Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part CXLVI

“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).

Returning to our quote above that has been with us for many days and in hope that it could be read and reread; in this is contained an glimpse of the Apostle Paul’s understanding of the reality and the Truth of Life in form which has been buried by the doctrines, the dogmas and the many theologies of the church for more than 2000 years. In this we should see the reality of man’s relationship with God and that from the perspective of the man in form, the personality consciousness that is independent of the Soul until such time as the consciousness is awakened to His promptings, that he is Truly a Son of God on Earth when he is Truly led by the Spirit. This being led is not the common assumption of the churches, one of assent and ritual, but it is Truly following the precepts of the Master in ALL things and, until ALL things are accomplished the sincere man is, like we are, an aspirant. The idea of adoption is that realization that a man is ONE with the Father and is no longer in fear of anything of the world of men;  Paul goes on to tell us that we can KNOW that we have arrived because our very Spirit is alive in form; we no longer look at Life as the man in form but as the Soul, the Christ Within working and living through that form and this is the only testimony that one will need. In this state a man KNOWS that he is ONE with Christ, ONE with God and ONE with ALL men and in this state of being “joint-heirs with Christ” we take upon ourselves His mantle and His glory.

The apostle tells us that in our suffering, if in today’s world this can still be called suffering, we should take rest and this on the promise of the glory that awaits us as fully formed Sons of God. If we can see Paul as speaking to us as aspirants as well as to those citizens of Rome and telling us these things, we may be able to see also the idea of suffering in the forsaking of ALL for the Master and for the Life of our own Christ Within against the promise of the Glory of a Son of God, this would be seen in the Light of being Christlike and perfect in the world. Paul goes on to explain that the entirety of the creation as well as the creature man himself is earnestly waiting for this revelation of God in man and we KNOW that this is both the goal and the completion of our work in form. He tells us further that this creation and this creature both were subjected to the vanity of Life which we see for ourselves as the illusion and the glamour in which we live in this world and he tells us that this is “not willingly” but rather “but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope” which is OUR GOD and His Plan; God being the Him and reason being in the Plan that brings about this union of man and his God. We stop here to pursue our thought of the day which lies hidden in this last phrase above and in the interpretations of this as they relate to the draconian doctrines of original sin and of the fall of man.

Vincent tells us regarding the saying that: By reason of Him who hath subjected (dia ton upotaxanta). God, not Adam nor Satan. Paul does not use the grammatical form which would express the direct agency of God, by Him who hath subjected, but that which makes God’s will the occasion rather than the worker – on account of Him. Adam’s sin and not God’s will was the direct and special cause of the subjection to vanity. The supreme will of God is thus removed “to a wider distance from corruption and vanity” (Alford)⁴. In this we see the doctrinal approach, that it is the sin of Adam that is the cause of the vanity of which Paul speaks. This says that because of Adam’s sin the creature and the creation is subjected to this illusion and this glamour that they call vanity. There are many problems in taking this story of creation and the Garden of Eden at is literal value and much of it make little or no sense when properly discerned which we see in the proper understanding that man is in the Truest sense a Spirit and a Trinity and not the animal form that he takes upon this Earth. These thoughts are interwoven into most all of scripture; the Master has told us clearly that they are hidden in His parables saying to the disciples that “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). Unfortunately man has, through this same glamour and illusion, perceived himself to be among the disciples without ever achieving their High Calling through keeping the Master’s words…..ALL of them. In this state many believe that they understand the parables and the teachings and they fail to see the reality of His words. There is yet so much that even we, as True aspirants to discipleship, do not see in His words and much that we likely misunderstand but we have taken a great step in breaking away from archaic doctrines and dogma and coming into the reality that it is ALL about LOVE and about our interactions with our fellow man. This has ever been His message and to accomplish this Love is the True salvation of each of us and it is the stepping stone to that greater glory, “the glorious liberty” that the apostle speaks of above. And we should see also that it is not only in the Master’s words that we can find the Truth but it is in the properly discerned sayings of His apostles and there are few sayings that are more revealing than this one which we are working with from Paul.

So what is the fall of man and what is original sin? These are but doctrinal terms that were originated centuries ago by men who were trying to interpret and understand the mysteries of the Kingdom and who either did not have the proper understanding or else purposely built a doctrine that could be related to the common man. It matters not which, it only matters that we understand that the superstition and the emotional nature of the writer from the past need not color the future, that there are thinking men in the world today who, if they can look past the doctrines of yesterday, can formulate the teaching reality of tomorrow. The central point of the idea of the fall of man and original sin is found in the cryptic writings of Paul and we call these cryptic because we have not the foundation upon which to understand them properly insofar as his intent is concerned. When we believe that man is Spirit then we must believe that the creation of man, insofar as Genesis is concerned, is that creation of man as a Spirit and, if we believe that Spirit is eternal with God, and this is the Truer reality, then we must believe that the Soul is the creation of which Genesis speaks. We should remember here our discussion that proclaims that the Soul is the manifestation of the Spirit and that the expression of the Soul in form is the Holy Spirit thereby establishing the Trinity of man. We should also see here that no matter what one may believe regarding the Spirit and the Soul, one can be sure that the creation of God is not the form on Earth but it is the Life in the form and this Life, this Spirit and this Soul is ever pure and unblemished. What does Paul tell us in our saying above but that this Soul, as the creature in form possessing consciousness and Life, “was made subject to vanity, not willingly” and in this we should see that this vanity, this illusion and glamour, are inherent in Life in form on the Earth. Beyond this we cannot go insofar as understanding the reasons for our Life in form except to say that our goal is to free ourselves from this Life and this is “the glorious liberty of the children of God“; the liberty of discipleship and the liberty of His Kingdom.

In this same Epistle to the Romans Paul says that “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12) and this saying is one of the fundamental sayings that lead to the various doctrines of the churches regarding the fall of man. If we read this in the Light of the sayings above instead of in the doctrines originated by the 2nd-century Bishop of Lyon Irenaeus* we can learn much. Man, according to the saying above is subjected to vanity and not willingly and this by the very fact that he is in the world and thus Paul sees this as “by one man sin entered into the world“. This is a logical fact then and the idea of “death by sin” is a realty because of the very nature of the vanity which is the illusion and the glamour, a great part of which is believing that this world is the reality of Life. And so this is the start, and all men then coming into this world follow through this same ‘death‘ and this same ‘sin‘ which is this vanity and this being ‘lost’ in the world of illusion and glamour. Here man begins the long and arduous process of escaping from this illusion which is done by the action of the Soul who slowly takes control of the Life and consciousness of the man in form building upon the accomplishments of Life after Life, being ever more capable of taking the attention of his own consciousness that is living within the personality away from the deception afforded by the illusion and the glamour and putting that attention onto the True Self, the Christ Within and onto God. A great key to this all is found in the apostles words “was made subject to vanity, not willingly” and that following part that says “by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope” which we should be able to see as God and His Plan which is in all respects the Will of God.

So we take the cryptic words of Paul to the Romans and combine them with the even more cryptic words of the Book of Genesis which we should remember is written for a people of long ago whose ability to understand was much limited when compared to our own, and we get the beginnings of doctrines and dogma that are believed yet today by many. More important however are those who cannot accept these archaic teachings nor those about heaven and hell nor Satan and his angels and who seek answers elsewhere and often from people who understand even less than they do themselves. The reality of ALL is in the words of the Master and there is no more complete treatise than the New Testament and it is in the acceptance by man of the words of the Christ that there is True salvation and True freedom but these are Life changing instructions and commandments that are dissipated by the illusions offered by the churches and the cults of the East and the West, and of the psychic and the occult. The reality of the words of the Master have the Power to shatter the illusion and dissipate the glamour and end the deception and it is only in teaching His truths that the world will begin to change. Do not misunderstand our words here, there is NO Christian requirement and one need never to open a bible or be baptized or confirmed, one needs only to follow in His teachings which is the same as the teachings of ALL great Sons of God with one exception. In Christ is the fullness of ALL, the last word if you will, which is no longer wrapped up solely in one’s own progress on the Path but rather on the brotherhood and the Love for ALL men and the service to be rendered to aid our fellowman.

Getting back now to our discussion of Paul’s saying at the top of the page, we come to the climax, the finale of his message. He tells us that “the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” and in this we should remember that the creature IS us and in some instances it IS the creation and in yet others it IS both. Here the apostle is speaking about the man, as the aspirant and the disciple in form, living through the conscious personality and in the “bondage of corruption” which is the vanity to which he was subjected by the Plan of God. He tells us that we “shall be delivered”  as this is our destiny and this shall be into the “glorious liberty of the children of God” which is our salvation in the Kingdom of God here and now. The rest of Paul’s words here regard the nature of the creation itself and the creature as well; he notes the pain and the tribulation of Life in form and he points us to the adoption which we should understand as the Soul’s ability to overcome the world and live through the form thereby creating a Son of God on Earth. This same thing is “the redemption of our body“.

We have finally finished with our comments and our interpretation of these words to the Romans by Paul and hope that in this lengthy process we have come to see the depth of the apostle’s words and that sans the doctrine there is a reality in them that is missed by most ALL the church and which is a key for our understanding of the mysteries of Life and of the Kingdom. It is in this kind of understanding that we grow and it is in this context that the Master tells us that “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath” (Matthew 13:12). What does this say but that with understanding comes more understanding and this because we are thinking of the things of God and without understanding we are lost in the illusion and without using one’s understanding we sink ever deeper into it.

We intended to complete our thoughts on our keynote from the last post, the saying by the Master that “But many that are first shall be last; and the last first” (Mark 10:31) and we will try to get to this in the next one. We should note here the relative similarity of this saying and the saying above, we will explore this in a future 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.

Values to Live By

A Love of Truth—essential
for a just, inclusive and progressive society;

A Sense of Justice—recognition
of the rights and needs, of all.

Spirit of Cooperation—based
on active goodwill and the principle of right human
relationships;

A Sense of Personal Responsibility—for
group, community and national affairs;

Serving the Common Good— through
the sacrifice of selfishness. Only what is good for all
is good for each one.

The world of the future depends on what each one of us chooses to do today.

We leave this Quote of the Day again for today with the hope that we can discuss these important points in the next post. We should remember here the premise that we presented near the beginning of our posting of this Quote of the Day: It is interesting to note that the ideas of the Quote of the Day embody much of the Master’s teachings and can set the stage for the beginning of each man’s revelation and realization of the Light of the Soul; that is, that by the intentional practice of these ‘rules’ of conduct one can put himself in the position of a follower of the Master and an keeper of His word and this regardless if he has ever heard of the Christ or wants to be affiliated with any ideas Christian. By keeping these sound principals of Life in mind and practicing them a man can lift himself up above and beyond the world of men and into the world of the Good, the Beautiful and the True as it exists for those in whom the Christ Within, the God Within, is awakened. Ponder on this.

In accord with the ideas that we close with above we bring again to your attention the ideas by which a man should Live. This Quote of the Day is the realty of how we should focus our lives and in so doing, all the other things alluded to above will take care of themselves and this is a great part of the selfless attitude of the disciple and his ability to forsake ALL.

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
• * Wikipedia contributors. “Original sin.”  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 Jun. 2012.