Does Jesus Save us?

Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) by Leonardo Da Vinci

After considering the topic of God in several posts it might be helpful to look at the other end of the spectrum to the role of Jesus. We looked into the life of Jesus in some detail previously.

Jesus is regularly referred to as a savior. Mainstream churches use the catch-cry, “Jesus Saves”. Really! What does he save? Some say, “He saves me from my sins.” I cannot believe that every time I sin Jesus will save me – and everyone else who is sinning. What would be the point of that! What would we learn from it – it seems to me that when people say that they are not really thinking it through.

If I have learnt anything about the Bible, it is that every word single makes an important point. The Bible is so clever that no translator has been able to skew the real meaning. So what is the true meaning of referring to Jesus as a savior?

The idea of Jesus saving is first mentioned in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 1, when the angel announces the birth of Jesus to Joseph.

“... she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 1:20-21 

Nativity by Giotto

The meaning of the name Jesus is savior or deliverer. The question is: does the savior do the actual saving? A deliverer simply takes something from one place to another. It seems to me that we must save ourselves now made easier because Christ was able to unite himself with this earth; in fact, Jesus delivered him here!

We might be able to make more sense of this if we understand the word ‘sin’ See post about sin. The Greek word for sin is hamartion and means ‘to miss the mark’. Imagine if we had a quiver full of arrows, and these arrows represented our thoughts, how often would we hit the mark because our thoughts were true? We must admit that, left to our own devices, we don’t know what to think about certain things. There are many things in this world that we don’t understand. Essentially, the birth of Jesus heralded in a new era of human consciousness. Unless we understand that human consciousness changes we cannot understand the significance of the birth of Jesus, or the crucifixion of Jesus so that he could receive the Christ spirit into himself fully, and the subsequent resurrection.

In a nutshell, before Christ (BC) we didn’t think our own thoughts. Whatever thoughts we had were instinctual and we depended on the tribal leader for guidance. We did not have the ability to make our own concepts from all that we saw in our environment. This instinctive process began to fade away and we started being able to put two and two together in our own minds, a process that has reached its zenith in present day sciences.

David by Michaelangelo

Now many scientists are admitting that they see concepts that are beyond their ability to prove. We could say that a higher instinct is entering into human consciousness, but this time it must be thought through. We could call this awareness higher imagining, higher inspiration and higher intuition. These three represent our ability to create pictures from our own ideas, our ability to hear new ideas echoing within us, and our ability to experience something new so that we know it intimately. Many people who invent things will tell us that this is how they came to understand their invention in the first place.

So the term “Jesus Saves!” doesn’t mean that we can sit back and hand over responsibility to him. It means that we must understand what he did, and the implication of his deed for our consciousness. We could say that Jesus has saved us from the abyss between the death of unthinking instincts by instigating the birth of these higher faculties of picturing, hearing and experiencing beyond what physically meets our five senses.

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Disciples as Mind Traits 4

Road to Emmaus by Alexandra Ross

When we think of Jesus and his Disciples, we should be equally mindful of the mighty Cosmic Spirit called Christ gradually becoming infused into the body of Jesus. Only when we think of it in this way can we approach the truth of the situation. Two beings; Jesus the man and Christ the Being who had never experience life in a human body before. Imagine that! This happened for the first time in the whole universe. Think about what it is like to do something for the first time; learning to swim, learning to drive, learning to ski, taking your first roller coaster ride or first bungee jump. Magnify that thousands of times and we may get some idea.

The other side of this story is that humanity cannot move forward without Christ. That is why he went through the process of entering into the man Jesus. We cannot evolve without Christ - not that he does the work for us, no, quite the opposite, we do the work which he has made possible, and he enhances it.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father. Jn 14:12

For Jesus to go through the mighty transformation of taking into himself this mighty Cosmic Being required the support of the disciples, just as we need support when we learn to swim, drive or ski. Stop and think for a minute what it would be like to be infused by a being of the stature of Christ. Luke knew when he wrote about the Son of man - the Christ infused human:

"For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of man be in his day." Lk 17:24

Are we ready to be struck by lightning? For that is what it is like when Christ becomes active in our being. For that lightning to be effective, we have to make some choices. Otherwise it will burn us or kill us. To survive the strike, the 12 mind faculties represented by the disciples have to be activated in a positive way.

It is a work in progress and we should go easy on ourselves. We can be so critical of ourselves it can be crippling. It is about building pictures for ourselves and taking baby steps. The last three disciples speak strongly about choice. Having choice is so free making; always mindful that if we can make a choice in one direction then we can also make it in another.

Disciples James Alphaeus, James Zebedee and Simon the Cananaean

James Alphaeus: James the son of Alphaeus represents order, especially creating order in chaos. He is also known as James the Less, or James the Just and is a half-brother of Jesus. James is connected with the use of the word; speech is a very creative thing, primarily because it gives us choice. We can choose to speak or not to speak, and we can choose what to say or what not to say. We can also release a power in what we say, as Jesus did when he said, “Laz’arus, come out.” for instance. James is associated with the power in us to say something, perhaps something difficult. James is also the discipline in us not to say something. Our speech will be orderly according to how conscious we are.

James Zebedee: James the son of Zeb’edee represents the faculty of judgement or discrimination within us. Judgement is that higher ability not be swayed by our self-will, or the will of others; to resist being drawn back to the past and to stand in the present, in the new situation, and seek to express our higher will. Within us, our intentions are our will; without, will is visible in our actions.

Simon the Cananaean: Also known as Simon the Zealot who probably belonged to the Zelotes, an extreme Jewish sect. This sect was also known as the Cananaeans. Simon was the brother of James and Jude. After the martyrdom of James, Simon became head of the Church at Jerusalem. In hermetic tradition, the zelator is the one who is able to approach the fire. Simon the Cananaean stands for zeal, enthusiasm; this motivating energy is optimism for the future.

Published on Huffington Post September 11, 2016

What Does it Really Mean to Repent?

The Baptism of Christ by Francesco Francia 1509

“Repent,” “turn,” “stop sinning,” “ask God for forgiveness,” is the clarion call from pulpits all over the world. Is it clear what we should actually do? This preaching comes from these Bible texts:

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew 3:2 and “‘From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 4:17
“but unless you repent you will all likewise perish." Luke 13:3

What are we to make of this today? What does it actually mean to repent? Don’t we need to know what it means if we are to do it? In fact, we could even ask what it means to be good, i.e. not sin. We can only find some real answers to these questions if we first consider human consciousness, and assess how conscious our mind is.

We also need to consider the ways in which human awareness changes over time; the way we use our mind evolves and our consciousness becomes increasingly individualized. If we accept this, it means we are thinking for ourselves much more than we ever did, just as a child does as it matures. Unless we understand the way in which our consciousness - our mind and awareness - changes we can’t begin to fully understand the Bible, especially words like repent and sin.

Observing the way our consciousness changes as we age is a good way of grasping the idea of changing human consciousness. We also know that we think differently from our grandparents and even our parents. Apart from this difference between generations, there is another important way to look at changes in consciousness. If human consciousness changes over thousands of years, couldn’t we compare this with the way it changes in one human being during their lifetime. For example, we could say that if primitive man thought like a 10 year old, then at present, by comparison, we now think like a 35 year old.

If this were the case, it would mean that when the New Testament was written people’s thought processes were less mature than ours are today. This might lead us to question, as many people do, the relevance of the Bible for us today. The question that arose for me personally was whether the Bible was written for a certain kind of consciousness or whether it can be applied across time and still be relevant - particularly when I came across certain words like repent and sin, among others.

I have been writing reflections on the Bible since 2003 and have studied it since 1983, which has led me to see the Bible as a map of developing human consciousness. I have found many examples of this over the years as I looked at the original Greek meaning of words, and it amazes me how pertinent these ideas are for us in the 21st Century as we move from local to global interactions. I see how our expanding awareness means that we have to think differently on many levels. At the same time, many people seem to live their lives unconsciously even though they have the opportunity to be more conscious than ever before. It is time for all of us to wake up!

What does this have to do with repenting? Just as we re-engineer the work place to accommodate the changing ways we do business, so we must also re-engineer our mind. As Einstein famously said, “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Furthermore, when we start to understand how our consciousness can change, that in itself changes it! It is as if we put a magnifying glass to our own thoughts, feelings, and actions.

We also know that the pace of change is quickening. Just as technology always needs updating, so do our patterns of thinking and ways of living. I can see that the human race has reached a point of intensity in its development in which we are asked to repent. It happened two thousand years ago, and it is happening now. It could even be a perpetual thing.

So, what does it mean to repent? This word means something quite different from the way we use it today. It isn’t about being sorry or regretful, and it certainly isn’t about asking for forgiveness; it could be about changing our mind, but how?

In the Greek language, the word repent is metanoia which literally means ‘to perceive afterwards’. It implies that we can see the consequences of our actions before we act. We could call it foresight although it is more than that. It is about placing ourselves in the future and consciously experiencing firsthand the effects of, not only our actions, but also our thoughts, and feelings.

Repent means to be very observant, acutely aware. This level of awareness applies to our speech, our emotions, and our intentions. It means that we accept a new level of responsibility. Each day the news reveals how many people do not consider the consequences of their actions before they act. They feel free to express themselves without concern about the effects of their words and emotions on others.

To see ‘in real time’ the affect we have on the future changes everything about us. This is what it means to repent.

First published on Huffington Post