Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
The Miracles of Jesus (continued; part xi)
We have covered over the last ten posts an introduction to the miracles of the Master as well as a lengthy look at the healings and the cures that the Master did individually and en masse. We also looked at the stories of the three persons of whom we are aware that Jesus raised from the dead. We looked also at similar works by the Apostles Peter and Paul as well as at the general information that we have available regarding the mission of the twelve and the seventy. Finally, we saw some of the works of Stephen and Philip who are appointed to the ranks of the apostles and who quickly picked up the mantle of the Christ. So that we are clear insofar as our understanding of the working out of the spiritual events in this time over 2000 years ago we should here repeat what it is that we believe is happening remembering that, from our perspective, of there are no accidents in this Great Drama. That the Master was to make an appearance on this Earth was certainly ordained by the Lord and we should be able to see from the prophecies of the Old Testament that His journey was predicted. We are told of the Master that: “…when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man” (John 2:23-25) and we should take from this the essence of the idea that the Master KNOWS what it is that man will do. This should not be assumed to say that He set aside the free will of man to accomplish His purpose because the free will of man in form is not hindered by God; if it were, humanity would likely never veer onto some of the paths that it has followed throughout its history. Nonetheless, the behavior of humanity is predictable on the whole and most all of what is considered prophesy is come true from the standpoint of man’s reaction to the Master and His disciples and His work.
Individual happenings however are accomplished by by direct action of the Lord upon the world of events; not by decree and not by interference with the free will of man but by the careful arrangement of the people necessary to ensure that all will work as planned. We have spoken of this in this series on Jesus’ miracles several times and while it may be an odd perspective at the outset, if we ponder the whole of the situation we can see the reality of it. This relies first on our acceptance of the concept of reincarnation and then on our understanding of the advancement of Souls to a position of KNOWING through their working out of their salvation here on Earth. This is to say that the Soul reaps the rewards or the detriments of one’s Life here on Earth and that our consciousness, apart from what we see today as mind and emotions and awareness, grows in its spiritual nature to a point of KNOWING who and what it in reality is and that this is accomplished through Life in form as we know it. This is the same KNOWING that we have spoken about as the result of following the Master and keeping His word, believing on Him as we read it in scripture; it is accomplished here in Earth Life and creates for each that state of being that is experienced in the afterlife. KNOWING brings one to the True Kingdom of God; all else leaves us in an infinite range of states of mind and being in an afterlife filled with the remnants of one’s Earthly mindset and emotional stature. It is in this infinite range of states of mind and being that will exist the continuing lives of all men from the basest to the holiest and it is from the holiest part of this and from the True Kingdom of God that the range of KNOWING begins and there exists. We must remember always that saying of the Master which is rather ignored by a large part of the church and sorely misunderstood: “behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). This is to say to us all that whatever it is that we will become will happen within us here and now and if we can come to a point of KNOWING here and now, it is this state in which we can continue.
All of this is of course unseen and unknown, it is the Great Unknown, and the above is not to be seen as authoritative in any way. Nor is the above to be seen as a complete scenario but rather as a hypothesis that, if one will meditate on it, can and will make rational sense and be of much more value in Life than thoughts of hell and punishment and lakes of fire. There are many references to the afterlife throughout this blog and it is discussed in several contexts ranging from thoughts about the resurrection to our idea of being accounted worthy; too many to list here but a search from our home page will point to the specific articles.
Coming back to our point which is our premise that in KNOWING the ways of man, that the Lord puts in place those persons that can ensure the success and also puts in place certain events that effect individually those persons. We saw this with the scenes that lead up to the birth of the Baptist and the Master, in the encouragement of those persons who had responsibilities in these events, in the angelic visits and visions. We see this in the scenes of the early days of Jesus Life where there are shepherds and the Magi, the prophet Simeon and the prophetess Anna, all of whom give encouragement to Mary and Joseph and confirmation of their awesome task. We see it in the nurturing of the apostles and the disciples, in the Transfiguration of the Christ which is for their encouragement and benefit and we see it in the working out of the change of focus for the Apostle Paul through his vision of the Lord and the intercession of Ananius. There are likely many others but this is our example that when there are Souls present on this Earth for a specific purpose as when this Great Drama played out 2000 years ago, that there is a cohesive and comprehensive plan for success; no thing is left to chance nor to the free will of man in form. One last point before we move on is that the wording of this all needs some clarity insofar as for us to understand that when we say that the Lord puts persons in place and events we are speaking of these Souls own cooperation in this and their willing participation; those KNOWING are in the Kingdom as One with the Lord or they are close enough to understand.
Healing, individual and en masse, and the raising of the dead are miracles that we see done by the Master and by His apostles and disciples and, as we see with Stephen and Philip, others as well that come later. Scripture tells us that Stephen and Phillip were chosen as part of the seven and appointed: “Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch” (Acts 6:3-5). Now it is true that these are chosen and appointed by men, men of the church, but this is not what makes them who they are nor what enables them to do what they do. They started from a point of being “of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom” and it is here that we may wonder where the ideas above regarding Souls put in place for this Great Drama to ensure its success ends and the natural working out of divinity in the Life of man begins. Now a Soul in incarnation, any Soul, is capable of coming into his spiritual nature at any time and in any incarnation or so it would seem to be. It is likely that these Souls that come as Stephen and Philip, if they are not a part of the specific plan of the time, are Souls that were close; Souls that had been able to build personalities and forms through which the Soul could work, and that when the call of the Soul was registered in the consciousness that they willingly heeded it and became, as we ourselves would, aspiring disciples. This aspiring disciple is then given, or rather takes, Kingdom responsibility and he flourishes and grows to that point of KNOWING in such a way that he can heal and cure and do “great wonders and miracles among the people” (Acts 6:8). How is this accomplished? Simply by the steadfast focus of the attention of one’s life upon the things of the Kingdom. Can we see how it is that this all works together? Can we see how we may fit into this same dynamic, how we too can KNOW.
Overcoming of the personality consciousness is no easy task and in the idea above where we see one taking Kingdom responsibility we can see the essence of the Master’s saying that: “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12). We discussed this in the past (In the Words of Jesus part 143) and we have noted elsewhere that this same saying in Luke’s Gospel comes to us as: “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached , and every man presseth into it” (Luke 16:16). We should see two dynamics at work in these sayings the first of which we repeat from the earlier reference: ….violent here is not to be understood as it is used in our modern language but should be understood as a type of spiritual violence for, in taking the Kingdom, we are but bringing down into our consciousness the Light of the Soul and the precepts of God. The disciples and followers of the Master saw and knew the new dispensation of John and of Jesus and their teachings and this awakened in them spiritual thoughts and ideas causing them, and now us, to cast aside the carnal ways, to focus on the Kingdom and to bring it forcibly to bear on their daily lives. The second is the idea that in the days before the Baptist and the Master, the men of the world, who are represented to us in scripture by the Jews, are steady in their waiting for the Kingdom of God to arrive, for God to arrive by the way of the Messiah. They were comfortable following their laws and the edicts of the religious rulers. This is clear in the Master’s saying from Luke and from a look back at the nature of the Jew’s relationship to God which was by way of atonement to that outside Ruler of the world.
The coming of the Baptist and of the Christ changed all of this for many and it is those that accepted the teachings of both that can be seen reflected in the sayings above, those taking the Kingdom. Mark relates this to us this way: “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). What is the message but to tell them that were waiting for the Kingdom to come and relying on their priests and rulers for their guidance and their salvation, that they need not wait, the Kingdom is here. The message is that they need to repent, to change their ways and that within this change is the taking of the Kingdom itself. It is often thought that these words “repent ye, and believe the gospel” are words that are telling one to abolish his evil ways but this is only on the extreme. Generally, the people who were following in the customs and the edicts of their religion were not evil nor evil minded and in understanding this we can glimpse the reality of the changes necessary to ensure salvation. There are likely many in this time that achieved salvation through their practice of Judaism or other religions and this despite the thoughts of the church on the subject. Without this being so it would not be possible to have what we have referenced above and in recent posts as the more advanced Souls who partook in this Great Drama; there would have been no means for the advancement of Peter or of Zacharias and others to the level necessary for their participation.
The Master brought a new and a better way which was announced first by the Baptist and then expounded upon by the Master albeit in parables. It is this way that is realized by some of the people of the day as their key to the Kingdom, it is this change to this new era of Love and brotherhood that casts a shadow upon the old way and makes of its adherents antagonists against the Lord. This struggle is still taking place today; after 2000 years the message of the Master is still not ingrained in the hearts of men. Many still do not realize that the Kingdom of God is here and it is now and that they must press into it and that they must take it by force; that they must violently subdue the carnal personality.
Much as we have said as the theme in all of these posts, the 200th of which is this one today, this is our task; to take the Kingdom by our focus upon it which starts by heeding the call of one’s own Soul, one’s own Christ Within. In this heeding comes the believing on which is the following of and keeping of the words of the Christ and in this believing on will eventually come the KNOWING and in the KNOWING will come the fullness of the Kingdom of God. We must also remember that there is not a lot for one to do; there is just this one thing that the Master tells us and which requires that total repentance from the worldly view. He says: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15) and He also helps us to understand just what these commandments are by telling us: “The first of all the commandments is, Hear , O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this , Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31). To this we have added for ease of understanding that great tool that Jesus gave us to help us understand how we should Love our neighbour and how it is that we Love ourselves; He says: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
In closing today we take yet another look at our practical understanding of Love as we believe that the Master intended it. This may not be complete nor entirely accurate by the Lord’s standards but it is a practical approach that removes from the definition that emotional attraction and response that we so often attach to His intent in using this word:
Love is : ‘In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men’.
We did not get to our discussion of the miracles of the Master that are beyond His acts of healing; we will start this in the next post.
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
As we said we are leaving this Quote of the Day which is called by some the Great Commission. Today we add just a brief note regarding the Master’s telling us to be “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you”, and this from the words of the Buddha: “Love yourself and watch – today, tomorrow, always. First establish yourself in the way, Then teach, and so defeat sorrow. To straighten the crooked you must first do a harder thing – straighten yourself” (Dhammapada; on Yourself)5.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)
This is called by some of the church the Great Commission and so it is. It is however hardly understood and at times grossly misapplied. Somewhere in the centuries that have passed since the Master left us we have come to think that the meaning of this is just to preach the word through any particular doctrine and baptize according to any particular belief. Vincent tells us that the word translated as teach here should be seen as make disciples of4 and the lexicon bears this out. There is nowhere in scripture an actual defining understanding of the concept of baptism and we generally think of it as the immersion into or the pouring on of water and that somehow this clears us of sin. This is but an outward sign however of real spiritual undertaking by the conscious man and it is only when a man is ready to commit to the Master that a baptism can be considered real. We will leave this as the Quote of the Day for a few days and try to find in it some true meaning. Keeping in mind our four points, we should ponder on this.
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 5 The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
