Deeper Magic from before the Dawn of Time

(This post is part of a series of posts about The Chronicles of Narnia.)

In The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, one of the Pevensie children, Edmund, betrays the other children to the evil White Witch. The Christ figure, the lion Aslan, organizes Edmund's rescue from the Witch, but she turns up to demand him back as a sacrificial victim. This is according to the Deep Magic from the dawn of time, by which rule all traitors belong to her. To the dismay of all the children, Aslan says he cannot refuse her. But he works out a secret deal with her, and she gives up her claim.

In the night, Susan and Lucy Pevensie follow Aslan as he surreptitiously leaves their camp and goes to the camp of the White Witch. There he gives himself over to her power and allows himself to be slaughtered on a Stone Table by her followers. This was Aslan's deal; he gave himself up in Edmund's place. Lucy and Susan are distraught with grief, and watch over Aslan's body after the Witch and her followers leave. But when dawn arrives, Aslan miraculously comes back to life!

This is Deeper Magic from before the dawn of time. Aslan explains it:

"It means," said Aslan, "that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards."

The forces of evil in the world think that they know what they are doing. They think that they may triumph. But they do not know everything. It is God who really knows everything.

Like Christ, Aslan gives himself to pay for the wrongdoing of Edmund. Only Christ's sacrifice is made not just for one person, but for the wrongdoing of all of us. We are all the lawful sacrificial victims of evil, and ultimate death is where we are headed. God cannot alter this deep magic from the dawn of time. But he has made a deal with evil, and has given himself in our place, a willing victim who has committed no treachery.

Because of Christ's sacrifice of himself, Death has started working backwards for all those who acknowledge what he has done. We are no longer headed for ultimate death once we submit our lives to Christ.

After Aslan comes back to life, he runs through Narnia on business that needs doing, and he allows Lucy and Susan to ride on his back. Lewis says that ride "was the most wonderful thing that happened to them in Narnia." When we give ourselves to Christ, our lives become a wonderful ride on Aslan's back. There are, to be sure, ups and downs, but it's a journey worth taking.