What’s the One Thing that Needs No Reason to Exist? (From the Wisdom of CS Lewis)

Beyond Cause and Effect: Lewis’s Radical Vision of the Cross
C.S. Lewis argued that “if nothing is obligatory for its own sake, nothing is obligatory at all,” challenging the notion that value comes only from utility or accomplishment. He applied this to the cross of Christ, suggesting it has intrinsic value not because of what it does, but because of what it eternally is. Lewis invites us beyond chronological thinking—the “chicken-and-egg problem” of cause and effect—to understand the cross as an eternal reality that exists both within and outside of time. God isn’t obligated to the cross; rather, cruciformity is woven into God’s eternal identity. The cross happened historically on Good Friday yet simultaneously exists in eternity. This paradox means we can truly know the cross without exhausting its meaning. Lewis’s insight reveals that the cross stands as the one self-justifying reality that makes all other meaning possible.
The Cross: The One Thing That Needs No Reason to Exist