Over 60 years ago, C. S. Lewis wrote a book entitled The Great Divorce. The contents of this book are in the form of a dream somewhat on the order of Pilgrim’s Progress. Lewis dreams and imagines that he is accompanying a busload of people traveling from Hell to the outskirts of Heaven. Each “ghost” from Hell gets the opportunity to enter Heaven if he or she will just let go of his most cherished sins.
In the dream, not one soul from Hell chooses to enter Heaven in spite of the pleadings of the Solid People (Bright People) who inhabit Heaven and plead with the ghosts from Hell.
One lady ghost, for example, refuses to go with one of the Solid People because she would be embarrassed that people could see right through her since she was a ghost. One of the Bright People pleads, “Could you, only for a moment, fix your mind on something not yourself?” The ghost could not do this. Her selfcenteredness had been her whole life while on earth.
In Lewis’s dream the grass, flowers, trees, and fruit of Heaven were solid and hard to the ghosts from Hell. To walk across a grassy field was torture. One particular ghost saw some beautiful golden apples that had fallen from a tree. He tried to pick them up and stuff them into his pockets. He first chose the largest apple but could not lift it. Finally, he was barely able to pick up one of the very smallest apples. He tried his best to lug the almost unbearable burden back to the bus that was bound for Hell. But of course, there was no place in Hell for such celestial fruit.
This materialistic ghost clung to his apple as long as possible, thereby clinging to the sin that had damned him in the first place.
No ghost in The Great Divorce makes it to the inner part of Heaven and into God’s presence. One by one, they miserably return to the bus that would only take them back to Hell. Lewis wonders whether these ghosts really were being given a second chance, or were they doomed to Hell forever? Of course, we know the answer from the Bible. After death, there is no second chance.
But the main point of the writer is not to debate the subject of a second chance after death, but to subtly let the reader know that the choice can and must be made in this life. The person who chooses the way of sin in this life is divorcing himself from any hope of Heaven and eternal bliss. At death, this great divorce becomes final. The writer leaves us with the intriguing question: If one had a chance to leave Hell and enter Heaven, would he really do it?
How savagely human nature holds onto its selfish, sensual, sinful ways. The appeals of the godly and the promises of Heaven notwithstanding, people pursue the way that “seemeth right unto a man.” One wonders what it would take in this world or the next to bring them to repentance.
The rich man in Hell who pled for his five brothers on earth was told: “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:31).
All kinds of reasons and logic can be tried in order to convince the ungodly of their need to let go of their pet sins. However, it all boils down to the question: Will we heed God’s Word and accept it by faith?
It is abundantly clear that those who choose to serve God will enter into life eternal. First, they must be willing to cast down whatever separates from God.
Will you divorce yourself from sin in this life? If you do not, the divorce from God will be permanent in the next life.
Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26).
—RLB