Monthly Archives: October 2012

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART LXXIII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live , ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:13-26).

We have exchanged our lead verses for the next part of this Fourteenth Chapter of the Gospel of John. We add here above the two lead verses that were not a part of our presentation yesterday and in these two lines of text is much misunderstanding in the Christian world. The idea here of “in my name” has become a rallying cry in prayer and for so many things and this with the thought that using the name of Jesus, saying ‘in the name of Jesus’ activates some special principal. There are two things here that we must remember; the first is that the Master is speaking to His disciples alone and it is these men of High Calling that the privilege of asking in His name is accorded; not from the perspective of a call in prayer but by the the activity of the Christ Within in the Life which IS, the Holy Spirit. Our second point here is that as a True disciple, one who has accomplished the requirements of being a disciple, the man is no longer interested in anything of the world of things or of the self but only in the Truly spiritual which would per force extend the desires of the disciple to others for their aid and for their benefit. The doctrines of the churches have however extended this to the physical realm and to the asking in the name of the Lord for things for the self and, while some may achieve results and consider that it is the prayer in His name that is responsible, many more get no response. It is here that there can be a sense of judgement regarding one’s own position and perhaps even feelings that are contrary to the idea of the Apostle Peter who tells us that “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34).

Vincent addresses this idea of “in my name” from a more True but still doctrinal perspective. Let us look at his ideas starting with the first use of this phraseology in Matthew’s Gospel where we read: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). On the use here of “in the name” Vincent tells us:

• In the name (eiv to onoma). Rev., correctly, “into the name.” Baptizing into the name has a twofold meaning.

1. Unto, denoting object or purpose, as eijv metanoian, unto repentance (Matt. iii. 11); eijv afesin aJmartiwn, for the remission of sins (Acts ii. 38).
2. Into, denoting union or communion with, as Rom. vi. 3, “baptized into Christ Jesus; into his death;” i.e., we are brought by baptism into fellowship with his death. Baptizing into the name of the Holy Trinity implies a spiritual and mystical union with him. Eijv, into, is the preposition commonly used with baptize. See Acts viii. 16; xix. 3, 5; 1 Corinthians i. 13, 15; x. 2; Gal. iii. 27. In Acts ii. 38, however, Peter says, “Be baptized upon (epi) the name of Jesus Christ; and in Acts x. 48, he commands Cornelius and his friends to be baptized in (en) the name of the Lord. To be baptized upon the name is to be baptized on the confession of that which the name implies: on the ground of the name; so that the name Jesus, as the contents of the faith and confession, is the ground upon which the becoming baptized rests. In the name (en) has reference to the sphere within which alone true baptism is accomplished. The name is not the mere designation, a sense which would give to the baptismal formula merely the force of a charm. The name, as in the Lord’s Prayer (“Hallowed be they name”), is the expression of the sum total of the divine Being: not his designation as God or Lord, but the formula in which all his attributes and characteristics are summed up. It is equivalent to his person. The finite mind can deal with him only through his name; but his name if of no avail detached from his nature. When one is baptized into the name of the Trinity, he professes to acknowledge and appropriate God in all that he is and in all that he does for man. He recognized and depends upon God the Father as his Creator and Preserver; receives Jesus Christ as his only Mediator and Redeemer, and his pattern of life; and confesses the Holy Spirit as his Sanctifier and Comforter.⁴  

We should see here that there is, in Vincent’s mind, some force of spirituality required for this idea of name to have any power. He correctly ascertains that The name is not the mere designation, a sense which would give to the baptismal formula merely the force of a charm. The name, as in the Lord’s Prayer (“Hallowed be they name”), is the expression of the sum total of the divine Being ⁴. This part is important to the refuting of the common understanding of using His name but the more important parts are found in Vincent’s idea on baptism which, if one can accomplish, makes of him a disciple or, at a minimum, a high aspirant. Breaking Vincent’s words away from the doctrine we can see him saying that same thing that we often relate to regarding the True meaning of believing in or believing on; that we accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life ⁴. We see this in the idea of the man when he professes to acknowledge and appropriate God in all that he is which we take on the more personal level of the God Within. This is perhaps clearer when we look at Vincent’s ideas from our verse above; he says there that:

• In my name. The first occurrence of the phrase. See on Matthew xxviii. 19. Prayer is made in the name of Jesus, “if this name, Jesus Christ, as the full substance of the saving faith and confession of him who prays, is, in his consciousness, the element in which the prayerful activity moves; so that thus that Name, embracing the whole revelation of redemption, is that which specifically measures and defines the disposition, feeling, object, and contents of prayer. The express use of the name of Jesus therein is no specific token; the question is of the spirit and mind of him who prays” (Meyer). Westcott cites Augustine to the effect that the prayer in Christ’s name must be consistent with Christ’s character, and that He fulfills it as Savior, and therefore just so far as it conduces to salvation. ⁴

Again we are here steeped in the traditions and in the doctrines of the churches but if we can relate what Vincent, Meyer, Wescott and Augistine say to our ideas of the Christ Within, we can come closer to the reality of the words of the Master. From our text above we recognize that the asking is not for the self and that the asking is by the one who is the disciple and this fits rather well with the words of Vincent above and Meyer places this well into our sphere saying that The express use of the name of Jesus therein is no specific token; the question is of the spirit and mind of him who prays. This IS the reality of the idea of name and of asking although our understanding of the selflessness of one’s actions in His name is a difficult thing for the Christian world to accept based on their overall perception of Life itself.

To take this yet a step further we go back to what we said in the last post which, while in a different context, has the same meaning; we said: We can carry this thought as well to the Master’s saying that “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26) and then again to His saying that “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23). Of course, we must understand that in this latter saying the idea of believing IS NOT as is commonly thought but is as we have presented from Vincent’s writings; that we accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life ⁴,

Using this and our discussion above we build our point which is that the Master IS speaking of the Christ and the God within and is not indicating that we should use the name but that we should take on the person, the character, of the Christ Within as our expression in the world. This is of course ever our contention and here we see it from the twofold perspective of taking on the person and the character which is but the result of the fact that we accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life and the understanding that we get from the Master regarding the ability of the Soul infused man, the man who IS expressing the Light of the Soul through his form in the world. The Master tells us that “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” and in this is our understanding that the reality of the use of His name is not in the saying, but rather in the BEING which, again, starts with fact that we accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life. And we must remember that these words are the definition of believing in and believing on the Christ.

Of course we should understand this idea of “all things are possible to him that believeth” has a defining relationship with the Master’s words that “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” which should serve to connect the dots for us regarding God and the God Within. It is “him that believeth” who is expressing the God Within and it is not the man in form and hence we hear the Master say that things that are impossible to the man that is grounded in the world and on the self are possible to the man that is grounded in God and through whom the Christ Within is his expression.

We close here with what should be the realized result of ALL of this and that is a better and a greater understanding of the Master’s words telling us that “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12). The asking in His name becomes rather automatic when we believe on the Master from the perspective of keeping His words and following Him or, as Vincent tells us, that we accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life.