On the Shedding of Dragon Skin

There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.[1]

One of the greatest opening lines in the history of literature - the inaugural sentence of C.S. Lewis’ third installment in The Chronicles of Narnia.[2] I’m reading through the series with my two youngest daughters, Anastasia and Evangeline, and we’ve almost completed our voyage on the Dawn Treader. Having loved Narnia since childhood, it’s been a delight exploring Lewis’ beloved world with my children. Watching the girls experience the narrative is especially rewarding - their sadness witnessing Aslan’s self-sacrifice, and joy at his return in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; their laughter when Prince Caspian calls Reepicheep a “little ass” in Prince Caspian; and their consideration of Eustace’s rebirth in Dawn Treader.

One chapter in the Dawn Treader anthology finds the crew on what would later be aptly named Dragon Island. The aforementioned Eustace, who had been quite the nasty little companion thus far, wanders off on his own, arriving in a valley where he witnesses an old dragon die. Upon exploring the dragon’s lair, Eustace discovers a pile of treasure. Considering that he wouldn’t have to pay taxes in Narnia, Eustace devises a greedy little plot – he’ll slide a diamond encrusted bracelet up his arm and fill his pockets with diamonds.[3] At this point, exhausted from the day’s adventure, laying on a mound of dragon’s treasure, Eustace drifts off to sleep.

When the avaricious little thief awoke, in the dragon’s lair, on the pile of dragon’s treasure, Eustace Clarence Scrubb was himself a dragon! It’s not until the next chapter, having spent time humbled in reptilian scales, that his humanity is restored. It is not of his own volition, though, that he experiences this rebirth, but by the great Lion, Aslan. He leads Eustace to a secluded pool and commands him to undress.

Remembering that snakes shed their skin, Eustace claws a layer of scaley skin off, but it doesn’t work – there’s another layer of dragon skin underneath. After two more attempts at self-rebirth, Eustace is spent. I’ll let Lewis narrate the climax in Eustace’s own words:

“Then the lion said-but I don’t know if it spoke-‘You will have to let me undress you.’ I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.

“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know-if you’ve ever picked the scab off a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.”

…Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off-just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt-and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. The he caught hold of me-I didn’t like that much for I was tender underneath now that I’d no skin on-and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again.”[4]

I’m not sure I’ve ever read a more beautiful picture of the Lord’s declaration - Ye must be born again (John 3.7). Like Eustace Clarance Scrubb, we cannot shed our own dragon skin. We cannot initiate the new birth on our own - the wind blows where it wishes (John 3.8). Scripture reveals that Adam’s guilt is imputed to us (Rom 5.12-21), we are born in sin (ψ 51.5), spiritually dead (Eph 2.1), and we all sin, falling short of the glory of God (Rom 3.23). We are of our father, the devil (John 8.44) - the rebellious reptilian Rex[5] (Gen 3; Rev 12).

We are born again when the Lion of the tribe of Judah[6] digs his claws deep into our heart, tearing the dragon skin off us (Jer 31.33; Ezek 36.26). He sends the Holy Spirit to regenerate and indwell us. This is the gift of God not only in our salvation,[7] but also in our sanctification. The Christian life is the process of constantly shedding our dragon skin.

Since we are still in the flesh, we continue to battle our sin nature (Rom 7). But God, in his mercy, continues to discipline us (Heb 13). Through the means of grace, we are constantly prompted by the Holy Spirit to practice faith and repentance - breathe in faith; breathe out repentance. This process continues until our final glorification, at the resurrection, where Christ will fully and finally shed our dragon skin - sin and death will forever be destroyed.

Not only that, but the dragon will be damned. Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that dragon is currently bound from deceiving the nations (Rev 20.2-3). In his second advent, Jesus will cast the dragon into the lake of fire where he will be tormented day and night (Rev 20.10). For now, the devil prowls like a roaring lion (1st Pet 5.8), and Jesus taught us to pray for deliverance from the evil one (Matt 6.9). We do so with the promise that the God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath our feet (Rom 16.20; cf. Gen 3.15).

[1]Lewis, C.S. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (HarperCollins, New York, 1952), 4.

[2]Publishing order, of course, which is the superb method of reading the Chronicles (as opposed to chronological order, in which case, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader would be fourth). Lewis encouraged first-time readers to consume the novels in publishing order because The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which was the first story published, but second in chronology, introduces readers to the great Lion, Aslan. Aslan is the only character to appear in all seven novels, and his story in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe shapes how the reader understands this clear Christ type in every story – including The Magicians Nephew, which was the sixth book published, but first in chronological order.

[3]Lewis, C.S., Dawn Treader, 87-88.

[4]Ibid, 108-109.

[5]Rex is the Latin word for King.

[6]Gen 49.9-10; Rev 5.5-6; Isa 31.4-5

[7]When the Spirit regenerates us, the Father justifies us (declares us righteous) through faith in Jesus Christ.