“Do You Believe…?” — Part Two

We’re going to read, no surprise, from John 9:35:

“Jesus heard that they had thrown him out”—that is, the man who had been born blind and healed by Jesus—“and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’

“‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’

“Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.’

“Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.

“Jesus said, ‘For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.’

“Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, ‘What? Are we blind too?’

“Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.’”

Amen.

Well, we’ll pray together once again. Let us pray:

Father, what we know not, teach us. What we are not, make us. What we have not, give us. For your Son’s sake. Amen.

Well, we read the concluding verses of the chapter, but our focus this morning will only go as far as verse 38—and actually, we may not quite get to verse 38, if the first service is any indication to us. We will save the more troubling verses, 39–41, until I’ve figured out what they mean. And you can pray for me and in the intervening time so that by the time we reach them, we’ll actually be able to say something sensible about them.

Essentially, this morning’s study turns between a question and an answer. The question is there at the end of verse 35, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” and the answer which then comes in verse 38, “Lord, I believe.”

Jesus, we learn from the opening part of verse 35, has sought out this man in order to ask him this express question. The question is there: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” And I want to suggest to you three things concerning the question.

A Vital Question

First of all, I wonder, would you agree with me that what Jesus poses is a vital question? A vital question.

Now, some may immediately want to challenge that assertion. They perhaps want to suggest that it would be more accurate to say, “Well, it is an interesting question, or maybe we could even upgrade it to an important question, but to suggest that it is a vital question in the scheme of things may be an indication of rhetoric rather than accuracy.” And so, in light of that, it falls to me, in suggesting the vitality of the question, that I must have the wherewithal to substantiate the assertion. And so I invite you to turn initially to John chapter 3 to explain why it is that I offer this as a question which is vital.

John chapter 3:13. Jesus says, “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

Now, remember what the question is: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” What are the implications of belief? Answer: belief is the open door to eternal life. Therefore, Jesus sets the question in the context of eternity. If you look at verse 18, you have a solemn statement, still in John 3:18: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

So the question of believing in the Son of Man—the question posed to this man once born blind—addresses the whole issue of life itself. And in John’s Gospel particularly, there are a tremendous number of statements concerning life. It bursts upon us in the prologue when Jesus is introduced: “In him was life, and [this] life was the light of men.”[1] In John chapter 3, Jesus speaks to Nicodemus about eternal life. In John chapter 10, he says, “I have come that you might have life, and that you might have it in all of its fullness.”[2]

Well, in every instance, he was speaking to people who had life, who had physical life, who were alive—pointing up the fact that Jesus’ use of the terminology speaks to something far deeper, far more significant, than simply our journey through our earthly existence, whether it be seventy years or longer. And to this man he says, “I have a question for you: Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He’s asking him whether he has ever entered into the discovery of a life that is in Jesus—a life that, once in Jesus, goes all the way unhindered into eternity.

Now that, of course, will be challenged by people. It may even be challenged by some who are listening to me now—the idea of a life that will never end. Yes, that’s what the Bible says: that once we discover the resurrection life in Jesus, once his Spirit comes to live within us, even though we die, even though they put us away in the ground, still we will live—hence the song we sang concerning Easter. And the reality of that truth brings to the Christian an expectation of what is still to be while they enjoy the privileges of life in the now, so that eternal life is not something that we aspire to over there when we get there, but eternal life, the life of which Jesus is speaking, is a life which begins now and continues all the way through into eternity.

Death is not a cul-de-sac. Death is actually a gateway.

Now, some years ago, maybe twenty years ago, maybe twenty-five—we’d have to go back—people would have pooh-poohed this in general conversation. Most people would’ve said, especially if they came from a scientific background, “I never heard such hogwash in all my life. I am a scientist. I’m a rationalist. I know certain things. I have verifiable data. This is all speculation and spurious nonsense.” But I have found—and not exclusively, but increasingly—that many of my friends who were once marked by that kind of rationalism are beginning to change their tune. You find them sneaking around in Borders, in the New Age section, looking at materials that no seasoned scientist should pay any attention to at all, thinking about angels and dream therapy, and wondering about the healing power of prayer, and asking questions about dwarfs living at the end of their garden and whether fairies in Ireland really exist, and spending vast amounts of money, and making books number-one sellers on the New York Times list that are so clearly full of nonsense that it is impossible to believe that sensible people would spend such money while at the same time still wondering about the truthfulness of the Bible. But they all have a sneaking suspicion that perhaps there is something more. Perhaps the Bible has something to say.

Now, we know why the sneaking suspicion is there, because the Bible says that God has set eternity in the hearts of men and women.[3] In other words, a man and a woman knows intrinsically that death is not a cul-de-sac, that death is actually a gateway. And it is for that reason that death, when it comes in all of its finality, still doesn’t end the conversations that people have about their loved ones, so that even though they may be unbelieving people, they still talking about where their loved one has gone, or what has happened to their loved one, or how they felt their loved one with them. Why do they say these things? Why can they never imagine themselves dead? Do you ever imagine yourself dead in your coffin? It’s impossible! Because you’re alive, imagining it! You can’t imagine it. You’re still thinking life, life, life.

Now, when we bring this back to the man born blind and the assertion that this is a vital question, what’re we saying? Well, think about it. This man, who’d been born blind, might have been ready to conclude that his big problem in life was over. After all, his big problem in life was being blind. And Jesus had come and dealt with his blindness. Therefore, no more blindness, no more big problem; let’s just get on with our lives. He might have been very quickly within earshot of people who, seeing him now able to move around and enjoy life in a whole different dimension, as they talked with one another about the experience and so on, one of them said just before they parted, “Well, you know what everyone says: as long as you have your health, that’s all that matters.” Which is, of course, one of the mantras of our day, isn’t it? “As long as you have your health, that’s all that matters.” It’s not all that matters! Not when you put eternity into the picture. Not when you ask this question, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” and believing is the gateway to eternity; then it introduces to our portfolios something that is far more significant.

So when Jesus asks this man about his need, he’s asking him about his need of spiritual sight. This man, although he could now physically see, needed to see Jesus, needed to believe in him.

In fact, it should make some of us think of another incident involving Jesus that’s recorded at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel, that we’ve preached on in the past and some of you may even remember: the healing of the paralytic. You remember the paralyzed man whose friends bring him to Jesus, and because of the crush, they let him down through the roof? And when they let him down through the roof, interrupting the proceedings, Jesus looks at the man and says, “Your sins are forgiven.”[4] And the man presumably must have said to himself, “What is that about? My problem is not my sins. My problem is my legs. I can’t go anywhere. That’s my problem!” And the Pharisees in encountering the situation were annoyed for a different reason. They said, “Who is this man that he thinks he can forgive sins? He doesn’t have the power to forgive sins. Only God has the power to forgive sins.” And Jesus, latching onto their inferences, asks them a question; he says, “Tell me, which is easier: to say, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Pick up your bed and walk?’”[5]

Now, it’s a rhetorical question, and the answer is obvious. It’s easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” because no one knows whether they are or they’re not. It’s harder to say, “Pick up your bed and walk,” because now we got a window of opportunity to find out what’s happening. And Jesus says, “But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, I say to you, pick up your bed and walk.”[6] And the man picks up his bed and walks, and walks down the street—in the awareness of the fact that what he thought was the key in terms of his presenting problem was actually secondary, was actually almost trivial, in comparison to the great need of his life, which was forgiveness. Forgiveness.

And in a congregation like this this morning, there are all kinds of presenting problems: “If only I could get somebody to help me with this.” “If only I could get peace in my life.” “If only I could get my marriage back together.” “If I could only do all these things.” As if Jesus came as the panacea for all these physical and emotional and psychological illnesses. He didn’t! He came as the Savior. He comes as the Son of Man. And he addresses the essential problem in our lives. Surely Jesus has an impact on our marriages. Surely he has an impact on all of these other aspects. But they are not the issue. They may lead us to the issue. No, you see, if blindness was the issue, then the story was over. “I was blind, now I can see.” Question closed. Case closed. Wrap it up. Why does Jesus seek him out? He seeks him out to ask a question. And I say to you again, it is a vital question.

A Specific Question

Secondly, you will notice that it is a specific question. It’s a specific question. He doesn’t ask the man whether he believes something, or he believes anything, or whether he’s feeling religious, or whether he’s a spiritual man. No. Because that’s another of our mantras in our day, isn’t it? People, as a sign-off, they’ll say, “Well, as long as you have health,” or they will say, “Well, all that matters is you have faith.” Isn’t that what our friends say? “Well, just as long as you have faith.”

What do you mean, “As long as you have faith”? Faith in what? Faith in whom? Jesus isn’t asking, “Are you a religious person? Do you believe something? Do you believe anything?” No. He’s asking a specific question: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

Now, “Son of Man” is a designation that you find throughout the Gospels—over eighty times in the Gospels; many of them here in John, as well. We’re not going to delay on the term. A good concordance will help you with that. The term derives from Daniel chapter 7. It runs through the Gospels. You find it again reappearing in Revelation chapter 1. All that matters for our purposes this morning is to recognize that in using this designation, Jesus is indicating his own heavenly and transcendent nature. That is why he asks the question in these terms.

If you’ll forgive me, go back again to 3:13, and notice the way in which Jesus speaks: “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.” Okay? So when Jesus uses this designation “Son of Man,” it is a designation which contains in it all kinds of notions that run from the Old Testament all the way through into the apocalyptic literature of the book of Revelation. And it is, if you like, Jesus’ favorite designation. With only one exception, in 12:34, the phrase never appears on anyone else’s lips except the lips of Jesus.

And what he is saying in this is that he is not a Son of Man, but he is the Son of Man—the Son of Man who has come down from heaven. Hence, his origin is transcendent, and divine, and unique. But he is the Son of Man who has come down and is connected with humanity. He doesn’t speak to us from afar; he comes down to where we are. And he does not come down to where we are to live life free from the exigencies that face other people. He knows sorrow, and disappointment, and pain, and thirst, and so on. And indeed, in Isaiah 53, he is depicted as “a man of sorrows” and one who is “acquainted with grief.”[7] It is for that reason that men and women who themselves are acquainted with grief and who understand sorrow will find Jesus a wonderful person to seek out. He is there, and he is ready, and he is willing. In fact, he is the initiative taker in reaching out to those who are in the predicament of their lostness.

Now, just one other reference to anchor this in our minds, because I think it is important. In John 12:34, which is the one exception that I mentioned to you—I should just point this out—Jesus is speaking to them again, and the crowds speak up: “We have heard from the Law that the Christ”—which is another word for Messiah—“that the Christ,” the Messiah, “will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”

Men and women who are acquainted with grief and who understand sorrow will find Jesus a wonderful person to seek out. He is there, and he is ready, and he is willing.

Now, you understand the nature of the question. The reason for the sense of incongruity is because Christ, Messiah, and Son of Man are interchangeable terms in the minds of these people: “We have heard that the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of Man will live forever, so how can you say that the Son of Man is going to be lifted up? Who is this ‘Son of Man’? Are you speaking about somebody else?” That’s what they’re saying. They don’t understand what Jesus is saying. But there again, neither did his disciples, did they? He told them that the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem, and suffer at the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.[8] They had no concept of this taking place. They believed in some kind of resurrection, but not in this immediate and personal fulfillment.

Now, it is important that you keep that in your mind. Because the identity of “Son of Man” is vital in relationship to the specificity, the pointedness, of this question. This is a pointed question. The man has been developing a growing understanding of Jesus. In verse 11 he said—when they asked him about what took place—he said there was a man called Jesus who did something. In verse 17, when they pressed him, he said that he figured he was a prophet. But now Jesus says, “Do you believe in the Messiah of God?”

Actually, it’s a question that is a very relevant question for many of us this morning. Because we’ve been developing our understanding of Jesus, some of us, haven’t we? We started off that there’s a man called Jesus. We may, as a result of thinking about things, have concluded that he was actually a prophet of God. But we haven’t ever come to the point where we have decided that he is the Messiah of God, that he is none other than God himself.

An Unavoidable Question

That’s the third aspect I want you to notice. The question is not only as it is, but it is also an unavoidable question. A vital one, a specific one, and an unavoidable one. It was unavoidable for the man, and actually, it’s unavoidable for each of us: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

Now, the answer to that is either yes or no. “Maybe” is a no. “I don’t know” is a no. “I’d like to think about it some more” is a no. An unchecked box is a no. And the reason I say that it is an unavoidable question is this: that although you may go through all of your life seeking to avoid the impact of this question, you will, when God calls you before him, answer this question. Because the Bible says, “It is appointed unto [man] once to die,” and “after this [comes] judgment.”[9] And the basis of judgment is simply and essentially this: Have you believed on the Son of God? Have you believed in the Son of Man? Have you cast all of your hope for forgiveness, for time, for eternity—have you reached the point where, in casting yourself in believing, childlike faith upon Jesus, you’re able to say, “I know whom I have believed”?[10] It’s an unavoidable question.

Spurgeon, preaching in the late nineteenth century in London, used to speak of someone who had spurious faith, whose general statements concerning religion were of no help to him at all. And he describes the dialogue going as follows.

Somebody asked him, “And do you believe?”

And the person said, “Yes, I believe.”

And he said, “What is it that you believe?”

And the man said, “I believe what the church believes.”

And the person said, “What does the church believe?”

And the man said, “The church believes what I believe.”

And the man said, “Well, what do you and the church believe?”

And the man said, “Well, we both believe the same thing.”[11]

But that won’t do. That won’t do.

I look out on some of you in the medical world, and every day you take our lives in your hands, under God. Some of you in the world of anesthetic—strange world—inducing sleep, and sending people into the depths of a world we don’t know, and miraculously bringing us back—we hope! If I ask you, “What do you believe about the levels in this instrumentation?” and you give me some kind of generic, foo-foo answer, you never seen anyone slide off a gurney as fast in all your life.

No, we cannot go with vague generalities when it comes to the issue of time. Why would we go with vague generalities when it comes to the issues of eternity? This question is vital, pointed, and unavoidable.

Do You Believe?

See, Jesus is inviting the man to trust in the one who is the revelation of God. And in verse 36, it would appear that the man is eager to believe. I guess I had the phrase “eager to believe” in my mind, because when I was getting washed earlier in the morning, the phrase that started through my mind—which is a sign of my misspent youth, again—but it was, “If I listened long enough to you, I’d find a way to believe that it’s all true.” The next line is, “Lying while you lie, straight-faced while I cry.”[12] We leave that beside. But it was just the phrase, “If I listened long enough to you, I’d find a reason to believe that it’s all true.” And that is essentially what this man is saying. He’s saying, “Jesus, if you can answer just one more question for me, I think the longer I listen to you, the more I find a reason to believe in you.”

In other words, that this is not some great quantum leap into oblivion by this man. There is a growing sense of confidence: “This man, whom I had never known, has intervened in my life. He has met me. He has opened my eyes. He has come and sought me out. He is speaking kindly to me now. He has this question for me, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ What shall I say to him? Well, look at what I’ll say to him: ‘Who is he, sir? Why don’t you tell me so that I may believe in him?’” This isn’t the response of the Pharisees challenging Jesus. This is humble. This is genuine. And the Bible assures men and women that when they come to Jesus in this way, if they seek him, they will find him, when they search for him with all of their hearts.[13]

We cannot go with vague generalities when it comes to the issue of time. Why would we go with vague generalities when it comes to the issues of eternity?

And this man clearly desired to believe. Desired to believe. Do you desire to believe? See, you can desire to believe and not yet believe. Do you desire to believe? Do you have questions like the man had questions? Do you have a basic question like this: “Who is the Son of Man? Tell me, because I want to believe.” Well then, take a leaf out of the man’s book. Go and inquire of Jesus. Go to your Bible. Read John’s Gospel. Ask Jesus: “Make yourself known to me Jesus. Who are you? Are you the person that you claim to be?” Because it would appear that to this point, the man had never even seen Jesus. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense that he would say, “Who is he, sir?” which is the word kurios in Greek, translated “sir” here, translated “Lord” in verse 38, as a result of his eyes being further opened. “‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked.”

And Jesus makes this amazing declaration in verse 37: “You have now seen him.” “You have now seen him.” “I’ve seen him.” That was something that he couldn’t have said before. Fabulous, isn’t it? Maybe there was a smile on Jesus’ lips. “You’ve seen him! In fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

Now, don’t miss this. And we’ll get ready to stop, but you can’t miss this, especially if you’re here today wondering about the claims of Jesus and saying to yourself, “I wonder, who is this Jesus? I wonder if I can rely on him? I wonder if I can trust him? What does he actually say about himself?” You will have read literature that tells you that there’s nowhere in the Bible you can find that Jesus says, “I am God.” That is absolutely true. There’s no place in the Bible where he says, “I am God.” But the whole of the Gospels are permeated with his self-designation as none other than Son of God and Son of Man.

Now, some of you have got a Bible in front of you that has the phrase “Son of God” in it, and it’s just been annoying you immensely, ’cause I keep saying, “Son of Man,” and it says, “Son of God,” and you wonder who’s right. The oldest translations, the oldest manuscripts, have “Son of Man.” When the King James Version was printed, they didn’t have as old manuscripts as are being used for the NIV, or the ESV, or the NASB, or whatever. We don’t want to get off on Bible translation. But the fact of the matter is, “Son of Man” is in the oldest manuscripts. If “Son of God” was in the oldest manuscripts, nobody would have any motivation to change it to “Son of Man,” because “Son of Man” just seems to be a more difficult phrase, doesn’t it, than “Son of God.” So if you were gonna change it, you’d make it easier; you wouldn’t make it harder—arguing for the primacy of “Son of Man” in the original text.

Be that as it may, the question is: Are “Son of Man” and “Son of God” interchangeable in the New Testament? Answer: yes. John chapter 5—just look at this with me to get ahold of this, ’cause it’s vital. John chapter 5:25: Jesus says,

I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.[14]

Okay? So Jesus, within a matter of a few sentences, interchangeably uses the designations both “Son of God” and “Son of Man.”

Now, loved ones, if you’re thinking, then—which I’m sure covers a significant number of you—here we find ourselves at the very heart of Christianity. Here we find ourselves at the very essence of why it is that as a Christian we cannot, we are unable to say, “Well, yes, Jesus is a way, but so is Buddha, so are other Hindu avatars,” or whatever it might be. Why can we not say that? The assertion of our friends or of the agnostic is that we are arrogant and self-focused and judgmental and dogmatic and unkind. Therefore, we’re unable or unwilling to allow credence to any other thing, because we’re proud. No! Because we’re logical.

You see, what we are confronted with here is the assertion of Jesus: “Do you believe in the Son of Man? Do you believe in the Son of God? Do you believe in the Christ? Do you believe in the Messiah?” That’s what he’s asking: “Do you believe in the revealer of God? Do you believe in the one who redeems men and women?” The man says, “Who is he? Tell me so that I can believe.” Jesus says, “You’re looking at him.” Do you see what he’s saying? “I’m God. I’m the Messiah. You’re looking at the Messiah.”

Same as John 4: “Who gives the living water, that you don’t have to come here and get more water? What is this living water? Who provides this living water?”

“If you knew who it was who was telling you this, you’d ask him. He’d give you living water.”

“Who is this? We know when the prophet comes…”

Jesus says, “Ego eimi. It’s me.”[15]

Now, for those of you who read C. S. Lewis, you remember C. S. Lewis says we have three options, essentially. In relationship to such an assertion, either Jesus is deluded; he just doesn’t know what’s going on. Or he is a deceiver, a flat-out liar. Or he is the incarnate God. Lewis, in his memorable statement, says then, deductively, “So you can come to him and spit at him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But do not come to him with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great moral teacher. He has not left that option open to us. He didn’t intend to.”[16] So to believe in the one way is inevitably to close down the other options.

“Do you believe in the Son of Man?” If the Unitarians are right—go down to Cleveland Heights and see that big thing when you’re coming up from the Clinic, that huge big spire sticking up into the sky, whether it’s the church of the Christian Scientists, or Unitarians, or any one of them—if they are right, we are wrong as Christians, and we are idolaters, because we have made a man into a god. Therefore, we have broken the First Commandment, and we ought to acknowledge before the living God that we’re absolutely wrong—if they’re right. And the question is, have you examined the Book? Jesus, a deceiver? Jesus, deluded? Or Jesus, the very person he claimed to be?

And then, you see, the question remains, doesn’t it? A vital, specific, unavoidable question.

Now, we’ll come back to the man’s answer, I think, maybe this evening. I don’t know. But notice just the simplicity of it as we finish: “Do you believe?” “Yeah, I believe.”

What? Some people get off the bus at that stop: “Oh, it can’t be as simple as that, this becoming a Christian.”

“Do you believe?” “Yes, I believe.”

“Oh, you’ve got to make it harder than that, Alistair. I mean, anything that simple is very difficult for me. If you could make it very difficult for me, then that would be a lot simpler.” Right? So when you tell people, “Come on, now. Would you believe in Jesus?” they’re slipping down rabbit holes all over the place—excuses and reasons for not believing.

Do you believe?

I always think of my friend Paul, when I asked this simple question, how he was in Edinburgh University, studying to be a vet, and he was being pressed upon by various people from the Christian Union, and invited to different things, and given books to read, and “Are you reading your Bible?” and “Have you considered this?” and so on. And eventually they prevailed upon him, in the midst of all of these considerations of the claims of Jesus, and they took him to a Christian retreat center. And he told me afterwards how scared he was going into this retreat center, and especially having to room with one of these Christian fellows. And before they ended the evening, as they packed their stuff up and were ready for lights out, the fellow from the other bunk said to him, “Paul, I just have to ask you: Do you believe in Jesus?” And Paul said, “I looked at the guy, and I said, ‘Yes, I believe in Jesus.’” And he said, “I mark my conversion from that moment, in that room, in response to that vital, specific, and in that case, unavoidable question.” It’s actually the question for everyone. For everyone! “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

Father, we want to hear that question ring in our hearts and minds from you. We want that the Spirit of God would stir in our hearts. I pray that even this morning, as Paul did, that there may be affirmations coming from the hearts of men and women as their lives are an open book to you, declaring their trust in you. I pray that even in a closing song, it may prove to be the very gateway into heaven for not a few within this congregation right now. Hear our prayers, O God, and let our cries come unto you. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

[1] John 1:4 (NIV 1984).

[2] John 10:10 (paraphrased).

[3] See Ecclesiastes 3:11.

[4] Mark 2:5 (NIV 1984).

[5] Mark 2:6–9 (paraphrased).

[6] Mark 2:10–11 (paraphrased).

[7] Isaiah 53:3 (KJV).

[8] See Luke 9:22; Luke 24:7.

[9] Hebrews 9:27 (KJV).

[10] 2 Timothy 1:12 (KJV).

[11] Charles Spurgeon, “Faith,” The New Park Street Pulpit 3, no. 107, 2. Paraphrased.

[12] Tim Hardin, “Reason to Believe” (1965). Lyrics lightly altered.

[13] See Jeremiah 29:13.

[14] John 5:25–27 (NIV 1984).

[15] John 4:10–11, 25–26 (paraphrased).

[16] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, bk. 2, chap. 3. Paraphrased.