Chapter 22
JESUS CHRIST
Charles Fillmore
Dynamics For Living
JESUS was the Man of Nazareth, son of Mary. According to present-day belief
He is the Savior of mankind. Metaphysically He is the I AM in man, the self, the
directive power, raised to divine understanding and power--the I AM identity.
His Mission
As the result of lack of conscious connection between the thinking faculty
and the fountainhead of existence, humanity had reached a very low state. Then
came Jesus of Nazareth, whose mission was to connect the thinker with the true
Source of thought. Thinking at random had brought man into a deplorable
condition, and his salvation depended on his again joining his consciousness to
the Christ. Only through that connection could he be brought back into his
Edenic state.
It is plain to any reasonable, unprejudiced mind that Jesus of Nazareth was a
religious reformer with a mission from on high. He had an insight into those
things which are ever mysteries to men immersed in the sense consciousness.
Through His knowledge, and in harmony with His mission, He set into motion
spiritual ideas that ever since His ministry have been operative in the world.
It is evident to even a cursory reader of His life and teachings that He was
the representative of a thoroughly organized plan to help men into a higher
realization of God and their relation to Him.
Jesus Knew
Jesus was keenly conscious of the character of God and His own relationship
to Him. He knew God as unlimited love and as ever-present, abundant life. He
knew God as wisdom and supply. He knew Him as Father, ever ready and willing to
supply every need of the human heart.
Jesus knew that as Son of God He had access to every blessing, to all the
wisdom, love, and help of the Father-Mind. He did not simply believe that the
words He spoke were true, He knew that they were true. His words were pregnant
with meaning. They were vital, living words, which carried conviction and which
produced immediate results.
Jesus is the Way-Shower. He came that we might have life more abundantly. He
came to awaken man to the possibilities of his own nature. He came to bear
witness to Truth. He used the one true way to the realization of eternal life
and the universal consciousness, therefore His influence on the race cannot be
measured. It is infinite and eternal.
Crucifixion
The Jews were under the dominion of an earth-minded priesthood. They were in
a state of ignorance as regards spiritual things and did no thinking for
themselves. They could not recognize or comprehend the things of which Jesus
spoke to them. They were looking for a temporal king who would restore to them,
by war and conquest, the earthly glory of Solomon. When Jesus tried to teach
them of Spirit, of a spiritual idea, the Christ within themselves that would
free them from every bondage of mind, body, and environment, they crucified Him.
Crucifixion is the crossing out in consciousness of errors that have become
fixed states of mind. It is the surrender or death of the whole personality in
order that the Christ Mind may be expressed in all its fullness.
The crucifixion of Jesus represents the wiping of personality out of
consciousness. We deny the human self so that we may unite with the selfless. We
give up the human so that we may attain the immortal. We dissolve the thought of
the physical body so that we may realize the spiritual body.
The Cross represents that state of consciousness termed "mortal mind." The
Cross is not a burden as commonly understood, but a symbol of the forces in man
adjusted in their right relation.
Jesus Christ
Christ is the perfect idea of God for man. Jesus is the perfect expression of
the divine idea Man. Jesus Christ is a union of the two, the idea and the
expression, or in other words, He is the perfect man demonstrated.
Church of Christ
The true Christ church is not an outer sect or religious denomination. First
of all it is an aggregation of spiritual ideas in individual consciousness. To
establish the church, or ecclesia, of God in man, a new state of consciousness
must be formed. Man must gain an understanding of God as Spirit, and also he
must understand his own relation to Spirit.
The church of God begins its activity in man as a mental perception, which
must go through certain processes before it is established in the whole
consciousness. Its work is subjective first.
In its outer sense the church of Christ consists of all persons in whom the
consciousness of Truth has become firmly established; whether or not they belong
to a denominational church makes no difference. They comprise that great
brotherhood which Jesus Christ established in Spirit.
The true church is not made of creeds and forms. It is not contained in walls
of wood and stone. The heart of man is its temple and the Spirit of truth is the
one guide into all Truth. When men learn to turn within to the Spirit of truth,
who is in each one for his light and inspiration, the differences between the
churches of man will be eliminated, and the one church will be recognized.
When the true church is revealed to man's soul, all illusion is dissolved.
Man finds that the church of Jesus Christ has to do with the world right here
and now. It is not a religion, as he has been accustomed to regard religion. It
is an organic principle in nature working along definite lines of growth in the
building up of a state of consciousness for the whole human race.
The church of Jesus Christ is an exact science. It has its part in the
economy of Being, as the organizer of the unorganized. It does not refer to
things abstract, but to things concrete. Whoever looks upon it as an abstraction
has wholly misconceived it.
The church of Christ covers every department of man's existence and enters
into every fiber of his being. He carries it with him day and night, seven days
of the week. He lives in it as a fish lives in water. He becomes conscious of
its enveloping presence and is transformed into a new creature. Life becomes an
ecstasy and his cup is full to overflowing.
The burdens of the human drop out of sight just as fast as the organic church
is constructed. The construction of this church is orderly, definite, and exact.
It is not done in a moment, but little by little the man is built from the
within to the without, a new creature in consciousness and in body.
