IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 608

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CXCVII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren” (James 1:12-16).

It did occur to us today that some of what we say that is contrary to the established doctrines of the churches can be see as an attempt to call them wrong, misleading and misinformed. We must remember here that we are speaking about concepts and ideas that have been believed and used by the church and its many members for thousands of years and from this perspective we do not say that there is any thing wrong in the general teachings of the churches to the people. As we have ofttimes said, there is much value in teaching the people some thing about God and attempting to keep them thinking on ideas of God and this is as true today as it has ever been. However, having said this, we do say what we say because we believe, we KNOW, that in the greater scheme of God’s Plan there is much more to be considered and that in our discernment of the Master’s words we find a deeper Truth, a part of the Truth hidden behind the parables and the proverbs which, as we discussed yesterday, are as effective today in hiding the reality of the mysteries of Life and the Kingdom, as they were more than 2000 years ago when they were written. We should note that we are writing to those who see the reality of Life in a similar way to our perspective which is that we have grown beyond the everyday pronouncements of the various doctrines of the churches, beyond ideas of heaven and hell and beyond the ideas of reward and punishment for whatsoever we may do in a Life here on this Earth. We have also gone beyond the varied ideas that we should reap rewards here in this Earth Life as a part of the overall Plan of God.

We are writing to seekers and those who strive but who cannot find any sense of satisfaction in the Christian doctrines nor in the doctrines of other faiths and to those who KNOW the homogeneity of the race of men; we are writing to those who have  been moving from religious movement to religious movement both within and without their own custom. Most every world religion has a core Truth that it was intended to convey to the people to whom it was given and this Truth was in many cases intended for the time in which it was presented; however, within each there is that same intent to hide from the masses any understanding of that core Truth except they can come to that religion and find it for themselves. We use Christianity because it is the last Major Religion that was brought to the people of the Earth and we are not here discounting Islam as there IS a True relationship  between these, Christianity and Islam, that is hidden by the doctrines that are put forth by men, and, by men whose primary interest is in maintaining their own power through their religion in the world, a phenomenon that is driven by the illusion and the glamour in which we ALL live. We can see the similarities between the attitudes, the beliefs, thoughts and actions, of the churchmen of today in most all religions and the Pharisee in the day of Christ and we can sense that little of this has changed. If the Master were to come to us again today how many of the sincere Christians or Muslims or Hindus or Buddhists would come to Him and how many would deride Him and call Him a heretic based upon what He WILL come to say about the teachings of the religions up to today. And we add here to these other religions yet others that we do not list because when the Christ returns, He returns to the world, to ALL men and we MUST KNOW that He WILL NOT care not that a man call himself as a Christian or by the name of any other religious effort. By example, what are we, we preach Christ and the Buddha and Krishna and we see in ALL of these the working out of the Plan of God and, from our very limited perceptive, we can say that the Master Will have this same idea in mind when He comes.

So then our writing is not intended to dissuade the ardent follower of any particular religion or denomination or sect from their varied beliefs, it is only intended to aid and to assist those who find our words and understand them and, of course, to assist ourselves to a greater understanding of the reality of His words and the words of His apostles. Many who may come across what we write will turn away from it and see it as heresy and it is likely that the more ‘religious’ one may be, the quicker that he would turn away and while we believe that we ARE setting forth Truths and doing so in a more or less understandable way, much of what we do say is rather alien to the average reader who may KNOW only doctrine or may not care one way or the other as our understanding will take one out of his own personal comfort zone. At the same time as we feel that we should not be trying to correct the beliefs of many millions of people, we also find that there must be some words and some ideas that set forth a greater Truth and it is these ideas that we write on and, while it is unfortunate, it is necessary that we must refer to the inadequacies of doctrine in so doing.

Continuing with the word that we left off with yesterday, redemption. Here we find another word that is misunderstood in the doctrines of the churches as they relate it to the atonement that they believe is the purpose of the Life and the death of the Master. In the Life of Christ Jesus here on Earth we see a combination of instruction on the Truths of Life in a way that they can affect ALL men, we see specific teachings to His disciples so as to quickly bring them closer to His level of divine espression, His ability to express divinity, and we see His Grand Example that tells us that a man CAN walk the Earth in the Love and the Power of the Christ and be able to say with confidence that “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We should not forget that He also, by His death, teaches us of the unimportant nature of the Life in form as it relates to the Life of the True man and we should see in this the long range idea that if a man can say “I have overcome the world” that he can see the realities that the Master sees and understand. Similarly the resurrection is yet another example of this same thing, the unimportant nature of the Life in form as it relates to the Life of the True man, and here we see that the True man survives, he goes on. Behind these things is the reality of reincarnation, a subject that is only alluded to in the teachings that we have from the Master; this IS a reality that readily explains much of Life on this Earth and which is at the same time much to the chagrin of those who espouse Christian doctrine.

The word translated as redemption is the Greek word apolutrosis and we looked at this word from the perspective of Strong’s, the lexicon and Vincent in the last essay. We find that it is understood as ransom and that at the same time we see that Vincent does not agreee with this understanding as he tells us the idea of ransom is from a different Greek word. Again we have the doctrinal influence bringing meaning to words that may not properly fit but which are given nonetheless as they fit with the perspective of the early church regarding the Life and the death of Christ. We would point out here that in relation to our thoughts at the beginning of this essay we should note that the nature of man 2000 years ago when these doctrinal ideas were formulated, was as a superstitions and emotionally driven one and that some of these doctrinal ideas may have fit well with Life in those days as there would be no understanding of a greater Truth and this is likely True of the formulators as well as their intended audience. And the doctrinal influence goes further than just the theological works that we use; Webster’s gives us this among their more secular definitions in the 1828 version:  In theology, the purchase of God”s favor by the death and sufferings of Christ; the ransom or deliverance of sinners from the bondage of sin and the penalties of God”s violated law by the atonement of Christ ¹. They cite this reference from Colossians as their reasoning which was and is one of the likely sources of this understanding:

“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created , that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister” (Colossians 1:12-23).

The selected text for the doctrinal understanding of redemption is of course the few words “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” which, out of context can mean much like what they say but in these sayings as a whole is really a nebulous recounting of the meaning of the Life, death and resurrection of the Master. We should stop here and make one idea more clear for us as we move on and that is the relationship between the Christ, the Son of God, and Jesus, the personality consciousness that is born to us able to express the Awesome Power and Love of God which Power and Love IS the Christ. As we have previously said, this is not unlike our own Souls, our True selves, expressing the True Life through the body and personality that we have now in the Earth. Christ is no more Jesus that our Souls are our personalities in form but, when we are able to express the fullness that we read above as, “that in him should all fulness dwell“, we would be ONE….ONE Divine Spirit expressing that Divinity through form and thereby redeeming the form in the context of another of Webster’s definitions: Deliverance from bondage, distress, or from liability to any evil or forfeiture, either by money, labor or other means ¹. None of this takes anything away from the divinity of the Christ and His expression through Jesus and there are wonders at work here in this relationship that we cannot comprehend in our current state as men in the world.

There is much depth in this relationship of the Soul with the form and the Master, as the Christ, expressing Life through the body and the personality that is Jesus, He shares in this with us from many perspectives and this depth is the nature of Paul’s writings above. It is through the wonder and the miracle of the death and the resurrection of the Master that we are redeemed but this is not by way of ransom nor vicarious atonement, it is by way of our awakening to the reality of Life by His Life, His death and His example. Our own redemption, our own salvation if you will, still requires our own repentance and this IS how the apostle ends this segment as he reminds both them and us “to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard“. We should of course understand that this idea of “continue in the faith” is not as may be seen in doctrine, that being a Christian is enough and that we can rely on His Blood; to  “continue in the faith” should be seen in the same way as we look at the ideas of believing in and believing on the Christ that we accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life ⁴. This IS our ONLY reality of redemption, that we keep His words and do so in earnest.

And of course we KNOW and understand the True nature of forgiveness and of sin; that sin is in its totality the ways of the world as practiced by man which can range from mere focus upon things that ARE NOT of and for God to those gross acts which one man can do to the detriment of another. In the idea of forgiveness we have yet another word that is misunderstood and applied in ways that are not feasible according to our way of looking at Life. God does not forgive in the concept of the word as we understand it which is as a pardon or absolution; in fact God does not forgive at all. Nor does He redeem from the perspective of the One God overshadowing our little lives. Our forgiveness is in our own looking past what wrongs we may have done and what others may have done towards us as we realize that these are things of the flesh only, they are things of the world. We discuss our ideas on forgiveness in some detail in In the Words of Jesus part 573.

Bringing this back to where we started today, we should see that this idea of redemption as atonement is a doctrinal approach to one’s salvation and it is an attractive alternative because it does not rely upon the man in the world but rather on the Grace of God. The reality is that the man in the world must do his part and the apostle tells us this in our sayings above. There must be repentance for there to be redemption and the whole reality of this is that we must as men, as Souls expressing through form, accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life ⁴. There is no shortcut, there is no intercessor save our own Souls, our own Christ Within; we ARE each on our own.

Again we did not get to finish our thoughts on discipleship and the points below nor did we get to address the saying at the top of this essay. We should note that this redemption that we are discussing is the cause and the result of discipleship and we will continue with these thoughts in the next post.

• “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31).
• “Herein is my Father glorified , that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8).

Aspect of God	Potency	Aspect of Man	In Relation to the Great Invocation	In relation to the Christ
GOD, The Father	Will or Power	Spirit or Life	Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN	Life
Son, The Christ	Love and Wisdom	Soul or Christ Within	Heart of God	Truth
Holy Spirit	Light or Activity	Life Within	Mind of God	Way

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:

Leaving again the Great Invocation, we encourage ALL to read and reread it and our comments as in these words can be found the keys to our spiritual reality.

From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men–
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.

This prayer is a part of our Prayers and Meditations section and there is much information about it there and in our discussion of it in the Quote of the Day section of In the Words of Jesus parts 128-132

The above Invocation or Prayer does not belong to any person or group but to all Humanity. The beauty and the strength of this Invocation lies in its simplicity, and in its expression of certain central truths which all men, innately and normally, accept—the truth of the existence of a basic Intelligence to Whom we vaguely give the name of God; the truth that behind all outer seeming, the motivating power of the universe is Love; the truth that a great Individuality came to earth, called by Christians, the Christ, and embodied that love so that we could understand; the truth that both love and intelligence are effects of what is called the Will of God; and finally the self-evident truth that only through humanity itself can the Divine Plan work out.

Like the Lord’s Prayer, this invocation is a World Prayer which is as all that a prayer is intended to be. It is a prayer for the uplifting of the Human Family out of the mire of materialism and selfishness. The Lord’s Prayer asks nothing for the individual praying it but asks that its benefits be for US and for WE which is why it was given by the Christ as a prayer and as a model over 2000 years ago. This invocation is also attributed to the Christ who, as He promised, has never left us; He, through channels that we do not readily understand, has Himself instructed His disciples to distribute this prayer and to encourage its use as a world prayer and as an aid in preparing the world for His return.

The first three stanzas of this prayer should be understood as reflecting the effective potencies of the Trinity which is God and which, when brought down to an individual level, the Trinity which is Man. His Will, His Love and His Light we should see them as the Potent Powers of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit albeit on a much smaller, microcosmic, scale.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888

• ² New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com

• ³ Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001