Seeing the Gods Face to Face

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, Confession of Sin, and the Face of Christ

I recently finished C.S. Lewis’s last novel, Till We Have Faces. It was one of his stranger books. His book Mere Christianity is basically required reading for the study of apologetics in the English language. Most readers have probably read his Screwtape Letters or have stepped through the back of the wardrobe into Narnia. Compared to the rest of Lewis’ writing, which is very accessible, Till We Have Faces seems complex, dark, and strange. It was the kind of book that I almost disliked while reading it, but that I put on my top shelf after finishing it. It left me with a sort of literary Stockholm syndrome; I was captivated by each uncomfortable and laborious page turn, until I suddenly grew an affection for it.

Cupid and Psyche, (Amore e Psiche), Giuseppe Maria Crespi, 1707

Note: If you have not read it, and care about spoilers, you may want to stop reading here and buy the book. I only want to talk about a few lines from the ending of the book, but they are some important ones. 

The book is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche from Greek mythology. It is set in a fictional pre-Christian land called Glome. The protagonist of the book, named Oural, has a dislike for the ‘gods’ for the length of the entire plot. She blames them for her sufferings and wants to voice her complaint to them. She wants justice; she wants to be answered.

Near the end of the book, Oural is brought before the gods and given the opportunity to make her complaint. She vents and vents her anger to the council of the gods. But, as ahe rails against the gods, Oural begins to start speaking of her own faults. She begins to admit her own jealousy. She admits her haughtiness and pride. She begins to confess. Then the gods ask her, “Are you answered?” Oural replies, “Yes.” In the very act of her confession, her complaint is answered. Lewis continues with this:

“I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?” (C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces)

This quote is the climax of the book. We cannot draw near to God until we are honest with ourselves. The Divine will not be “real” to us, until we are real with ourselves. How can we see the gods face to face, till we ourselves have a face?

We are like the toddler child asking, “why?”, not knowing that his lack of mental, physical, and experiential maturity are what sometimes deny him an explanation. We want an answer to what “we think we mean.” We are not real with ourselves, but we have the audactity to want to know if the gods are real. The pride of man often demands to look God in the face. How can man look God in the face, before man has a face? We, who can lie to our very selves and believe it, are often not honest enough to know the Divine. We demand that the gods show their faces, while we are hiding our own. 

This is where the intellectual and the moral intersect. Pure philosophy cannot pierce through to Heaven. Interpersonal relationships cannot be boiled down to chemical reactions. You can’t grow Friendship in a Petri dish. You can’t find Romance in an anatomy textbook. And you cannot find God with the wisdom of this age. There is a moral element to the search for God:

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe (1 Corinthians 1:21)

God, in His infinite wisdom, has decided how He can be found. He did not choose to be found by complex philosophy (thankfully, for if that were the case I would be lost). He did not choose to be found by complex ritual. He chooses to be found by those who humble themselves and believe in the gospel of Christ.

The one who runs toward the face of God, swinging his fists angrily, will not be able to reach Him. But God has come near to us. He came so low that only those who are lowly of heart will see Him lying there in Bethlehem. He became man, with fingers, toes, arms, legs, and a face.

He walks right by the Pharisee demanding, “tell us plainly!” (John 10:24), but to the man crying out, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”, Jesus says, “receive your sight; your faith has healed you” (Luke 18). Receive your sight.

May your face be restored, and behold Mine. 

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I find the quote, “How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?” especially potent becasue of the circumstances of my own conversion. When I came to Christ, it was while I was going to pray and ask things from Him. I started asking Him for various wants and desires. But as I was asking, I found myself confessing my sin. I found that I was asking for forgiveness for things I did not even think I needed forgivenss for. I found that I needed a Savior more than the things that I came to request. I found His outsrethced arms, nailed to a cross before my eyes, for my sins.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

Though we have not seen Him, we love Him, and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible, until we obtain the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls (1 Peter 1:9), and the right to look on the face of Christ:

They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:4–5)

There is a lot more to unpack in Till We Have Faces. It overlaps with the book of Job. It relates to Moses’ veiled face when he met with God on Sinai. It is a powerful story about pride, humility, jealousy, and real love. If you want a good overview of some of the bigger themes, check out Gavin Ortlund’s video here.

Cupid and Psyche, Elihu Vedder, 1836–1923. This painting is at the The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, right in local Winter Park, FL.

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