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If the Crucifixion’s message is seen from an upside down point of view, it certainly does appear AS IF God permitted, and even encouraged, one of his Sons to suffer BECAUSE he was good.
Many very devoted ministers preach this every day. This particularly unfortunate interpretation, which actually arose out of the combined mis-projection of a large number of would-be followers, has led many people to be bitterly afraid of God.
This particularly anti-religious concept happens to enter into many religions, and this is neither by chance nor coincidence. The real Christian would have to pause and ask “how could this be?” Is it likely that God Himself would be capable of the kind of thinking which His own Words have clearly stated is unworthy of man?
The best defense, as always, is NOT to attack another’s position, but rather to protect the truth.
It is not necessary to consider anything acceptable, if you have to turn a whole frame of reference around in order to justify it. This procedure is painful in its minor applications, and genuinely tragic on a mass basis.
Persecution is a frequent result, justifying the terrible mis-perception that God Himself persecuted His own Son on behalf of salvation. The very words are meaningless. It has always been particularly difficult to overcome this because, although the error itself is no harder to overcome than any other error, men were unwilling to give it up because of its prominent escape value.
In milder forms, a parent says “This hurts me more than it hurts you,” and feels exonerated in beating a child. Can you believe that the Father REALLY thinks this way? It is so essential that all such thinking be dispelled that we must be VERY sure that NOTHING of this kind remains in your mind. Jesus was NOT punished because YOU were bad. The wholly benign lesson which the Atonement teaches is wholly lost if it is tainted with this kind of distortion in ANY form.
The Resurrection was the return to knowledge, which was accomplished by the union of Jesus’ will with the Father’s.
The purpose of the Resurrection was to “demonstrate that no amount of mis-perception has any influence at all on a Son of God.” This demonstration EXONERATES those who mis-perceive, by establishing beyond doubt that they have NOT hurt anyone.
Reacting AS IF being crucified, is a marked tendency of the separated, who ALWAYS refuse to consider what they have done to THEMSELVES.
Projection means anger, anger fosters assault, and assault promotes fear.
The real meaning of the crucifixion lies in the APPARENT intensity of the assault of some of the Sons of God upon a brother. This, of course, is impossible, and must be fully understood AS an impossibility. In fact, unless it IS fully understood as ONLY that, Jesus cannot serve as a real model for learning.
Assault can ultimately be made ONLY on the body. There is little doubt that one BODY can assault another, and can even destroy it. But if destruction ITSELF is impossible, then ANYTHING that is destructible cannot be real. Therefore, its destruction does NOT justify anger. To the extent to which you believe it DOES, you MUST be accepting false premises and TEACHING THEM TO OTHERS.
The message which the crucifixion was intended to teach was that it is not necessary to perceive ANY form of assault in persecution, because you cannot BE persecuted. If you respond with anger, you MUST be equating yourself with the destructible, and are therefore regarding yourself insanely.
Jesus made it perfectly clear that he is like you and you are like him.
But fundamental equality can be demonstrated only through joint decision. You are free to perceive yourselves as persecuted if you choose. But you might remember when you DO choose to react that way, that as the world judges Jesus WAS persecuted, he did NOT share this evaluation for himself. And because he did not share it, he did NOT strengthen it. He therefore offered a DIFFERENT interpretation of attack, one which he shares with you. If you will BELIEVE it, you will help TEACH it.
We have said before, “As you teach so shall you learn.” If you react as if you are persecuted, you ARE teaching persecution. This is not a lesson which the Sons of God should WANT to teach if they are to realize their own salvation. Rather teach your own perfect immunity, which IS the Truth in you, and KNOW that it cannot be assailed. Do not protect it yourselves, or you have believed that it IS assailable.
You are not asked to BE crucified, because that was part of Jesus’ teaching contribution.
You are merely asked to follow his example, in less extreme temptations to mis-perceive, and NOT accept them falsely as justifications for anger.
YOUR resurrection is your re-awakening. Jesus is the model for rebirth, but rebirth itself is merely the dawning on your minds of what is already in them. God placed it there Himself, and so it is true forever. Help teach it to our brothers in the name of the Kingdom of God, but first believe that it is true for you, or you will teach amiss.
The Resurrection is the complete triumph of Christ over the ego, not by attack, but by transcendence. For Christ DOES rise above the ego and all its works, and ascends to the Father and HIS Kingdom. Would you join in the Resurrection or the Crucifixion? Would you condemn your brothers, or free them? Would you transcend YOUR prison and ascend to the Father? For these questions are all the same, and are answered together.
Jesus Christ is YOUR Resurrection and YOUR life.
You live in Christ, because you live in God. And everyone lives in YOU, as YOU live in everyone. Can you then perceive unworthiness in a brother, and NOT perceive it in yourself? And can you perceive it in yourself, and NOT perceive it in God?
Believe in the Resurrection because it has BEEN accomplished, and IT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED IN YOU. This is as true now as it will ever be, for the resurrection is the Will of God, Which knows no time and no exceptions. But make no exceptions yourself, or you will not perceive what has been accomplished FOR you. For we ascend unto the Father together, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, for such is the nature of God’s Son as His Father created him.
Do not underestimate the power of the devotion of God’s Son, nor the power of the god he worships over him. For he places HIMSELF at the altar of his god, whether it be the god He made, or the God who created HIM. That is why his slavery is as complete as his freedom, for he will obey ONLY the god he accepts.
The god of the crucifixion demands that he crucify, and his worshippers obey.
In his name, they crucify THEMSELVES, believing that the power of the Son of God is born of sacrifice and pain.
The God of the Resurrection demands nothing, for He does not will to TAKE AWAY. He does not require obedience, for obedience implies submission. He would only have you learn your OWN will and follow it, not in the spirit of sacrifice and submission, but in the gladness of freedom. Resurrection must compel your allegiance gladly because it is the symbol of joy. Its whole compelling power lies in the fact that it represents what YOU want to be.
The freedom to leave behind everything that hurts you, humbles you, and frightens you, cannot be thrust upon you. But it CAN be offered you through the Grace of God. And you can ACCEPT it BY His Grace, for God IS gracious to His Son, accepting him without question as His own. Who, then is YOUR own?
The Father has given you all that is His, and He Himself is yours WITH them.
Guard them in their Resurrection, for otherwise you will not awake in God, safely surrounded by what is yours forever. You will not find peace until you have removed the nail from the hands of God’s Son, and taken the last thorn from his forehead.
The Love of God surrounds His Son, whom the god of the crucifixion condemns. Teach not that Jesus died in vain. Teach rather THAT Jesus DID NOT DIE by demonstrating that HE LIVES IN YOU. For the UNDOING of the crucifixion of God’s Son is the work of the Redemption, in which everyone has a part of equal value. God does not judge His blameless Son. Having given HIMSELF to him, how could it be otherwise?
You have nailed YOURSELF to a cross, and placed a crown of thorns upon your own head. Yet you CANNOT crucify God’s Son, for the will of God cannot die. His Son HAS BEEN redeemed from his own crucifixion, and you cannot assign to death whom God has given Eternal Life. The dream of crucifixion still lies heavy on your eyes, but what you see in dreams is not reality. While you perceive the Son of God as crucified, you are asleep. And as long as you believe that YOU can crucify him, you are only having nightmares.
You who are beginning to wake are still aware of dreams, and have not yet forgotten them.
The forgetting of dreams and the awareness of Christ comes with the awakening of others to SHARE your redemption. You will awaken to your own call, for the call to awake is WITHIN you. If Jesus lives in you, you ARE awake. But YOU must see the works he does through you, or you will not perceive that he has done them unto YOU.
Do not set limits on what you believe he can do THROUGH you, or you will not accept what he can do FOR you. For it is done ALREADY, and unless you give ALL that you have received, you will not know that your Redeemer lived, and that YOU have awakened WITH Him. Redemption is recognized ONLY by sharing it.
God’s Son IS saved. Bring only THIS awareness to the Sonship, and you will have a part in the Redemption as valuable as Jesus. For your part must be LIKE his, if you learn it of him. If you believe that YOURS is limited, YOU ARE LIMITING JESUS. There is no order of difficulty in miracles, because all of God’s Sons are of equal value, and their equality is their Oneness.
The whole power of God is in every part of Him, and nothing contradictory to His will is either great or small. What DOES NOT exist HAS no size and no measure. To God ALL things are possible. And to Christ it is given to be like the Father.
In Jesus’ Resurrection is YOUR release.
Your mission is to ESCAPE CRUCIFIXION; not Redemption. Each day, each hour and minute, even each second, you are deciding between the crucifixion and the Resurrection; between the ego and the Holy Spirit.
The ego is the choice for guilt, the Holy Spirit the decision for blamelessness. The power of decision is all that is yours. What you can decide BETWEEN is fixed, because there are no alternatives, EXCEPT truth and illusion. And there is no overlap between them, because they are opposites which CANNOT be reconciled, and CANNOT both be true.
You are guilty OR guiltless, bound OR free, happy OR unhappy. The crucifixion has no part in the Atonement. Only the Resurrection became Jesus’ part in it. THAT is the symbol of the RELEASE from guilt, by guiltlessness.
Whomever you perceive as guilty, you would crucify. But you RESTORE guiltlessness to whomever you SEE as guiltless. Crucifixion is ALWAYS the ego’s aim. It SEES AS GUILTY, and BY its condemnation, IT WOULD KILL.
The Holy Spirit sees only guiltlessness, and, in His gentleness, He would RELEASE from fear, and re-establish the reign of love. The power of love is in His gentleness, which is of God and therefore cannot crucify, nor suffer crucifixion.
The temple you restore becomes YOUR altar, for it was re-built through YOU.
And everything you give to God IS yours. Thus He creates, and thus must YOU restore. Each one you see you place, within the holy circle of Atonement, or leave outside, judging him fit for crucifixion or redemption. If you bring him INTO the circle of purity, you will rest there WITH him. If you leave him without, you JOIN him there.
Judge not, except in quietness which is NOT of you. Refuse to accept anyone as WITHOUT the blessing of Atonement, and bring him INTO it by blessing him. Holiness MUST be shared, for therein lies everything that makes it holy. Come gladly to the holy circle, and look out in peace on all who think they are outside. Cast no-one out, for this is what HE seeks along with you.
Come, let us join him in the him in the holy place of peace, which is for all of us, united as one, within the cause of peace. Give each other faith, for faith and hope and mercy ARE yours to give. Into the hands that give, the gift is given. Look on your brother, and see in him the gift of God you would RECEIVE.
Easter is the time of Resurrection. Let us give redemption to each other, and SHARE in it, that we may rise as one in resurrection, and not SEPARATE in death.
Related topics: Jesus’s Crucifixion and New Body Illusion | Easter for Celebrating Eternal Life