#12 THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
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Memorable Lines from Movies, Big Story in Bible
#12 THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
The Gospel in Fantasy Genre
Between 2005 and 2010, three movies appeared in "The Chronicles of Narnia" series, grossing US$1.5 billion worldwide. The first, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", introduces the fantasy land of Narnia, ruled by the White Witch, spell-cast in perpetual winter. Four children stumbled into Narnia and joined force with Aslan the lion, the true king of Narnia.
Alas, Edmund betrayed his three siblings, Peter, Susan and Lucy, to the Witch. Aslan the lion, a figure of Christ, rescued Edmund—but at a price. The “deep magic” or law governing Narnia required the guilty to be redeemed at the sacrifice of an innocent.
The Witch invoked the law and Aslan willingly gave himself to be put to death. Unknown to her, a “deeper magic” existed: sacrifice willingly made by an innocent would bring the dead back to life. This overrode the Witch's claim, and Aslan came back in a dramatic triumphant twist to defeat her.
Big Story in Bible
A devout Christian and master story-teller, C. S. Lewis is simply re-telling the Gospel through the fantasy genre.
The “magic” in Narnia mirrors the laws written into our created universe. Sin has to be atoned, paid for in blood and violent death. Only then can the sinner be freed from guilt. Christ, like Aslan, took the sinner’s place on the cross, the sinless for the sinful.
“For our sake he [God] made him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21
The story does not end there. Like Aslan, Christ came back to life, having dealt a death blow to sin. We become the benefactors with Christ:
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses…, God made alive together with him [Christ], having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” Colossians 2:13-14
So one law (“deep magic”) says the guilty can be redeemed only by the sacrifice of the innocent. Another law (“deeper magic”) says the innocent who makes sacrifice willingly will come back to life, the second overriding the first. The story of Narnia is no less than the Gospel in fantasy genre.
