From a Reformation Day sermon, as posted by Paul McCain:
The different ways people read God’s Word are not merely variations on a theme but radically different Gospels. The Reformation of Luther is not about competing interpretations but about the one Gospel which is true and others which are false. If you read St. Paul’s letters, you hear him warn the people against departing from the truth that He delivered to them. He was not offering one version of the truth but the only truth that saves — the truth of Jesus Christ. We face exactly the same challenge today.
Christianity is not the domain of differing but equally true ideas about God. Christianity is not some umbrella religion of many different truths that all claim to be right. Christianity is about the one, true Gospel that has the power to forgive, save, and give eternal life. The other gospels are false gospels that are powerless to do anything for you. Luther’s battle was not with a pope or a council but with a false gospel which had robbed the Church of the Word that does what it says, delivers what it promises, and bestows what it speaks.
Merry Christmas!
George MacDonald (who greatly influenced C.S. Lewis) opposed what is referred to as the “penal substitution” theory of the atonement, something with which I’ve struggled myself. This common evangelical doctrine depicts God as so full of wrath that he just has to punish someone for sin, so he takes it out on Jesus. This view, I believe, derives mainly from Augustine’s view of original sin and the total depravity of man (not to mention Augustine’s view of a primarily wrathful God). This view was rather unique to Augustine at the time; while it was eventually adopted by the Roman Catholic Church as well as Calvin, the Eastern church has always disagreed with penal substitution.