Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON GOD; Part CXXXI
“I Paul — a ministrant. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and do fill up the things lacking of the tribulations of the Christ in my flesh for his body, which is the assembly, of which I — I did become a ministrant according to the dispensation of God, that was given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God, the secret that hath been hid from the ages and from the generations, but now was manifested to his saints, to whom God did will to make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this secret among the nations — which is Christ in you, the hope of the glory, whom we proclaim, warning every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, for which also I labour, striving according to his working that is working in me in power” (Colossians 1:23-29)[Young’s Literal Translation].
“Christ in you, the hope of the glory” is, according to the Apostle Paul, “the secret that hath been hid from the ages and from the generations, but now was manifested to his saints” and, if we tie this to the Master’s teachings we can take away that this is a teaching on the mysteries of the Kingdom of God:
- The Apostle Matthew, speaking about the Master’s teaching in parables tells us “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 13:35).
- The Master tells us this as an unrelated saying in the midst of a group of parables in the Gospel of Mark: “For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad” (Mark 4:22). This is worded a bit differently and with the acknowledgment that we can KNOW as the Master says in the Gospel of Luke: “For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad” (Luke (8:17) and in this we should see the intent of the revealing the mysteries of the Kingdom but there is a criteria for these revelations.
- The Master, speaking to His disciples, acknowledges that this is the criteria for the revelation, that one be a disciple; he says: “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see , and hearing they might not understand” (Luke 8:10).
- Paul tells us, speaking of his own teaching on the Christ and the Christ’s teaching itself as they give revelation to those who hear and do: “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest , and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith” (Romans 16:25). The apostle is saying that these secrets are made manifest to disciples, those that follow in the Gospel of Paul and the teachings of the Master and that they are also made known to the nations through scripture. We should see here the difference between manifest and known and we should understand the point of being “made known to all nations for the obedience of faith” as the hopeful lure of the common man into the world of discipleship.
Can we understand that “Christ in you, the hope of the glory” is among these secrets that have always been but not revealed and can we see from our past discussion that the Christ Within is ever in the Kingdom and, from our perspective, IS the Kingdom and can we see this through our synonymous pairing of words which have posted in the last several days? The Christ Within is the Glory of man as the Christ Within, the Soul, IS the True man and this the Master teaches us as He shows us that we need not and should not regard the world and the things of the world in any high degree and that this can lead us to not regarding them at ALL. And what are the things of the World? anything that hinders or obstructs the showing of the the Light, that Light of which the Master says: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). He tells us also just where the Father IS or rather where the Father and heaven are saying “behold , the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) and it this we should just see the simplicity of the idea that God would necessarily be IN HIS KINGDOM. The word kingdom get much play in some parts of the Christianity and this is in the literal sense which detracts from this saying of the Master regrading the Kingdom. No where does He tell us that there is a physical place for this Kingdom and this is surely part of the the parabolic nature of His teachings; He does however tell us where it is and how it is that one can get there. He tells us clearly that there is a price of admission into the Kingdom and this we have discussed numerous times; Jesus tells us that “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21) and in this we should understand that the way as taught by much of the church, the personal appeal to Jesus and the worship and the devotion, are not the way, we should understand the the way is found only in doing “the will of my Father“. This is a hard saying but it is a factual one.
Based upon all of this we should be able to see and to come to the realization that the Christ Within and the God Within are the same ONE God and that He and His Kingdom are also synonymous and there is scriptural reference to ALL of these being within the man; if we read carefully and understand the parables, we can see that these ARE THE TRUE MAN as well. Today we will go deeper into these idea using the words of Paul to navigate us through this Great Mystery and these things which he says were “kept secret since the world began“. The words of the apostle have created much confusion in the church as regards the True teachings of the Master and much of this is due to the misreading and misunderstanding of Paul’s words and his intent. However, when the sayings of Paul are properly discerned instead of being looked at only for some superficial meaning by ordinary people, they become an extension of the teaching of the Master and so serve the purpose of amplifying what He has told us. We must remember that much of the Master’s sayings are to His disciples only and this is true of His apostles as well; they are not writing to casual believers but to men who have the same desire to be ONE with God as they themselves do; Paul is speaking to disciples and aspirants and not to the average hearers of the words, Paul is speaking to doers of the words of the Christ and, as we KNOW, this is no simple matter. In his Epistle to the Romans Paul gives us much that has contributed to the doctrines and beliefs of the church and much of this is looked upon only superficially and it is this superficial look that in many cases has become doctrine. None is so apparent in this respect as these words around which has been created much doctrine; Paul says: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10). Perhaps this can be seen as a beginning but by doctrine this has been made as the end and is spoken of by many as the way and the means of being born again. Does this doctrine not make the words of the Lord of none effect? Where is this is one’s conformance with the Will of the Father and the words of the Master regarding True salvation. In a future post we will take on this saying as a part of the overall text in which it appears but for today we will take this one:
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry , Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:14-23).
The first part of this is a profound saying of much significance but, like much of the writings of the New Testament, it must be understood in the context in which it is offered. These words follow upon the idea that there is a marked difference between the carnal and the spritual man, between the body and the Spirit and that it is the focus of one’s life that results in the realization of what one is led by. He says: “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:10-13). We must understand here that the apostle is speaking to men in reference to their lives in the flesh as this is ALL that men did know in that day and these secrets that the apostle is revealing are new and mysterious to them all. From the perspective then of the flesh, if Christ is in a man then the body is dead which is a rather convoluted way of saying this truth which is that if a man realize the Christ Within, and focus upon Him then the body is dead by sin but the Spirit within becomes alive by righteousness which is the works of the man in Christ. This is much the same as our saying that it is our objective and our goal to let the Christ Within which is the God Within, the Soul, live through the consciousness replacing, or, in a strange way, becoming the Life of the personality. We should see in this also the Master’s words regarding Life in form which tell us: “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25) and again that “He that findeth his life shall loseit: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39). Both of these sayings are steeped in Jesus parabolic way of teaching and mean little to the man who does not see the reality of the Christ Life Within the form of a man.
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” This saying is taken by many to mean that one is not a son of God unless he is led by the Spirit but such a reading takes away from the words of the Master who tells us that we are ALL Sons of the ONE Father God and it is nowhere clearer than in the Lord’s Prayer which He gave to ALL men to use and which starts clearly as “Our Father which art in heaven” (Matthew 6:9, Luke 11:2). When we do relate Paul’s saying to the preceding verses we should see the RIGHT idea of what he means; he tells us in a single thought that “if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” and this is that in focusing on the Lord we come to realize that we are Truly Sons of God. In the former state of one who does “ live after the flesh“, one does not realize his divinity and any ideas of God are rather meaningless. Can we see that this combination of the words of the Master that testify of the Sonship of man and the words of the apostle that the latter must speak of the realization of such or else outwardly contradict the Master? Paul himself testifies of the overall Sonship in his speech to the Epicureans where he tells them who are considered heathen that “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God….” (Acts 17:28-29) thus declaring the ONENESS of ALL men in God. Now the church has devised doctrines to explain the differences between sons and children and offspring but these are only diversions from the Truth of the brotherhood and the divinity of ALL men which is realized when the Inner Man, the Soul, is being expressed through the form and the personality….and this is the message of these word of Paul to the Romans.
Remembering that the the body is not the man but that the man lives through the body we now move on to the next verse that speaks about the Spirit of bondage to fear and the Spirit of adoption. Again we must look at the common understanding of this and see the conflict with the Master’s words; many are taught that these words by Paul mean that when one is “led by the Spirit of God” that he is adopted as a Son of God. Again we should see the disconnect here with the Master’s words. However, when we view this with the idea of the Christ Within being the Spirit that leads the man in form, we can have a different understanding and that is the realization that being in form one is a Son of God and this is a revelation that is not realized when one is in bondage to the world. So Paul calls this happening the Spirit of adoption, he does not say that a man is adopted and he explains this word a bit further on telling is that the idea of adoption is the idea of redemption which is accomplished as the Inner Man overcomes the world. Can we understand the reality of this redemption being the forsaking of the things of the body and of the world and that in the context of this word that the act of forsaking ALL is the payment for the release of the body and the personality to the proper use by the Soul?
We will continue with these thoughts 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.
We leave yesterday’s Quote of the Day and add here another that is similar in intent insofar as we should understand what is the mission of the disciple and therefore for the aspirant as well.
And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat. (Matthew 10:7-10)
In this Quote of the Day from yesterday we find the Master’s instructions to His disciples as he sent them forth and in this we should see our own instructions which are that we do the works of God, that we teach the Truth of the Kingdom and that we serve our fellow man. What it is that we receive from the Christ Within, what is revealed to us is FREE, we must give again FREELY and it is of great importance that we must be in a attitude of forsaking, leaving ALL the things of the world behind, bringing with us only the humble nature of a True Son of God.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always , even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20) [New American Standard Version]
Here also we should see the instruction given to the disciple which is further enhanced here at the Master’s time of departure. No longer just heal and preach but make disciples of ALL through their healing and preaching; we should see here also that in His telling us to teach “them to observe all that I commanded you” that we should maintain that same understanding of giving freely and bringing to the world only the humble nature of a True Son of God. We will leave this second part again for tomorrow and discuss it a bit further and especially the fact that He told us that He is ever with us “even to the end of the age” which we should see as approaching quickly as this New Age dawns on the human family.
