The Christ Centred Cosmic Civilisation

Episode 119b - From Wardrobe to World: Lewis, Myth, and the Gospel Made Visible

• Paul

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A lamppost in snow. A wooden door that shouldn’t be a doorway. A world frozen under the words “always winter, never Christmas.” We step through the wardrobe to explore why The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe still feels like a living parable—one that sneaks past our watchful dragons and ignites a deeper hunger for grace.

We start with the mythic power Lewis wields so well: ordinary objects as sacraments, a lamplight as a promise, and a season turned into theology. From wartime England to a house full of secrets, we trace Lucy’s wonder and Edmund’s weakness—how a sweet temptation exposes the moral fabric Lewis calls the deep magic. That fabric requires justice, not as punishment-for-punishment’s sake, but as reality snapping back into place. Then comes the turning point: Aslan’s quiet choice to take Edmund’s place. We sit with the stone table, the shaming, the silence, and the weight of substitution that even a child can feel without a footnote.

But the table cracks at dawn. Love proves older than law as the deeper magic wakes, and death begins to work backwards. We talk about resurrection not as a legal line item but as laughter, movement, and breath—Aslan running, Lucy and Susan rejoicing, the Witch’s power unravelling. And the thaw doesn’t stop at one forgiven boy; it spills across the land. Rivers loosen, statues breathe, and creation joins the chorus—echoes of Isaiah’s singing hills and Romans 8’s groaning world finally set free. Along the way, we surface often-missed facets of the gospel that Lewis braids together: victory over the devil, the healing of shame, the renewal of all things, and the invitation to meet grace through ordinary doors.

If Narnia first taught you to hope, or if you’re ready to see why this story still melts cynicism like frost in sunlight, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves Lewis, and leave a review to tell us the moment the deeper magic found you.

The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the next episode of the Christ-centred cosmic civilization, and we are in our Narnia series celebrating the 75th anniversary of Narnia. And we in our opening episode we thought about the issues in general around Narnia and the power of myth to deliver us from the confines of a superficial view of reality, being stuck on what is almost an island, a confined prison island, and then realizing no, there is an Isthmus, a strip of land that we can cross and get onto the great continent of reality, the a fully deep and rich and high and broad reality, where we're filled with three the three heavens and angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, together with the fee creatures and all the mystery and magic and wonder that is Christ's cosmic empire. So all of that C.S. Lewis helps us with, and now we're gonna try and go through the different books in the seven-stage journey. And although, in a way, the Magician's Nephew, uh you would it kind of would come first chronologically because it deals with the creation of Narnia, it actually was written later on, and the first book that was published in Narnia is The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. And the title is is powerful in itself, and in a way, it's the one that people often think of as the most obvious in its Christian symbolism. I'm not sure that's true. Um I think The Magician's Nephew and The Last Battle are extremely transparent in the in that sense. Um but nevertheless it's the one that it's the starting point for most people, and it's the one that there have been certain different film versions of it, and uh it's the one that in a way everyone, if you ask them if they know about Narnia, they tend to refer to this one. Now, there's many things we want to explore about Narnia as we go on. We're gonna look at how the seven books relate to the seven planets, we're gonna look at uh variety of things, but in this, let's get straight into this one with the story of it, really. And uh it's snow winter, so it's a northern hemisphere tale of wind Christmas being at winter, and that's quite an important sub-idea. But the idea of this snow crunching underfoot, the lamppost glowing in the twilight, and that lamppost has a big backstory that we only really discover much later in the series. And there's a little girl, Lucy Pevency, and she has stumbled through a wardrobe into a world where it's always winter but never Christmas, and that's that oh what a fantastic phrase that is because the idea of winter is that is the season, all the seasons, the four seasons, take us on a psych a gospel cycle, and Easter comes at the beginning of the seasonal proclamation of the gospel, where spring is the time of new life rising from the dead, and that's the time, of course, of Easter, that's the time of new year in the Bible. So you start a new year, and with that is new life springing up, and summer is is when that new life is at its height, and this is why the gospel and seasonal imagery is in the Bible, because the Bible, the world of the Bible is set in the northern hemisphere. Um it kind of it expects us to be viewing things from that, and we were you would have to readjust that imagery if you live in the southern hemisphere, but the Bible that world is set in the northern hemisphere, as is the world of Narnia. So there it is, it's winter, death death, cold, lifeless, uh, and there are no leaves, no flowers, and there's this kind of sense in which it's hard to get food, and all of it is like a fallen world. Uh, and but never Christmas, the the the phrase of winter, but never Christmas Christmas is this uh wonderful experience um of hope, redemption, renewal, rescue, the the possibility of coming resurrection and everything that's that that bursts in this light and light life and warmth at the centre of winter and all that. And it's as if imagine if there's only winter, only winter, and of course, for C.S. Lewis, he loved his uh Norse mythology, and in Norse mythol mythology, hell is a cold place. Um, in the medieval uh Christian world, which is drawn directly from the Bible, that hell has a lot to do with heat, the heat of shame and regret, uh, the burning of shame and the so heat and fire and so on. But in Norse mythology, they have hell, the hell, the realm of hell, as as as totally cold because that is the that's the threat to life, is is the cold, the lifelessness, the lack of food, the lack of shelter, all of that. That winter is the the great enemy for the in Norse mythology, and so C. S. Lewis draws on that, and it's so that image of the winter with no Christmas, and um Lucy goes across the isthmus in a way, and in this sense, that's not the imagery here, it's a wardrobe. The idea, then, that there's a door that's part of ordinary life, something that's part of ordinary life, and yet it becomes something that transports through to this other world, and it's quite important that it's a wardrobe. Now, later, there's a backstory to that wardrobe, and the wood from the wardrobe, it's it's got a whole backstory, and again, that comes up later in the series, and it's one of my favourite things. What is this wardrobe? How is it able to have such power? But it's the idea, it's just a wardrobe, um, a door, an ordinary door into a container in ordinary life, and yet it becomes this vehicle of journeying into another world. All of this has depth to it that for C.S. Lewis, the the the this the real world, the cosmic civilization of the divine emperor of Jesus, is not something that is belongs to a kind of universe far, far away long, long ago. It's rather a reality that is with us, easily accessible in a way, and often accessible through the ordinary things of life. And of course, with C.S. Lewis, there's that sacramental dimension where it is the simple physical things that convey to us divine reality. There's there's more that we can explore there, but we're into it, Narnia, it's winter, and that's how a lot of people remember it. But it's not just the story, is it? It for C.S. Lewis, he's trying to tell us the story, the story, and and for people, for lots and lots of people, this is how they began to experience this baptized imagination, their first glimpse of the gospel in this fairy tale form. For a lot of people I've spoken to over the years, this was how they began, this is when they experience the gospel even before they'd heard it in another form. And sometimes um when they've come to church and heard the story of Jesus as it really was, there's a kind of shock as they realize they've already experienced something of the gospel through Narnia. Well, in this episode, we want to explore kind of three themes from this Lion the Witch in the Wardrobe. Um substitutionary atonement, uh, resurrection, and new creation. And this and why, how this well, let's get straight into it. Section one. This uh, well, let's set the stage first of all. The story begins in wartime England. There's the four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, and they are evacuated to the countryside, and then there's a professor's house, and this professor is interesting, and of course, there's a backstory to him. And in his house, Lucy discovers a wardrobe that leads into Narnia. Narnia is under the curse of the white witch, her rain has made it always winter, never Christmas, into this frozen world. Um there's Aslan in that frozen world. Now, this the drama of the story centers on Edmund. He betrays his siblings because he's lured by the witch's promises, and there's this kind of enchanted Turkish delight. Turkish delight is a confection, a very sweet rose-flavoured confection. And um you can imagine with C.S. Lewis, he would imagine I remember when I was little that actually Turkish Delight was the thing that to me was the most delicious possible sweet that you could ever eat. And I guess C.S. Lewis has a cer had a similar experience uh or a vision of it. It has been argued uh by some that he he could he has the temptation focused in Turkish delight because C.S. Lewis is uh wanting to um make a uh subtle rejection of Islam and the Ottoman Empire and uh in Turkey and so on. Uh it's possible, it's possible, but I'm not sure. I I I I he does engage with the issue of Islam in various ways in the Narnia series. Whether that's going on here, I'm not sure, but Edmund does um does become bewitched because it his desire for this for pleasure, something that is pleasing to eat, and of course, the echoes in Genesis with Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve eating something that is uh that has this corrupting effect upon them. And Edmund becomes a traitor, he sells out for food, and again the story of Esau in the Bible, who sells his birthright, gospel inheritance for stew in his case, lentil stew, not even Turkish the like. Um, but in Narnia, this treachery to betray, to commit treason, is Carrie's death sentence. And so that takes us into this theme, first big theme, of where Aslan gives his own life as a substitute for Edmund. Now, Edmund, he's human, and there is this awareness in Narnia that the humans are the key to all reality, so to take a human life to be to possess the witch knows that to control a human and to to kill a human is a very big deal, a very big deal. So to to outweigh that is difficult. Um Edmund is guilty, he has committed treason, he has betrayed his family, he sided with the witch, and according to what is called the deep magic of Narnia, every traitor belongs to her. And uh his life is forfeit, he must die. That's the that like the idea in the Bible is that if you commit wrong, the Bible talks about the sins being visited back upon the person. It's in the modern world, we struggle with this, we don't really understand sin and crime and justice and uh these things, it's become uh we're very alienated from something. But in the Bible, the idea is if you've come caused harm uh and harm either to individual people or to institutions or to cosmic reality, you've damaged this. The idea is that that harm and pain and suffering that you've caused and and it is currently on other people, the idea is that the Lord God will gather that up and bring it back and dump it upon you. You've brought that suffering and damage, and so rather it's unfair for that to be sat upon other people or to be left on society or even on the cosmos or the land or so on. And the idea is the harm and damage that has been done must should be gathered and sent and returned to sender, returned to the one who brought it, and then it's visited back upon that person. So here the concept is that the deep magic of Narnia says, well, treason is such causes such damage, such harm to individuals and the kingdom and you know the nature of things. When this is gathered up and returned to sender, to the to the traitor, it it kills them. It it requires their very life that when it is visited upon them, so his life is forfeit. But Aslan steps forward and offers himself as a substitute for Edmund instead of Edmund dying. This this he will it's as if Aslan will say, May this uh the the treachery and all the harm that that is caused, may it be visited upon me instead of on Edmund. I will substitute myself in place of him. And so Aslan is bound and mocked and shaved and killed upon the stone tab table, and that is again this this kind of again that I love these ways that there are things that have a very deep back history to them, but it isn't given, it isn't fully explained. What is this table of sacrifice? Um, but the the the stor the point is clear, isn't it? Lewis is not really subtle here. This is the cross of the Lord Jesus in fairy tale mythological form, the innocent dies for the guilty, the king, and not just any king, it's the cosmic king, the divine king, the king who has infinite power in himself and yet lays down his life for the traitor, for the because the the offence of Edmund, if he has harmed reality, if he's harmed the kingdom of the king, um it's against Aslan that that in a way that this is committed in in an ultimate sense, and yet the king says, no, I I will um the I will take his place and I will die instead of him. Um it's an incredible thing because children reading this story, um, this doctrine of how uh atonement is what is how the word atonement really just means how is sin and evil to be dealt with in such a way that it's done away with? How is it answered? And in the Bible we get into deep things where it must be confronted and condemned and confessed, and the the the all the pain and s and suffering that it's caused must be must be visited, returned, and dealt with and absorbed, and there must be outrage and there must be restitution, and there's all these things in the Bible. Not not all of that is explored here, because as well as an idea about uh Jesus came in the Bible to defeat or destroy the works of the devil, and that element of the story comes out because the wicked witch is is symbolic of that of the devil, and so there's this idea that that what is going on in the the death of Jesus is something to do with breaking the devil's grip or possession of humanity. He's described the devil is described as the god of this world in the Bible, and so this wicked witch who has this great authority over the winter world of Narnia, he breaks that by his death, and so children reading this experience um the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross and a lot of the big consequences of it, it is felt, they feel it, they see Edmund's shame, they see Aslan's sacrifice, and a child, even a child or a pagan person, adult, whatever, can understand at a deep level what it means for somebody to die instead of you as a substitute for you, and it's not just anybody that for such a great person, such a great person who has no need to die, that they, of all people, die as a substitute. A child feels it in the story, and so and C.S. Lewis does the story that way, as we've thought, because he what he once said he wanted to um oh what was the phrase? It's something like sneak past those watchful dragons. And that what are the watchful dragons? They well, they are the defenses that people put up against religious language, and he wants people to engage with the reality of the cross of Jesus, the wonder of it, that this mighty immortal king finds a way to die instead of us, so that we don't need to face this kind of deep cosmic eternal death that we're faced with because of sin and evil and the power of the devil and all of that. And he's got he conveys all of that without using any religious language. Um someone put it like this the atonement is not argued, it is imagined. And imagination often reaches deeper than argument. Well, there it is, that's this big theme then. The lion, the witch, in the wardrobe, the lion. The kingly divine lion really dies for the condemned, hopeless, enslaved, captured traitor. That's the gospel. But then there's resurrection, and this is our second theme: resurrection and triumph over death. Because the story doesn't end with Aslan's death. At dawn, the stone table cracks, the witch's power is broken, and Aslan rises alive again. That stone table is kind of seems to symbolize the stone tablets of the law. And uh when that is broken, say it's to do with this covenant, a kind of ancient covenant being uh uh overcome or something. Uh but Lewis explains this that yes, the deep magic requires the death of the traitor, but that there is a quote deeper magic from before the dawn of time. There it is, like so and and and and in according to the deeper magic, so there's deep magic that re that has this idea that uh the sin sins must be visited upon the sinner, because it isn't fair if the if the sins are left upon the victims, they must be visited back upon the sinner. Yeah, that's deep magic, all of that, but there's a deeper magic, and there's a deeper magic that that that can be that visiting of the sins back can be answered in a different way, and and and this is one of the best things of C.S. Lewis because in in a lot of theology it's as if the deepest magic is the law, is sin, there has to be perfect obedience, there has to, otherwise, there is condemnation and death and hell and so on. That is the base thing, that's the deepest magic, and then the gospel is is is introduced as a kind of um afterthought or a plan B. But of course, C.S. Lewis is saying, no, no, no, no, no. The the deeper, deeper, deepest magic from before the dawn of time, from the before the foundation of the world, is this gospel, is redemption, is this grace that before the universe ever began was even when it when it was before it was even conceived, really, there is within the living God uh redemption and this idea that that the lamb must be slain. That's the deepest level of reality. So that the number one thing that the basic relationship between God and humanity is not law demanding perfect obedience, the basic, the deepest is love, grace, forgiveness, generosity, all of that, something deeper. So in the story, uh there's the deeper magic says that if a willing victim who has committed no treachery is killed in a traitor's stead, then death itself begins to work backwards. So it's the idea that death can be killed by such a death. Death, the death of death in the death of Christ. That's what's going on here. It's resurrection, it's Easter morning in fairy tale form. And in the story, C.S. Lewis captures the joy of that. There's this wonderful time where the freshly resurrected Aslan has a kind of um playful time with Susan and Lucy, and there's laughter and exuberance of life breaking through death, and that is so important to the gospel. It's not just that sins are forgiven in a legally abstract way, those sins are forgiven, and it's not just that there's like a righteous credit uh made in a legal spreadsheet, though, of course, you know, there's a sense in which that is a helpful metaphor. But more importantly, that it's it's the it's a reality of joy in the Bible. Even in the depths of suffering and trial and temptation, the Bible just keeps commanding joy, not because it's like put a fixed grin on your face and pretend to be happy, but because there really is joy, a resurrection joy that comes because death, who it the final enemy has been defeated, and we can already experience new birth and resurrection and the joy. So again, uh, sometimes I've known people who've experienced that kind of the joy of Aslan's resurrection, and they've they're in a way experienced experiencing what it is like to know the risen Jesus even before they have met the risen Jesus. For some children, the Lion the Witch in the Wardrobe is their first Easter story. Uh, for adults, it might be a reminder of the of resurrection. That it's not just doctrine, it's joy, it's laughter, it's this death of death and all the rest of it. Well, um, let's just put pull it together about there's another theme that I want us to just think about, and it's the new creation. Because with Aslan's return, when he is resurrected from death, it's not as if that just sorts out Edmund's problem of being a traitor, and Edmund is individually set free from the power of the wicked witch and so on, but everything just goes on as it did before. No, no, no, no. The death and resurrection of Aslan uh changes everything, not just for Edmund, but for everybody and everything. Win the winter begins to melt, the snow thaws, the flowers bloom, the rivers run again. And it's not just a change of weather, it's a new creation. It's like the whole world is renewed, the curse, there's been a curse imposed, and that is lifted, the land itself is healed and rejoices, and all of that you will recognize if you know your Bible, it's in Isaiah, uh Isaiah 24, 25, um, even in Isaiah 11. It's particularly people may think of it in terms of Romans 8, where the whole creation is longing for redemption because of this spirit of resurrection that uh flows out from the resurrection, the death and resurrection of Jesus, creation, groaning under bondage, waiting for liberation, and when the king comes, the whole creation is renewed, and already we get a taste of that uh new creation future. And and so it's important that it's not just the children who are free, the whole land, the animals, the trees, the rivers, salvation, redemption, resurrection is cosmic. And again, in this podcast, the Christ-centered cosmic civilization, we're always wanting to note how humanity, uh, in the image of God and participants in the divine nature. Yeah, it we are at the centre of reality, but it is the whole of the three heavens that are caught up into this gospel reality of church life and the life and uh and work of Jesus. And that's why Narnia feels so big in a way, such a heart-expanding, mind-expanding world to explore and enjoy. Because it's not just about individual redemption, it's about the renewal of all things. And uh that's why The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a story endures. It is the gospel in miniature, in and it's got so much to it, it's not sometimes when a person explains the gospel and uses a illustration or an analogy, I I feel uh, and maybe this is just me, but sometimes I feel a little bit frustrated or disappointed because they've captured only one very like one aspect of the the cross of Jesus, only one bit of it, and they maybe, for example, explore only substitutionary atonement and not other so they may only look at the guilt, but not shame, or not the problem of death. Itself and things like that. What's good with C.S. Lewis is he captures lots of these things. He and even the the way that the cross is the defeat of the devil. That's something that is often missed entirely from gospel presentations in the present day. But it's there in the Bible, the cross is a confrontation with the devil, and it's a defeating of the devil, the cross, and that's important in the gospel, that aspect of it. Overcoming guilt, overcoming shame, overcoming death, overcoming the devil. And there's other things as well that go on in the cross to do with the law and oh well other things. But the all these aspects. So it what's good is C.S. Lewis's myth, fairy tale, captures quite a lot of elements of the cross. So therefore, it's good. Betrayal, sacrifice, resurrection, new creation. It speaks to deep longings. We know what it is to be Edmund, perhaps. Guilty, ashamed, in need of rescue. Done something that you wish you hadn't done, and that you wish you could wind the clock back. You wish you could get free of something, of something you've eaten, like substance abuse that we're addicted to. There is something that is so delicious we can't stop uh craving it, and yet it enslaves us. There's all these things, and in a way, we're longing for an Aslan, someone who can break the power of slavery, of death, who will take our place because we cannot face up to the consequences of what we've done. We not just that we are not prepared to do that, but we just cannot face the consequences, they're too big, they destroy us, and so this one who can take our place and will die for us so that we will never truly die. Bring spring into our winter. It's told us a story, it's not a sermon, but it preaches, it bypasses, in a way, argument as we've thought, and goes to the heart. Um, so again, let's let's have that invitation to read The Lion, the Witch in the Wardrobe again and read it, maybe with the eyes of a child, if we've not done that before, and in in and not overanalyse it, but enjoy the experience of it, feel the betrayal, the sacrifice, the joy of resurrection, and it let let that speak to our hearts and our minds of the gospel. Um I love when C.S. Lewis once said, Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. Maybe that uh day is today.