Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CCXIX

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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There are several renditions of the resurrection of the Master in the four gospels and again we would say that the differences are based upon what the writers recollect as well as what seems most important to the them individually, how they saw and heard the unfolding drama. The greatest reality here is however that HE IS RISEN which is the second and perhaps more important part of the whole of the story for as men can who understand His words regarding their sameness with Him and their ability to do as He has done, His resurrection will implant in their carnal minds the reality of eternal Life; and, in our view, this IS ever the Master’s intent. Again we must say that the whole of the instructions and the examples of the Master and His apostles are to create of us, as men in form in the world, disciples, and it IS in being His disciple that we can gain the Greater Glory of Truly following Him. There are many sayings and hints and clues to this reality in the gospels and the epistles and these are interpreted in many ways as history has shown but, for us who can glimpse His Greater Reality and put aside the doctrines and the traditions to which we may have been exposed and subjected, we can see the Truth in His parables and proverbs and we can understand the hints and the clues as they point us to the Path to the Kingdom of God.

The Master tells of the Greater things that we can do saying “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; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12) and in this we should remember our understanding of the Master’s intent and the reality of “He that believeth on me” which we take from Vincent’s words saying: To believe in, or on, is more than mere acceptance of a statement. It is so to accept a statement or a person as to rest upon them, to trust them practically; to draw upon and avail one’s self of all that is offered to him in them. Hence to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is not merely to believe the facts of His historic life or of His saving energy as facts, but to accept Him as Savior, Teacher, Sympathizer, Judge; to rest the soul upon Him for present and future salvation, and to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life ⁴. We should understand that the Master IS speaking with His disciples these words from John’s Gospel and that the interpretation of the words believe on and believe in according to Vincent will describe the way of the disciple and we read more in this Light from the synoptic gospels where we e are told as well that it is as disciples that we can realize these ideas. The Master tells us: “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.  It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord” (Matthew 10:24-25) and there is no parable here in these words that tell us that the disciple CAN “be as his master“. Luke tells this a bit differently for us saying: “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40) and here we have a KEY word to True discipleship in perfect which signifies for us that a man IS accounted worthy of His Kingdom and of discipleship. In our understanding from both these we see that we ARE “as He is” and that the realization of this IS only found in discipleship. In the teachings of the Apostle John, he tells us such as he defines for us the Truth of discipleship from the perspective of Love saying “as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). We could go on to other scripture that gives us these sayings, hints and clues to the reality of discipleship but the above should suffice for us to see that we can do as He did and be as He IS which is our premise as to the lesson and the teaching that we should find in His resurrection but only if we view it as aspirants and disciples and away from the established doctrines.

So here we continue with the Master’s example that His own death IS NOT the end but a beginning as He shows us in His resurrection, and the sayings, hints and clues found in this Easter story can show us that the resurrection of the Master IS NOT a matter of taking up the body of Jesus and continuing that Life but it IS rather His ability as a Soul that had been fully expressing through form, expressing “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9), to take up form, any form, at will. We should see here that this resurrection is within our own ability to do as He did but the greater lesson is in the reality that the Soul, the Inner Man, has survived the experience of death and for the True disciple and the man accounted worthy of the Kingdom, death on this Earth is a Truly New Beginning and for the Soul that has attained True perfection in his Life in form, there IS that unique ability to move the mountain. So our sense of Greater Works should be seen to include resurrection as viewed in the proper Light and we should understand that the precursor to this is our death, not the death of the physical body only but our ability to be as the Apostle Paul describes the True disciple saying: “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:24). This is the reality of crucifixion for us and the Master’s extreme example is to show us that it IS NOT this Life in form that is of importance but the Inner Life of a Son of God. Jesus showed us the unimportant nature of Life in flesh in the world by His teachings and the example of His own Life as well as the examples offered by His disciples and He showed us by His death on the Cross this same thing as well in giving the world the needed hope through seeing that death IS NOT the end; and we should see the intent is that we should see that to follow the former, by keeping His words, we are assured of the latter….then death can be for us a New Beginning as well.

We ended the last post with a chapter from the prophesies of Isaiah that are understood to be in regard to the Christ and are a prediction of the way that the Master would be seen in His time on this Earth by the Jews in general and we should understand that this IS  a prophecy and that it is not intended to set forth any more than Isaiah’s vision and his understanding of his vision and in this view we can see the reality of what happens and we can see as well how this is presented to the Jews as a people that do not have the same vision of Life that we, as aspirants, have here today. The view of Isaiah’s words in his day and the view of them in Christs day are likely largely the same and it is these ideas that were taken up by doctrine in that time when the early Church Fathers set it forth. Little has changed in doctrine since these days and the view of the vicarious atonement which is aided by the words of the prophet persist. We covered much of this as we spoke about the Master’s death but here we should take up again a part of Isaiah’s words which say: “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6). We should try to see this in a less worldly way than it is commonly viewed and from this more divine perspective we can see that the Master, that Great Soul who can express the Love and the Power of the Godhead through form; “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows” and this from the perspective of the Highest Disciple who looks out at His brothers in form and their agony and confusion. And when we look at the ideas behind “he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities” we can see them in this same Light, that the Master came among us as a servant to help us to the reality of Life, but men could not see this reality and in the self-righteousness of the men in that day, they condemned and crucified Jesus to cover the “transgressions” and the “iniquities” that He exposed in them through His Life and His teachings. And, as to the other ideas, ideas in the view of the Master as “stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” and that “the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all“, we should try to see this is spoken from a worldly perspective of the man Jesus in form who physically suffers these things for us as He does His duty for the Plan of God. We can look at this as much doctrine does or we can see the reality that in His own state and in His own saying that “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30), these ideas of Him being forsaken can not hold and, at the same time, we should see that the forsaking of the body nature is a reality. We must remember here to whom the prophet speaks; while the Master and His apostles are speaking and writing to us as aspirants and disciples, the prophet is speaking to the Jews and to their rulers.

Seeing that there is variance in the way that the ideas of His resurrection are told in the gospels and understanding that from our perspective the simple fact of His resurrection will suffice, we cite here the version from the Gospel of Mark:

“And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled  and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen” (Mark 16:1-14).

The points made here are that the Master is Risen and this causes a fear in the women which is recorded by Matthew differently saying “And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo , I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word” (Matthew 28:2-8). Our point here is to show that fear that comes upon them seeing the empty tomb and the words of the angel or the young man sitting therein as well as to again point out that the apostles here are writing what they recollect and what they understand to have happened and, in our reality it matters not that there IS or IS NOT an earthquake nor an angel. What matters is that HE IS RISEN and that it is now KNOWN to the women.

Looking again, as we did in our essays concerning the Master’s death, we note that there is still a lack of understanding among the disciples of the Master and this we see above as Mark tells us that of the significance of this saying that the Master “upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen“. John tells us in this context that “Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home” (John 20:8-10). Here we should note two things, one that goes to our comments in the last essay regarding John and his own speaking about Judas and his own motivations in so speaking  and then in this saying we see that he is the first to the sepulcher and he tells us that  it is he who believes while he continues to say of the others that “as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead“. Our point here is not to disparage the apostle in any way but to point out again that these men, these apostles, still harbor thoughts of the self in the world and are still somewhat subject to the illusion and the glamour in which we ALL live. For us there can be an uplifting understanding of our own way in the world as we view the resistance to the full spiritual nature that the carnal world offers to both the Apostle Peter and John and while we ofttimes show Peter as being our example to discipleship from our view of His trials and tribulations in conforming to the True ways of discipleship according to the Master. Here and in our observations in the last essay we can get a similar view of the Life of John although what we see here is that in these parts of His gospel writings, that he still has a somewhat worldly view of some things. What we see here is that this road to the Kingdom and to discipleship is not an easy one to tread and this IS of course as the Master tells us it will be saying clearly “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:3-14) and again, as reported by Luke, the Master tells us: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24). Here we KNOW the way is hard, it is difficult, but at the same time we see it as possible, that the apostles of the Lord are not in that final stage of perfect, that there are still attitudes and thoughts and behaviors that they must work on and deal with and herewith is our uplifting understanding. While there is no certainty to the estimates of the time that any of the Gospels are written nor the actual timing of the epistles, we can see a marked differences from our perspective in the thoughts and the attitudes of the Apostle John from the gospels to the epistles which suggests for us that the apostle continues his own spiritual growth and continues his own advancement in his ability to expresses the fullness of his Soul, his Christ Within, through his form. Here in John’s Life we have only our assumptions to guide us but in the Life of Peter we have the testimony of Luke in the Book of Acts that tells us of Peter’s completeness as a disciple, a disciple who could heal merely by his proximity.

And this IS the purpose of the Life and the death and the resurrection of the Master, that we would see the reality of His teachings by His own example and by the example that we see in the lives of His apostles and we close here today saying what we have said before; it is not the body of Jesus that is resurrected, it is the Spirit of the Lord and the Christ who can at His will take up form and, as we see in scripture this is not necessarily Jesus’ form and His form had not at ALL times the solid nature of a form of this world:

• Above in the resurrection story as told by Mark we read: “After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them” and while this different form is not identified it is likely the same as we will see in the next point as reported by Luke.
• Luke tells us “And, behold, two of them went  that same day to a village called  Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together  of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there  in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in  deed and word before God and all the people: And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside  all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and  all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.  And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished  out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.  And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you” (Luke 24:13-36). Now while doctrine may hold to the simple words that “their eyes were holden that they should not know him” to show why the Master is not recognized, our reality is very different and includes our Truth that the changing forms as reported here and above in Mark’s Gospel are a part of His intent that we should understand the reality of Life if we can discern it from His words. We should also see that “he vanished  out of their sight” and that in the words from Luke above “as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them” we see Him in the form of Jesus which we read as well in Mark above that “he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat“.
• In John’s version of the resurrection story we read this account of Mary’s encounter with the Master: “And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master” (John 20:14-16). Here again we have a one who KNOWS Jesus yet cannot recognize Him after the resurrection because He has a different appearance and not as some may believe saying that she is afraid and confused. Here again in John’s Gospel we get an understanding of the Master’s use of form as we are told “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you” (John 20:19)

For us this is the reality of the True story of the Resurrection of the Master and the lessons that are in His death and His resurrection can be seen rather clearly if we can look away from doctrine and tradition.

HAPPY EASTER

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

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!

• ² New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com

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