Always Friday, Never Sunday
In CS Lewis’s “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”, Narnia is under a curse from the White Witch, causing it to always be winter and never spring. The citizens of Narnia lament the fact that spring never comes, but when Aslan returns to life after being killed by the witch, the ice starts to melt, and the first buds of spring burst on the trees.
The story is a wonderful allegory of the power of resurrection to defeat death.
I’ve titled this post “Always Friday, never Sunday” because I sometimes think that some Christians voluntarily live in the winter of Good Friday, and never move to the spring of Easter Sunday. There is a very strong focus in Christianity on the presence and power of Sin, to the point that it is the primary underlying theme of much of the preaching that happens in church every Sunday. Common themes include: The Devil is out to get us, our need for forgiveness, missing the mark, the dangers that await us if we deviate from God’s plan, the perils of Hell, and so on. If that isn’t winter, then I don’t know what is.
Most Christians would be surprised to learn that the term “original sin” is not in the Bible. In fact, Judaism does not have this concept, and neither did the early church. It was Augustine who came up with the idea in the 4th Century, when working with the Latin version of the original Greek. The consequence of Augustine’s theory of original sin has stained Christianity every since. It drove the crusades, and powers the sin-focused evangelistic mission of the church to this day.
I suggest that Christianity’s focus on sin has kept us from seeing what Jesus really did after the cross. He defeated death and rose again, confirming that humanity is right with God and that the way was open for relationship with God. The veil had been torn from top to bottom.
God forgave sin throughout the Old Testament and Jesus forgave the sins of many people during his ministry – before he died. God didn’t need the cross to make forgiveness possible, it was already happening. God needed the cross so that Jesus could be raised to new life and defeat death – the final enemy.
Imagine how different Christianity would be if we focused more on the resurrected life of Easter Sunday and less on the death of Good Friday. There would be more hope and joy, we would be looking for relationship instead of looking at our failings. We would see sin for what it really is – missing the mark, not eternal Hellfire and damnation.
Instead of telling people that they can avoid Hell by receiving Christ as their saviour, we should be telling them that they are already in good standing with God, and encourage them to enjoy the relationship with God that is available to them right now.
Replacing the guilt and shame associated with Original Sin is the good news of restored Original Innocence.
Faith should be lived out in practice
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- In Christ Daily – Day 2 - 2 November 2025
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