“Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once. And He volunteered.” – R.C. Sproul Jr.
This is a very sensitive topic that every Christian must understand in order to live aright.
“If the witch knew the true meaning of sacrifice, she might have interpreted the deep magic differently. That when a willing man who has committed no treachery is killed on a traitor’s stand, the stone table will crack and even death itself would turn backwards”
Let’s pause for a moment to ponder on that statement, what does it mean to us? Let us go back to the book of Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth”. The devil didn’t understand the depth of the Jesus’ sacrifice; all he was seeking was people whom he would draw to be his slaves and who would suffer with him in eternity and he wanted to do the same to Christ by offering him the world in exchange for Christ soul. If Jesus had traded his soul, all of us would be devil’s eternal slave.
There was a prophecy in Narnia that four people would come and save them from the wicked witch. Then the children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmond, Lucy came into the city and then hope was birthed in Narnia again. When the four children stepped into Narnia, Edmond was swayed by the witch’s gestures of pleasure and he lost his way until he found out that she was wicked when he got into her palace and was taken captive by the queen. (Reminds me of the statement made by the woman with dementia in God’s Not Dead; sometimes the devil allows people to live a life free of trouble ‘cause he doesn’t want them turning to God. Your sin is like a jail cell, except it’s all nice and comfy and there doesn’t seem to be any need to leave, the door’s wide open ‘til one day, time runs out, and the cell door slam shut and suddenly it’s too late).
His siblings were with Aslan and peter was beckoning on Aslan to save him which he did but at a price, Aslan was to lay down his life (Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Jn 15:13) as sacrifice in place of Edmond; all peter had to do is keep Aslan’s family safe.
Relating it to Scriptures; we must first recognise that Aslan was representing Jesus Christ, the Witch represents the devil and the four children represented the Church (as an individual). Aslan laying down his life in place of Edmond (the world) is what Christ did in order to breakdown the wall for the gentiles to partake of the salvation of the Jews and that happened the moment he died. There was a crack from the foot of the cross at gethsemane all the way down to the holies of holies where the ark laid in the temple. The witch was happy to see Aslan killed but what she didn’t know was that it was God’s strategy created to pay our debt and at the point when Aslan was heading to the place of sacrifice, he carried out (Isaiah 53:7).
Peter’s (the Church’s) responsibility on taking care of Aslan’s family explains John 21:15-18 and Matt 28:19-20. There is one thing we need to understand which is; before Christ came to die for the world, he had people he called his own and it is no doubt that it was Israel in general. So when he was talking about feeding the lambs, tending the sheep, feeding the sheep; he meant the following; gather the babes in Christ, make them move in unity (Eph 4:3-6) and bring them in unity of the knowledge of Christ (Eph 4:12-15). But if Christians only builds the ones that are already saved alone then the work is incomplete, because those in church are gathered babes being brought into unity and the truth is it is a continuous process. We do John 21:15-18 first only then can we do Matt 28:19-20 continuously till Christ returns.
With the story explained in this way, permit me to rephrase Aslan’s words this way
“If the devil knew the true meaning of sacrifice, he might have interpreted the mystery of salvation differently. That when a willing man who has committed no treachery is killed on a traitor’s stand, the stone table will crack and even death itself would turn backwards”
The mystery of salvation is a mystery Christ has unveiled to every Christian because it is concealed to even the devil himself (1 Cor 2:9-10).
“The question isn’t why would a loving God send people to hell but rather why would people choose hell over a loving God” – Ravi Zacharias
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