spiritual life: only Bios or biological life, which is presently going to run down and die. Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ.
If we do, we shall then be sharing a life [Zoe] which was begotten, not made, which always has existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God. We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us.
He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life [Zoe] he has–by what I call “good infection”. Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in Mere Christianity (New York: HarperCollins, 1980) 177.
I pray readers today grasp the generous gift, the great exchange that Christ offers us, which is often lost in translation (Greek to English), but made abundantly clear by Lewis this morning.
We give up our life [Bios] which is destined for a dead-end, in exchange for Christ’s life [Zoe] and we’ve got the “good infection” which sets us on a path of becoming or conforming to the image of Christ who is loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, and generous…
While everyone is worried about ebola, let’s share life [Zoe], the “good infection” with the world, shall we? Why? Barring Christ’s return, we will all come to the end of our Bios from ebola or some other malady, but those who are partakers of Christ’s Zoe will never die.