IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 610

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CXCIX

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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).

In the last post we discussed our thoughts on redemption and we tied it to the both the idea of repentance and to translation; we also held out the idea that the Truth of redemption as spoken of by Paul in his Epistle to the Romans may be found in the final act of overcoming the body nature….Transfiguration. From our perspective we painted the a process of our unveiling of our divine nature:

• Beginning with that change that the Master and the Baptist call us to accomplish, repentance, we find the admonition to do this as a starting point. We read:
  • “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying , Repent ye : for the kingdom of heaven is at hand“. We should see this as the Baptist heralding the mission of the Master as Matthew goes on to tell us saying: “For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Matthew 3:1-3). This is a beginning point of the gospels as they tell us of John’s preaching and his prophetic appearance. The Baptist himself tells us this same when he is questioned by the Pharisees saying: “He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias” (John 1:23).
  • The Master as well is preaching this repentance as He begins His ministry; Matthew tells us: “From that time Jesus began to preach , and to say , Repent : for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Jesus also tells us of His mission saying that “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). We have then the Baptist beginning the work of calling the world to repentance, to change from what they were believing and doing to the new dispensation that the Christ is to bring and then we have the Master picking up in this same place and acknowledging His mission. Although the Master does not make comments of this nature as His ministry proceeds, the idea of repentance does not lose its flavor as we read His thoughts on the importance of repentance as He tells us such things as: “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance” (Luke 15:7).

We should remember here that this idea of repentance IS NOT that simple sorrowful nature one may take for a wrong done as it is perceived by many; repentance IS that change of heart that brings a man from a focus upon the self and the world to focus upon God. We should not be fooled the the wording of the dialogue between the Master and Peter regarding forgiveness: “And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying , I repent ; thou shalt forgive him” (Luke 17:4). The subject here is forgiveness, and though the wording gives the idea of repentance as that sorrowful nature, this is not necessarily True as the man in this hypothetical story is not Truly repenting, he is rather going back again and again to the same behavior; he is only “saying, I repent“. The Master’s message is that we should forgive regardless and we do not KNOW here if the offending party is sincere or not, nor does it matter. Such then is repentance, it is the beginning of our journey back to God, to our right focus upon the Soul and the Christ Within.

Repentance is the act of changing and in our next word we should try to see and to understand the effect of this change of heart, this change of our focus from the world to God. This word is Translation:

• Translation is a word which is an idea not often used in the scriptures. We took this word in the last post from the words of the Apostle Paul who speaks about it in relation to redemption. As we read yesterday, the apostle says: “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” (Colossians 1:12-14). Now we KNOW that this idea of translation is a deeply spiritual enterprise by the way that Paul uses the term in saying that God “hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son“; here we see that idea that we are brought into His Kingdom by translation. Looking at this as we did in the last post we should try to see that repentance is the change that brings us to the strait gate that opens into the  Kingdom. We should also understand that this is a spiritual endeavor and not a physical one and we understand this in the context of the Master’s words that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). Can we see the idea here of that this translation IS the result of changing the focus and the success thereof? Can we understand that the consciousness which was under the influence and the control of the personality in the world is now under the influence of the Soul; it is translated? Our very point of view is translated from the one focus to the other. Vincent tells us that the Greek word that is rendered as translated here should be seen as: Translated (metesthsen). The word occurs five times in the New Testament: of putting out of the stewardship, Luke xvi. 4; of the removal of Saul from the kingdom, Acts xiii. 22; of Paul turning away much people, Acts xix. 26; and of removing mountains, 1 Cor. xiii. 2. A change of kingdoms is indicated ⁴. From the varied use here one can see that there is not a single understanding of this word but, as the King James Translators show us, this is the better understanding of the intent of the apostle. There is a similar word used in the Epistle to the Hebrews; the author here is speaking about an idea of translation from the Old Testament and tells us: “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found , because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5). Here we see the same idea of the passing of one from the world to the Kingdom and while this is worded such that this is a bodily translation, we should yet remember that “the kingdom of God is within you“; it is difficult to say what actually happens to Enoch based upon this brief saying about him: “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). 

We have then repentance leading to translation or that change of focus from the things of the world to the things of God which leadis by degree to that state of being where the focus IS fixed upon the spiritual and the divine. At what point, at what degree, repentance becomes translation is unclear and it is likely an individual accomplishment that can vary from man to man as there is much to be considered regarding the way of Life for any individual. We should remember here that these are but words which can show us the correspondence between what we experience in our own lives and what we read in scripture; they serve no other real purpose in our journey as we follow the Master’s words, that we strive and we keep His words in an ever increasing way. We were brought to this discussion by the word used in Paul’s epistles: redemption and this is our next topic here today:

• Paul uses this word in two contexts which are different but in which we can find the common thread. In our much used saying he relates redemption to the adoption which word we see as we pointed out in the last essay; our ONENESS with God. Let us here look as some of the apostles uses of this idea:
  • From much used saying we have: “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). Here we have the foundation for our understanding of this word as it relates to our ONENESS with God or our accomplishment of the goal of True discipleship and the Kingdom. Speaking as a disciple and to disciples, Paul is telling them that the journey is not yet done; the adoption is yet to come, the ONENESS that IS “the redemption of our body” Here we see a reality that is enjoyed by at least some of the apostles and which we have indicated in previous posts as the totality of KNOWING that one IS a Son of God and who able to do the greater things that the Master tells us of; able to move the mountain. We should not be fooled here by the apostles modest approach to this in His writings. Can we see this redemption as the reality of the fullness of the Love and the Power of the Soul, the Christ Within, flowing through the form of the man in the world; can we see here how every cell, every molecule can be figuratively lifted into heaven?
  • In the other saying that we have been discussing which we were brought to by this word redemption we read: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins“. We discussed the whole of this group of sayings in some detail in the last post and we will not repeat this here other than to point out and remind us that the reality of this saying IS IN THE CONTEXT that it is given in. We do have redemption but it is not a gift as it is understood by many through doctrine; redemption for us is a goal and an accomplishment and the apostle tells us that “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” (Colossians 1:14, 23). It is our role to become “unblameable and unreproveable in his sight“, it is our role to “continue in the faith grounded and settled“; no one can do this for us and the reward, if we can use that term, IS redemption.
  • Peter also gives us some words on redemption that can add to our insight; he tells us: “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:14-23) We must note the context of the apostle’s words here which is discoverable in the end verses where he is telling us that those to whom he is speaking are disciples; they are “born again….by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever“. It is these that are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ“.

As we did say in the last post, we should try to see that in the single word blood we have the entirety of the Life, death and resurrection of the Master and not just the blood of the crucifixion which is what much of the Christian world is fixated upon; this is an important point for us to remember as we read these and other scripture on the blood and on redemption. The idea of the vicarious atonement as a concept is carried over from the Old Testament; it is only made applicable to the Christ and the redemption by His blood by the early Church Fathers; it is not written this way by the apostles and while some of their sayings on this are confusing, they do not tell us of atonement as the purpose. It is tradition compounded by words like we see from Peter above that create this idea that the blood of the Christ is man’s ticket to salvation; his saying that redemption is “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” does not equate the Master with the atonement offered by the sacrifice of animals.

So then we have here these three words repentance, translation and redemption and, as we said in the last essay and allude to here again in our saying above, the reality of this redemption is the result of keeping His words; it IS True discipleship and it IS one’s attainment of the Kingdom of God; it is that state of being where the Light of the Soul flows freely and constantly through one’s Life in form and the effulgence of this can be likened to the Transfiguration which we should see as the pinnacle of our experience here on this Earth.

We will continue with our thoughts and will again try to get back to these sayings below 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!

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