Peeling Off Skin

"But the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out loud or not.

"I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that's what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe.

"But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.

"Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.

"Then the lion said--but I don't know if it spoke--'You will have to let me undress you.' I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.

"The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know--if you've ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like a billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away."

"I know exactly what you mean," said Edmund.

"Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off--just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt--and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been."

The above passage is from pen of C. S. Lewis in his classic The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which is book five in the Chronicles of Narnia series.

How many times have people tried to cure their own sinfulness? How many times have people attempted to peel off their old nature? There are scores upon scores of religions available that will tell you how you can do this, but they are all empty words.

All religion is is man's attempt to get to God. Christianity is different though. Christianity is God reaching down to man and saving him. Jesus himself said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me" (John 14:6). John also records those most famous words of Jesus, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (3:16). I encourage you to read all of Jesus' words to Nicodemus.

So many people think that they will go to heaven simply because their good outweighs thier bad. They think that if they are good enough they will make it to heaven, as long as they aren't as bad as Hitler or Stalin or Osoma bin Ladin.

The fact of the matter is, no one is good enough to enter heaven. No one! We are all sinners. Paul said, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Man is totally depraved. There is nothing he can do about his situation.

Then, when the Spirit begins to work on a man, struggled often ensue. Finally, when all fighting is done, and that man gives up, then He is ready for Jesus to come in and save him. In other words, Jesus the Righteous is the only one who is mighty to save. He takes those filthy rags that we call our sins and, and He washes them in His precious blood, and we are made clean and pure. Jesus' righteousness is now imputed to our account. Now, instead of dirty sinner lost and going hell, there is a righteous child of God.

Think of it like this. Because of your sin, you are eternally in debt, and hell is the debtors prison. Well, what Jesus did was pay our debts and purchased our redemption. He redeemed us! Those of us who believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior are now going to spend eternity in the presence of God. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so! Paul writes, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).

Of course, allowing Christ to step into our lives can hurt; his wounds can hurt us, but He won't harm us. To quote C. S. Lewis again from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, "Safe? Of course he isn't safe. But he is good, he's the king I tell you."