Gospel themes: Quotes, questions and comments

Welcome!

This document contains quotes, questions, and comments on gospel themes. No linear sequence can portray the interweaving of themes as they flow from the central, dual concept of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. The quotes both illustrate the themes and escape from the limitations of such labels. Observe that some themes have beginner’s levels and advanced levels.

Beware. This document is stuffed. Use it selectively, wisely, artistically. Do not unconsciously start to harbor the idea that being a good gospel messenger means communicating a lot of these truths to someone. The document is designed as a resource, so that Jesus may minister more beautifully through you.

I encourage you to deepen your study by (1) asking the Spirit of Truth to guide you to emphasize the truth that you–or your hearer(s)–most need right now, (2) studying the quote in context, (3) living in that truth until you experience it deeply, and (4) working with it in your life and  “sharing” it–proclaiming with enough faith to reach soul of the other person–until you truly begin to comprehend its power.  

You are free to use this document as you like, pruning what you do not need, and adding cherished quotes and reflections of your own.

Gospel themes and theme clusters

 (I am unable to set up bookmarks and hyperlinks here.)

The fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, friendship with God, sonship with God, self-respect

Love

Faith and assurance

Spiritual rebirth, salvation, and eternal life

Spiritual experience, the spirit within, prayer, and worship

Service

Mercy  and forgiveness

Joy and liberty

Planetary destiny

The will of God

Perfection, becoming and being like God, righteousness, character achievement, fruits of the spirit/

Jesus’ Divine Sonship

 

The fatherhood of God

The more we have grown into the maturity of being able to express the parental love of God, the better we can give voice to the truth of the fatherhood of God. Our Father—Father of the speaker, of the hearer, and of Jesus—in this joyous fullness of meaning, we can speak with strength and gentleness. For many, imparting this truth is natural, spontaneous, and easy. For others, a struggle.

In Jesus personal ministry in Rome, “Always the burden of his message was: the fact of the heavenly Father’s love and the truth of his mercy, coupled with the good news that man is a faith-son of this same God of love. . . . Invariably would he tell these distressed mortals about the love of God and impart the information, by various and sundry methods, that they were the children of this loving Father in heaven.”

 

Questions. What does the Fatherhood of God mean to you? How do you experience it?

How do you express the fatherhood of God verbally to others? What factors can make it hard to give voice to the fatherhood of God? How can we express the fatherhood of God in other words, or indirectly, “by various and sundry methods”?

Jesus’ preaching of the fatherhood of God was not a projection of a biological and sociological male, but a liberating revelation.

https://sites.google.com/a/kent.edu/jwattles/home/comparative-religious-thought/methods-in-the-study-of-religion/feminist-theology-of-religious-language

We must never force ourselves to say a name and always be ready to adjust to those for whom this name has bad connotations.

^{1:1.6 (23.3)} On a planet of sex creatures, in a world where the impulses of parental emotion are inherent in the hearts of its intelligent beings, the term Father becomes a very expressive and appropriate name for the eternal God. He is best known, most universally acknowledged, on your planet, Urantia, by the name God. The name he is given is of little importance; the significant thing is that you should know him and aspire to be like him. Your prophets of old truly called him “the everlasting God” and referred to him as the one who “inhabits eternity.”

 

^{177:2.6 (1922.4)} It is our sincere belief that the gospel of Jesus’ teaching, founded as it is on the father-child relationship, can hardly enjoy a world-wide acceptance until such a time as the home life of the modern civilized peoples embraces more of love and more of wisdom.

 

Friendship with God

^{159:3.9 (1766.5)} In preaching the gospel of the kingdom, you are simply teaching friendship with God. And this fellowship will appeal alike to men and women in that both will find that which most truly satisfies their characteristic longings and ideals.

 

Sonship with God

Questions. What does it mean to you to be a son or daughter of God? (This is an excellent question to use in conversation; be ready to modify the question: What would it mean to you to see yourself as a son or daughter of God?) What difference does it make in your experience when you see others as sons and daughters of God?

“. . . this good news: That faith-quickened mortals are the sons of God.”  (1957.2 [181:2])

^{140:10.7 (1585.5)} Simon Zelotes asked, “But, Master, are all men the sons of God?” And Jesus answered: “Yes, Simon, all men are the sons of God, and that is the good news you are going to proclaim.”

Question. Who might need to hear the message of sonship by faith?

“Sonship is the only experience which makes fatherhood certain.” 102:7.1/1126.1

Self-respect

^{159:3.3 (1765.5)} In bringing men into the kingdom, do not lessen or destroy their self-respect. While overmuch self-respect may destroy proper humility and end in pride, conceit, and arrogance, the loss of self-respect often ends in paralysis of the will. It is the purpose of this gospel to restore self-respect to those who have lost it and to restrain it in those who have it. Make not the mistake of only condemning the wrongs in the lives of your pupils; remember also to accord generous recognition for the most praiseworthy things in their lives. Forget not that I will stop at nothing to restore self-respect to those who have lost it, and who really desire to regain it.

^{156:5.14 (1740.1)} Spiritual living mightily increases true self-respect. But self-respect is not self-admiration. Self-respect is always co-ordinate with the love and service of one’s fellows. It is not possible to respect yourself more than you love your neighbor; the one is the measure of the capacity for the other.

^{147:4.6 (1650.7)} “3. The level of mind. Now come into action the reason of mind and the intelligence of experience. Good judgment dictates that such a rule of living should be interpreted in consonance with the highest idealism embodied in the nobility of profound self-respect.

This is the third level of interpretation of the golden rule—treat others as you want others to treat you. Question: What therefore, in this context, is the implication of profound self-respect?

The brotherhood of man

Questions. What does the brotherhood of man mean to you? How do you experience it? What difference does it make when you are attuned to that reality? How do you communicate it to others?

All-inclusive brotherhood

The phrase “the brotherhood of man” is normally used without any further specification, and may presumably be interpreted as including all human persons.

^{12:7.8 (138.3)} The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man present the paradox of the part and the whole on the level of personality. God loves each individual as an individual child in the heavenly family. Yet God thus loves every individual; he is no respecter of persons, and the universality of his love brings into being a relationship of the whole, the universal brotherhood.

The spiritual brotherhood

In some contexts, “brotherhood” refers to the spiritual brotherhood. Just as “sonship” has multiple meanings, so does “brotherhood.”

^{169:4.1 (1855.2)} The Master thought best to designate the spiritual brotherhood of man as the kingdom of heaven and the spirit head of this brotherhood as the Father in heaven.

^{185:3.3 (1991.3)} Then said Jesus to Pilate: “Do you not perceive that my kingdom is not of this world? If my kingdom were of this world, surely would my disciples fight that I should not be delivered into the hands of the Jews. My presence here before you in these bonds is sufficient to show all men that my kingdom is a spiritual dominion, even the brotherhood of men who, through faith and by love, have become the sons of God. And this salvation is for the gentile as well as for the Jew.”

 

The loving materialization of the brotherhood of man: Planetary destiny

^{143:1.4 (1608.1)} “No matter what blunders your fellow men make in their world management of today, in an age to come the gospel which I declare to you will rule this very world. The ultimate goal of human progress is the reverent recognition of the fatherhood of God and the loving materialization of the brotherhood of man.

How many people today are skeptical or anxious of any long-term hope for the planet’s future? Is this worry one of the main spiritual difficulties of our time? What can your faith do for these people?

Love

We begin with the first circuit of love.

^{1:0.2 (21.2)} The myriads of planetary systems were all made to be eventually inhabited by many different types of intelligent creatures, beings who could know God, receive the divine affection, and love him in return.

Question. How does your knowing God open you to receive the divine affection?

 

Next comes the great circuit of love.

^{117:6.10 (1289.3)} All true love is from God, and man receives the divine affection as he himself bestows this love upon his fellows. Love is dynamic. It can never be captured; it is alive, free, thrilling, and always moving. Man can never take the love of the Father and imprison it within his heart. The Father’s love can become real to mortal man only by passing through that man’s personality as he in turn bestows this love upon his fellows. The great circuit of love is from the Father, through sons to brothers, and hence to the Supreme. The love of the Father appears in the mortal personality by the ministry of the indwelling Adjuster. Such a God-knowing son reveals this love to his universe brethren, and this fraternal affection is the essence of the love of the Supreme.

 

^{134:4.1 (1486.4)} The brotherhood of men is founded on the fatherhood of God. The family of God is derived from the love of God — God is love. God the Father divinely loves his children, all of them.

^{143:1.4 (1608.1)} “I declare to you that my Father in Paradise does rule a universe of universes by the compelling power of his love. Love is the greatest of all spirit realities. Truth is a liberating revelation, but love is the supreme relationship.

Question. Have you ever set out to learn to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength—and your neighbor as yourself? If so, what happened? If not, would this be a good time to begin?

 

Two definitions

^{56:10.21 (648.4)} Love is the desire to do good to others.

Note the four components: desire, doing, goodness, and others—plural.

^{174:1.5 (1898.5)} “Love is the outworking of the divine and inner urge of life. It is founded on understanding, nurtured by unselfish service, and perfected in wisdom.”

Here we have love defined not as the supreme motivation, but as its outworking.

 

Love’s specific implications for particular individuals

Often the word love seems to lack content. Truth, beauty, and goodness are implicit in it. Love’s outworking in mercy and ministry is implicit. But love does have specific implications.    

^{192:2.1 (2047.5)} When they had finished breakfast, and while the others sat by the fire, Jesus beckoned to Peter and to John that they should come with him for a stroll on the beach. As they walked along, Jesus said to John, “John, do you love me?” And when John answered, “Yes, Master, with all my heart,” the Master said: “Then, John, give up your intolerance and learn to love men as I have loved you. Devote your life to proving that love is the greatest thing in the world. It is the love of God that impels men to seek salvation. Love is the ancestor of all spiritual goodness, the essence of the true and the beautiful.”

^{192:2.2 (2047.6)} Jesus then turned toward Peter and asked, “Peter, do you love me?” Peter answered, “Lord, you know I love you with all my soul.” Then said Jesus: “If you love me, Peter, feed my lambs. Do not neglect to minister to the weak, the poor, and the young. Preach the gospel without fear or favor; remember always that God is no respecter of persons. Serve your fellow men even as I have served you; forgive your fellow mortals even as I have forgiven you. Let experience teach you the value of meditation and the power of intelligent reflection.”

^{192:2.3 (2047.7)} After they had walked along a little farther, the Master turned to Peter and asked, “Peter, do you really love me?” And then said Simon, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” And again said Jesus: “Then take good care of my sheep. Be a good and a true shepherd to the flock. Betray not their confidence in you. Be not taken by surprise at the enemy’s hand. Be on guard at all times — watch and pray.”

^{192:2.4 (2047.8)} When they had gone a few steps farther, Jesus turned to Peter and, for the third time, asked, “Peter, do you truly love me?” And then Peter, being slightly grieved at the Master’s seeming distrust of him, said with considerable feeling, “Lord, you know all things, and therefore do you know that I really and truly love you.” Then said Jesus: “Feed my sheep. Do not forsake the flock. Be an example and an inspiration to all your fellow shepherds. Love the flock as I have loved you and devote yourself to their welfare even as I have devoted my life to your welfare. And follow after me even to the end.”

 

The height of love

^{180:1.1 (1944.4)} After a few moments of informal conversation, Jesus stood up and said: “When I enacted for you a parable indicating how you should be willing to serve one another, I said that I desired to give you a new commandment; and I would do this now as I am about to leave you. You well know the commandment which directs that you love one another; that you love your neighbor even as yourself. But I am not wholly satisfied with even that sincere devotion on the part of my children. I would have you perform still greater acts of love in the kingdom of the believing brotherhood. And so I give you this new commandment: That you love one another even as I have loved you. And by this will all men know that you are my disciples if you thus love one another.

^{180:1.2 (1944.5)} “When I give you this new commandment, I do not place any new burden upon your souls; rather do I bring you new joy and make it possible for you to experience new pleasure in knowing the delights of the bestowal of your heart’s affection upon your fellow men. I am about to experience the supreme joy, even though enduring outward sorrow, in the bestowal of my affection upon you and your fellow mortals.

^{180:1.3 (1944.6)} “When I invite you to love one another, even as I have loved you, I hold up before you the supreme measure of true affection, for greater love can no man have than this: that he will lay down his life for his friends. And you are my friends; you will continue to be my friends if you are but willing to do what I have taught you. You have called me Master, but I do not call you servants. If you will only love one another as I am loving you, you shall be my friends, and I will ever speak to you of that which the Father reveals to me.

^{180:1.4 (1945.1)} “You have not merely chosen me, but I have also chosen you, and I have ordained you to go forth into the world to yield the fruit of loving service to your fellows even as I have lived among you and revealed the Father to you. The Father and I will both work with you, and you shall experience the divine fullness of joy if you will only obey my command to love one another, even as I have loved you.”

^{180:1.5 (1945.2)} If you would share the Master’s joy, you must share his love. And to share his love means that you have shared his service. Such an experience of love does not deliver you from the difficulties of this world; it does not create a new world, but it most certainly does make the old world new.

^{180:1.6 (1945.3)} Keep in mind: It is loyalty, not sacrifice, that Jesus demands. The consciousness of sacrifice implies the absence of that wholehearted affection which would have made such a loving service a supreme joy. The idea of duty signifies that you are servant-minded and hence are missing the mighty thrill of doing your service as a friend and for a friend. The impulse of friendship transcends all convictions of duty, and the service of a friend for a friend can never be called a sacrifice. The Master has taught the apostles that they are the sons of God. He has called them brethren, and now, before he leaves, he calls them his friends.

 

On the basis of this passage, we can speak of two types of love based on whether our love has or has not risen to the level of the willingness to lay down one’s life for our siblings. What are the differences between these two types of love?

 

Spiritual experience

The spirit within

There are so many quotes about the Thought Adjusters and most readers of The Urantia Book have so much experience, that I feel little need to amplify the discussion of this topic beyond a few essentials.

^{195:10.4 (2084.4)} “The kingdom of God is within you” was probably the greatest pronouncement Jesus ever made, next to the declaration that his Father is a living and loving spirit.

The Thought Adjuster papers tell of the awesome fact of the Father’s spirit that dwells within, how to cooperate with it, and the dangers of mistaking emanations from the subconscious for revelations from the superconscious. Very much of the meaning of the talk of the indwelling spirit is an encouragement that we can indeed experience the presence of God. History gives evidence that when people are having religious experience, they are spiritually content. When religious experience is not happening for them in one tradition or context, hungry people go elsewhere.

You may occasion another person’s first spiritual experience in a long time.

^{1:2.8 (24.6)} Those who know God have experienced the fact of his presence; such God-knowing mortals hold in their personal experience the only positive proof of the existence of the living God which one human being can offer to another. The existence of God is utterly beyond all possibility of demonstration except for the contact between the God-consciousness of the human mind and the God-presence of the Thought Adjuster that indwells the mortal intellect and is bestowed upon man as the free gift of the Universal Father.

The main types of spiritual experience include prayer, worship, and service. Service is the theme that immediately follows this one. Although Jesus taught much more about prayer than about worship, I mainly discuss worship here, since that theme is found more often in statements of the gospel.

With many people, including those who are urging doctrines on us that we reject, it moves discussion into a fruitful area to ask about their spiritual experience.

 

Worship

What teachings can we draw on if someone asks about worship? While we want to be respectful of the group worship of various religions, we may also teach about personal worship.

In teaching about worship or leading worship, it is nice to be able to give a teaching that is open and simple, with enough definiteness to help the mind focus effectively. One example is the following.

^{16:9.14 (196.10)} We worship God, first, because he is, then, because he is in us, and last, because we are in him.

We can modify this statement. You are. You are in us. We are in you.

The Urantia Book’s first characterization of worship is highly focused.

^{5:3.3 (65.5)}  We do not worship the Father because of anything we may derive from such veneration; we render such devotion and engage in such worship as a natural and spontaneous reaction to the recognition of the Father’s matchless personality and because of his lovable nature and adorable attributes.

A broader definition of worship also invites the reader to stop, ponder, and savor the meaning of each word.

^{27:7.1 (303.5)} Worship is the highest privilege and the first duty of all created intelligences. Worship is the conscious and joyous act of recognizing and acknowledging the truth and fact of the intimate and personal relationships of the Creators with their creatures.

What shall we make of the great breadth of this quote, defining one of the three functions of cosmic mind?

^{16:6.8 (192.4)} 3. Worship — the spiritual domain of the reality of religious experience, the personal realization of divine fellowship, the recognition of spirit values, the assurance of eternal survival, the ascent from the status of servants of God to the joy and liberty of the sons of God. This is the highest insight of the cosmic mind, the reverential and worshipful form of the cosmic discrimination.

Now behold the breadth of the characterization that Jesus gives. Truly the realm of spiritual experience embraces a sublime unity and a glorious diversity!

^{146:2.15 (1640.4)} 14. Jesus warned his followers against thinking that their prayers would be rendered more efficacious by ornate repetitions, eloquent phraseology, fasting, penance, or sacrifices. But he did exhort his believers to employ prayer as a means of leading up through thanksgiving to true worship. Jesus deplored that so little of the spirit of thanksgiving was to be found in the prayers and worship of his followers. He quoted from the Scriptures on this occasion, saying: “It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to the name of the Most High, to acknowledge his loving-kindness every morning and his faithfulness every night, for God has made me glad through his work. In everything I will give thanks according to the will of God.”

Questions. Why does it make sense to follow prayer by thanksgiving? Do we find that thanksgiving, rising to its height, turns into worship? (If we need revealed hint to answer the next question, please review the two quotes in the previous section on love and service.) Do we find that, as with thanksgiving, our love for God, when it reaches its fullest, transforms into worship?

^{146:2.17 (1641.1)} 16. Jesus taught his followers that, when they had made their prayers to the Father, they should remain for a time in silent receptivity to afford the indwelling spirit the better opportunity to speak to the listening soul. The spirit of the Father speaks best to man when the human mind is in an attitude of true worship. We worship God by the aid of the Father’s indwelling spirit and by the illumination of the human mind through the ministry of truth. Worship, taught Jesus, makes one increasingly like the being who is worshiped. Worship is a transforming experience whereby the finite gradually approaches and ultimately attains the presence of the Infinite.

Question. Why does it make sense to follow prayer by worship?

Questions. Jesus taught that we should worship “in spirit and in truth” (New Testament, John 4:23). How do you interpret these phrases?

^{146:2.14 (1640.3)} When Jesus taught his associates to pray in the spirit and in truth, he explained that he referred to praying sincerely and in accordance with one’s enlightenment, to praying wholeheartedly and intelligently, earnestly and steadfastly.

As we interpret what it means to worship in spirit and in truth, are there any adjustments that we might make to the explanation of that phrase as applied to prayer?

 

Service

^{92:4.8 (1008.1)} 4. Jesus of Nazareth. Christ Michael presented for the fourth time to Urantia the concept of God as the Universal Father, and this teaching has generally persisted ever since. The essence of his teaching was love and service, the loving worship which a creature son voluntarily gives in recognition of, and response to, the loving ministry of God his Father; the freewill service which such creature sons bestow upon their brethren in the joyous realization that in this service they are likewise serving God the Father. 

^{110:3.8 (1206.6)} 2. Loving God and desiring to be like him — genuine recognition of the divine fatherhood and loving worship of the heavenly Parent.

^{110:3.9 (1206.7)} 3. Loving man and sincerely desiring to serve him — wholehearted recognition of the brotherhood of man coupled with an intelligent and wise affection for each of your fellow mortals.

Question. What is involved in an intelligent and wise affection?

^{103:5.1 (1133.6)} The early evolutionary mind gives origin to a feeling of social duty and moral obligation derived chiefly from emotional fear. The more positive urge of social service and the idealism of altruism are derived from the direct impulse of the divine spirit indwelling the human mind.

^{103:2.8 (1131.7)} When a moral being chooses to be unselfish when confronted by the urge to be selfish, that is primitive religious experience. No animal can make such a choice; such a decision is both human and religious. It embraces the fact of God-consciousness and exhibits the impulse of social service, the basis of the brotherhood of man. When mind chooses a right moral judgment by an act of the free will, such a decision constitutes a religious experience.

^{196:3.20 (2095.4)} Every time man makes a reflective moral choice, he immediately experiences a new divine invasion of his soul.

 

Faith and assurance

^{137:8.8 (1536.5)} “Those who first seek to enter the kingdom, thus beginning to strive for a nobility of character like that of my Father, shall presently possess all else that is needful. But I say to you in all sincerity: Unless you seek entrance into the kingdom with the faith and trusting dependence of a little child, you shall in no wise gain admission.

^{140:10.9 (1585.7)} John asked Jesus, “Master, what is the kingdom of heaven?” And Jesus answered: “The kingdom of heaven consists in these three essentials: first, recognition of the fact of the sovereignty of God; second, belief in the truth of sonship with God; and third, faith in the effectiveness of the supreme human desire to do the will of God — to be like God. And this is the good news of the gospel: that by faith every mortal may have all these essentials of salvation.”

^{101:8.1 (1114.5)} Belief has attained the level of faith when it motivates life and shapes the mode of living. The acceptance of a teaching as true is not faith; that is mere belief. Neither is certainty nor conviction faith. A state of mind attains to faith levels only when it actually dominates the mode of living. Faith is a living attribute of genuine personal religious experience. One believes truth, admires beauty, and reverences goodness, but does not worship them; such an attitude of saving faith is centered on God alone, who is all of these personified and infinitely more.

^{101:8.2 (1114.6)} Belief is always limiting and binding; faith is expanding and releasing. Belief fixates, faith liberates. But living religious faith is more than the association of noble beliefs; it is more than an exalted system of philosophy; it is a living experience concerned with spiritual meanings, divine ideals, and supreme values; it is God-knowing and man-serving. Beliefs may become group possessions, but faith must be personal. Theologic beliefs can be suggested to a group, but faith can rise up only in the heart of the individual religionist.

^{101:8.4 (1115.1)} Faith vitalizes religion and constrains the religionist heroically to live the golden rule. The zeal of faith is according to knowledge, and its strivings are the preludes to sublime peace.

 

In your ministry to the sick . . .

^{148:2.1 (1658.4)} In connection with the seaside encampment, Elman, the Syrian physician, with the assistance of a corps of twenty-five young women and twelve men, organized and conducted for four months what should be regarded as the kingdom’s first hospital. At this infirmary, located a short distance to the south of the main tented city, they treated the sick in accordance with all known material methods as well as by the spiritual practices of prayer and faith encouragement.

 

Contemplate the magnitude of the faith required for advanced ministry. After a group of apostles had failed to cast out the rebellious midwayer in the son of James of Safed, they told Jesus their story.

^{158:5.2 (1757.2)} When Jesus had listened to this recital, he touched the kneeling father and bade him rise while he gave the near-by apostles a searching survey. Then said Jesus to all those who stood before him: “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I bear with you? How long shall I be with you? How long ere you learn that the works of faith come not forth at the bidding of doubting unbelief?”

Later, Jesus gave the twelve a critique which we may translate into positive terms.

^{158:6.3 (1758.4)} “Have not I told you that he who would be greatest in the kingdom of my Father’s spiritual brotherhood must become little in his own eyes and thus become the server of his brethren? Spiritual greatness consists in an understanding love that is Godlike and not in an enjoyment of the exercise of material power for the exaltation of self. In what you attempted, in which you so completely failed, your purpose was not pure. Your motive was not divine. Your ideal was not spiritual. Your ambition was not altruistic. Your procedure was not based on love, and your goal of attainment was not the will of the Father in heaven.

^{158:6.4 (1758.5)} “How long will it take you to learn that you cannot time-shorten the course of established natural phenomena except when such things are in accordance with the Father’s will? nor can you do spiritual work in the absence of spiritual power. And you can do neither of these, even when their potential is present, without the existence of that third and essential human factor, the personal experience of the possession of living faith.”

 

If we wish to adapt Jesus’ critique for our own use, we may pose ourselves these questions. Is my purpose pure, my motivation divine, my ideal spiritual, my ambition altruistic, my procedure based on love, and my goal of attainment the will of the Father in heaven? This should not become a means of reverting to the religion of self-examination and self-control, but used as a path of thoroughness to help us understand a big mistake or as an aid to preparing for a significant action or project.

 

Finally, recall (91:9/1002) that a condition of effective prayer is faith—living faith.

 

Assurance

^{142:5.1 (1601.1)} One of the great sermons which Jesus preached in the temple this Passover week was in answer to a question asked by one of his hearers, a man from Damascus. This man asked Jesus: “But, Rabbi, how shall we know of a certainty that you are sent by God, and that we may truly enter into this kingdom which you and your disciples declare is near at hand?” And Jesus answered:

^{142:5.2 (1601.2)} “As to my message and the teaching of my disciples, you should judge them by their fruits. If we proclaim to you the truths of the spirit, the spirit will witness in your hearts that our message is genuine. Concerning the kingdom and your assurance of acceptance by the heavenly Father, let me ask what father among you who is a worthy and kindhearted father would keep his son in anxiety or suspense regarding his status in the family or his place of security in the affections of his father’s heart? Do you earth fathers take pleasure in torturing your children with uncertainty about their place of abiding love in your human hearts? Neither does your Father in heaven leave his faith children of the spirit in doubtful uncertainty as to their position in the kingdom. If you receive God as your Father, then indeed and in truth are you the sons of God. And if you are sons, then are you secure in the position and standing of all that concerns eternal and divine sonship. If you believe my words, you thereby believe in Him who sent me, and by thus believing in the Father, you have made your status in heavenly citizenship sure. If you do the will of the Father in heaven, you shall never fail in the attainment of the eternal life of progress in the divine kingdom.

^{142:5.3 (1601.3)} “The Supreme Spirit shall bear witness with your spirits that you are truly the children of God. And if you are the sons of God, then have you been born of the spirit of God; and whosoever has been born of the spirit has in himself the power to overcome all doubt, and this is the victory that overcomes all uncertainty, even your faith.

^{142:5.4 (1601.4)} “Said the Prophet Isaiah, speaking of these times: ‘When the spirit is poured upon us from on high, then shall the work of righteousness become peace, quietness, and assurance  forever.’ And for all who truly believe this gospel, I will become surety for their reception into the eternal mercies and the everlasting life of my Father’s kingdom. You, then, who hear this message and believe this gospel of the kingdom are the sons of God, and you have life everlasting; and the evidence to all the world that you have been born of the spirit is that you sincerely love one another.”

 

Note that Jesus’ answer was effective for his hearer, but Jesus would have replied differently to a skeptical philosopher. Crucial to Jesus’ effectiveness—and yours—is the quality of assurance that you have in your loving relationship with your conversation partner.

 

 

Spiritual rebirth, salvation, and eternal life

Rebirth

Spiritual rebirth is so often associated with a particular view of Christianity that it may take extra skill to communicate the idea to some people. Nevertheless, Jesus makes clear how important it is.

^{142:6.4 (1602.3)} Jesus answered Nicodemus: “Verily, verily, I say to you, Nicodemus, except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” . . . .

^{142:6.5 (1602.4)} Jesus said: “. . . I declare to you, except a man be born of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. But you should not marvel that I said you must be born from above. When the wind blows, you hear the rustle of the leaves, but you do not see the wind — whence it comes or whither it goes — and so it is with everyone born of the spirit. With the eyes of the flesh you can behold the manifestations of the spirit, but you cannot actually discern the spirit.”

. . .

^{142:6.7 (1602.6)} And Nicodemus said: “But how can I begin to lay hold upon this spirit which is to remake me in preparation for entering into the kingdom?” Jesus answered: “Already does the spirit of the Father in heaven indwell you. If you would be led by this spirit from above, very soon would you begin to see with the eyes of the spirit, and then by the wholehearted choice of spirit guidance would you be born of the spirit since your only purpose in living would be to do the will of your Father who is in heaven. And so finding yourself born of the spirit and happily in the kingdom of God, you would begin to bear in your daily life the abundant fruits of the spirit.”

 

Salvation is another idea that may seem foreign to us for various reasons. But the idea seems to be this. Everyone has some spiritual difficulty standing between us and a progressive relationship with God. Some people get past that difficulty smoothly as part of normal growth, but some do not. Actually, there is a series of difficulties to be overcome, but once the initial one has been handled, one is spiritually reborn, which event is a game-changer. Saving faith is living faith, so continuing progress is essential for survival (not to mention eternal life). This passage from Paper 101 brings the concept of salvation home. The full context lists seven major obstacles, but the first three are the ones that obviously to this life.

 

^{101:6.8 (1112.4)} The faith of Jesus pointed the way to finality of human salvation, to the ultimate of mortal universe attainment, since it provided for:

^{101:6.9 (1112.5)} 1. Salvation from material fetters in the personal realization of sonship with God, who is spirit.

^{101:6.10 (1112.6)} 2. Salvation from intellectual bondage: man shall know the truth, and the truth shall set him free.

^{101:6.11 (1112.7)} 3. Salvation from spiritual blindness, the human realization of the fraternity of mortal beings and the morontian awareness of the brotherhood of all universe creatures; the service-discovery of spiritual reality and the ministry-revelation of the goodness of spirit values.

 

^{150:5.1 (1682.3)} One evening at Shunem, after John’s apostles had returned to Hebron, and after Jesus’ apostles had been sent out two and two, when the Master was engaged in teaching a group of twelve of the younger evangelists who were laboring under the direction of Jacob, together with the twelve women, Rachel asked Jesus this question: “Master, what shall we answer when women ask us, What shall I do to be saved?” When Jesus heard this question, he answered:

^{150:5.2 (1682.4)} “When men and women ask what shall we do to be saved, you shall answer, Believe this gospel of the kingdom; accept divine forgiveness. By faith recognize the indwelling spirit of God, whose acceptance makes you a son of God. Have you not read in the Scriptures where it says, ‘In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.’ Also where the Father says, ‘My righteousness is near; my salvation has gone forth, and my arms shall enfold my people.’ ‘My soul shall be joyful in the love of my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and has covered me with the robe of his righteousness.’ Have you not also read of the Father that his name ‘shall be called the Lord our righteousness.’ ‘Take away the filthy rags of self-righteousness and clothe my son with the robe of divine righteousness and eternal salvation.’ It is forever true, ‘the just shall live by faith.’ Entrance into the Father’s kingdom is wholly free, but progress — growth in grace — is essential to continuance therein.

^{150:5.3 (1682.5)} “Salvation is the gift of the Father and is revealed by his Sons. Acceptance by faith on your part makes you a partaker of the divine nature, a son or a daughter of God. By faith you are justified; by faith are you saved; and by this same faith are you eternally advanced in the way of progressive and divine perfection. By faith was Abraham justified and made aware of salvation by the teachings of Melchizedek. All down through the ages has this same faith saved the sons of men, but now has a Son come forth from the Father to make salvation more real and acceptable.”

 

Eternal life

^{181:1.2 (1953.4)} “When I have returned to live in you and work through you, I can the better lead you on through this life and guide you through the many abodes in the future life in the heaven of heavens. Life in the Father’s eternal creation is not an endless rest of idleness and selfish ease but rather a ceaseless progression in grace, truth, and glory. Each of the many, many stations in my Father’s house is a stopping place, a life designed to prepare you for the next one ahead. And so will the children of light go on from glory to glory until they attain the divine estate wherein they are spiritually perfected even as the Father is perfect in all things.

How shall we make this teaching plausible today? With persons who respect the Bible, this document shows a way.

https://sites.google.com/a/kent.edu/jwattles/home/comparative-religious-thought/christianity/life-after-death

Buddhism also has resources to support the idea of heaven as a series of places where we advance as we grow. (Buddhism, however, regards parinirvana, the final extinction of individual existence as beyond every celestial level of delight.) You can claim that seers in different religions have had visions which they interpreted in ways that overlap with this basic thought.

^{191:5.3 (2043.1)} “Peace be upon you. For a full week have I tarried that I might appear again when you were all present to hear once more the commission to go into all the world and preach this gospel of the kingdom. Again I tell you: As the Father sent me into the world, so send I you. As I have revealed the Father, so shall you reveal the divine love, not merely with words, but in your daily living. I send you forth, not to love the souls of men, but rather to love men. You are not merely to proclaim the joys of heaven but also to exhibit in your daily experience these spirit realities of the divine life since you already have eternal life, as the gift of God, through faith. When you have faith, when power from on high, the Spirit of Truth, has come upon you, you will not hide your light here behind closed doors; you will make known the love and the mercy of God to all mankind. Through fear you now flee from the facts of a disagreeable experience, but when you shall have been baptized with the Spirit of Truth, you will bravely and joyously go forth to meet the new experiences of proclaiming the good news of eternal life in the kingdom of God. You may tarry here and in Galilee for a short season while you recover from the shock of the transition from the false security of the authority of traditionalism to the new order of the authority of facts, truth, and faith in the supreme realities of living experience. Your mission to the world is founded on the fact that I lived a God-revealing life among you; on the truth that you and all other men are the sons of God; and it shall consist in the life which you will live among men — the actual and living experience of loving men and serving them, even as I have loved and served you. Let faith reveal your light to the world; let the revelation of truth open the eyes blinded by tradition; let your loving service effectually destroy the prejudice engendered by ignorance. By so drawing close to your fellow men in understanding sympathy and with unselfish devotion, you will lead them into a saving knowledge of the Father’s love. The Jews have extolled goodness; the Greeks have exalted beauty; the Hindus preach devotion; the faraway ascetics teach reverence; the Romans demand loyalty; but I require of my disciples life, even a life of loving service for your brothers in the flesh.”

^{193:1.2 (2053.4)} “Peace be upon you. You rejoice to know that I am the resurrection and the life, but this will avail you nothing unless you are first born of the eternal spirit, thereby coming to possess, by faith, the gift of eternal life. If you are the faith sons of my Father, you shall never die; you shall not perish.

A study of this topic finds that The Urantia Book has a variety of teachings that do not lend themselves to an overall, tight, systematic theological doctrine. There is a distinction between survival (to the mansion worlds) and eternal life. And there is a distinction between a sufficient condition for salvation (faith in Jesus) and a necessarycondition—a requirement (faith). A living faith is a growing faith. The human mind can worry, and the intellect craves a criterion so that it can know who advances and who does not. But faith (or any other condition that may be found in a particular passage) does not lend itself to a definition that would satisfy that intellectual craving. This is as it should be. The variety of teachings forces us to acknowledge the need for that very living faith which brings assurance.

  

Mercy and forgiveness

Mercy is love applied—to creature need. Mercy is an overarching divine attitude and also a process of restoring someone to the circuits of loving community. This process may be difficult for the parties concerned, and the alienated person may reject it.

^{6:3.5 (75.10)} God is love, the Son is mercy. Mercy is applied love, the Father’s love in action in the person of his Eternal Son. The love of this universal Son is likewise universal. As love is comprehended on a sex planet, the love of God is more comparable to the love of a father, while the love of the Eternal Son is more like the affection of a mother. Crude, indeed, are such illustrations, but I employ them in the hope of conveying to the human mind the thought that there is a difference, not in divine content but in quality and technique of expression, between the love of the Father and the love of the Son.

^{28:6.8 (315.1)} Among many other things the Significances of Origins teach these ascenders how to apply spirit ethics, and following such training, the Memories of Mercy teach them how to be truly merciful. While the spirit techniques of mercy ministry are beyond your concept, you should even now understand that mercy is a quality of growth. You should realize that there is a great reward of personal satisfaction in being first just, next fair, then patient, then kind. And then, on that foundation, if you choose and have it in your heart, you can take the next step and really show mercy; but you cannot exhibit mercy in and of itself. These steps must be traversed; otherwise there can be no genuine mercy. There may be patronage, condescension, or charity — even pity — but not mercy. True mercy comes only as the beautiful climax to these preceding adjuncts to group understanding, mutual appreciation, fraternal fellowship, spiritual communion, and divine harmony.

^{146:2.6 (1639.1)} 5. They who would receive mercy must show mercy; judge not that you be not judged. With the spirit with which you judge others you also shall be judged. Mercy does not wholly abrogate universe fairness. In the end it will prove true: “Whoso stops his ears to the cry of the poor, he also shall some day cry for help, and no one will hear him.”

Note: A fairly good version of this sermon is recorded in the New Testament, Matthew 18.12-35. The Jesus grievance procedure is framed by two parables. The parable of the lost sheep illustrates the motivation for the procedure, and the parable of the unforgiving steward illustrates the way the individual may experience (and distort the interpretation of) the divine response to being unforgiving after being received—so mercifully!—into the kingdom of God.

^{159:1.3 (1762.5)} “The Father in heaven loves his children, and therefore should you learn to love one another; the Father in heaven forgives you your sins; therefore should you learn to forgive one another. If your brother sins against you, go to him and with tact and patience show him his fault. And do all this between you and him alone. If he will listen to you, then have you won your brother. But if your brother will not hear you, if he persists in the error of his way, go again to him, taking with you one or two mutual friends that you may thus have two or even three witnesses to confirm your testimony and establish the fact that you have dealt justly and mercifully with your offending brother. Now if he refuses to hear your brethren, you may tell the whole story to the congregation, and then, if he refuses to hear the brotherhood, let them take such action as they deem wise; let such an unruly member become an outcast from the kingdom. While you cannot pretend to sit in judgment on the souls of your fellows, and while you may not forgive sins or otherwise presume to usurp the prerogatives of the supervisors of the heavenly hosts, at the same time, it has been committed to your hands that you should maintain temporal order in the kingdom on earth. While you may not meddle with the divine decrees concerning eternal life, you shall determine the issues of conduct as they concern the temporal welfare of the brotherhood on earth. And so, in all these matters connected with the discipline of the brotherhood, whatsoever you shall decree on earth, shall be recognized in heaven. Although you cannot determine the eternal fate of the individual, you may legislate regarding the conduct of the group, for, where two or three of you agree concerning any of these things and ask of me, it shall be done for you if your petition is not inconsistent with the will of my Father in heaven. And all this is ever true, for, where two or three believers are gathered together, there am I in the midst of them.”

 

^{159:1.5 (1763.2)} “And even so shall my heavenly Father show the more abundant mercy to those who freely show mercy to their fellows. How can you come to God asking consideration for your shortcomings when you are wont to chastise your brethren for being guilty of these same human frailties? I say to all of you: Freely you have received the good things of the kingdom; therefore freely give to your fellows on earth.”

^{159:1.6 (1764.1)} Thus did Jesus teach the dangers and illustrate the unfairness of sitting in personal judgment upon one’s fellows. Discipline must be maintained, justice must be administered, but in all these matters the wisdom of the brotherhood should prevail. Jesus invested legislative and judicial authority in the group, not in the individual. Even this investment of authority in the group must not be exercised as personal authority. There is always danger that the verdict of an individual may be warped by prejudice or distorted by passion. Group judgment is more likely to remove the dangers and eliminate the unfairness of personal bias. Jesus sought always to minimize the elements of unfairness, retaliation, and vengeance.

 

^{174:1.1 (1898.1)} For several days Peter and James had been engaged in discussing their differences of opinion about the Master’s teaching regarding the forgiveness of sin. They had both agreed to lay the matter before Jesus, and Peter embraced this occasion as a fitting opportunity for securing the Master’s counsel. Accordingly, Simon Peter broke in on the conversation dealing with the differences between praise and worship, by asking: “Master, James and I are not in accord regarding your teachings having to do with the forgiveness of sin. James claims you teach that the Father forgives us even before we ask him, and I maintain that repentance and confession must precede the forgiveness. Which of us is right? what do you say?”

^{174:1.2 (1898.2)} After a short silence Jesus looked significantly at all four and answered: “My brethren, you err in your opinions because you do not comprehend the nature of those intimate and loving relations between the creature and the Creator, between man and God. You fail to grasp that understanding sympathy which the wise parent entertains for his immature and sometimes erring child. It is indeed doubtful whether intelligent and affectionate parents are ever called upon to forgive an average and normal child. Understanding relationships associated with attitudes of love effectively prevent all those estrangements which later necessitate the readjustment of repentance by the child with forgiveness by the parent.

^{174:1.3 (1898.3)} “A part of every father lives in the child. The father enjoys priority and superiority of understanding in all matters connected with the child-parent relationship. The parent is able to view the immaturity of the child in the light of the more advanced parental maturity, the riper experience of the older partner. With the earthly child and the heavenly Father, the divine parent possesses infinity and divinity of sympathy and capacity for loving understanding. Divine forgiveness is inevitable; it is inherent and inalienable in God’s infinite understanding, in his perfect knowledge of all that concerns the mistaken judgment and erroneous choosing of the child. Divine justice is so eternally fair that it unfailingly embodies understanding mercy.

^{174:1.4 (1898.4)} “When a wise man understands the inner impulses of his fellows, he will love them. And when you love your brother, you have already forgiven him. This capacity to understand man’s nature and forgive his apparent wrongdoing is Godlike. If you are wise parents, this is the way you will love and understand your children, even forgive them when transient misunderstanding has apparently separated you. The child, being immature and lacking in the fuller understanding of the depth of the child-father relationship, must frequently feel a sense of guilty separation from a father’s full approval, but the true father is never conscious of any such separation. Sin is an experience of creature consciousness; it is not a part of God’s consciousness.

^{174:1.5 (1898.5)} “Your inability or unwillingness to forgive your fellows is the measure of your immaturity, your failure to attain adult sympathy, understanding, and love. You hold grudges and nurse vengefulness in direct proportion to your ignorance of the inner nature and true longings of your children and your fellow beings. Love is the outworking of the divine and inner urge of life. It is founded on understanding, nurtured by unselfish service, and perfected in wisdom.”

 

 

Joy

            In the mansion worlds, we enter schools of feeling as well as thinking and doing. The next quote characterizes the gospel in terms of two lessons on feeling.

^{178:1.11 (1931.2)} Remember that you are commissioned to preach this gospel of the kingdom — the supreme desire to do the Father’s will coupled with the supreme joy of the faith realization of sonship with God — and you must not allow anything to divert your devotion to this one duty.

 

^{130:2.6 (1431.1)} Jesus answered: “Ganid, no man is a stranger to one who knows God. In the experience of finding the Father in heaven you discover that all men are your brothers, and does it seem strange that one should enjoy the exhilaration of meeting a newly discovered brother? To become acquainted with one’s brothers and sisters, to know their problems and to learn to love them, is the supreme experience of living.”

 

            Liberty

 

^{141:7.6 (1593.7)} Jesus laid great emphasis upon what he called the two truths of first import in the teachings of the kingdom, and they are: the attainment of salvation by faith, and faith alone, associated with the revolutionary teaching of the attainment of human liberty through the sincere recognition of truth, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Jesus was the truth made manifest in the flesh, and he promised to send his Spirit of Truth into the hearts of all his children after his return to the Father in heaven.

There is freedom from whatever the oppression may be, and freedom to live in the new and better way.

Questions. How does truth liberate? How has truth played a role in an experience of liberation that you have had?

Planetary destiny

^{143:1.4 (1608.1)} “No matter what blunders your fellow men make in their world management of today, in an age to come the gospel which I declare to you will rule this very world. The ultimate goal of human progress is the reverent recognition of the fatherhood of God and the loving materialization of the brotherhood of man.

How many people today are skeptical or anxious of any long-term hope for the planet’s future? Is this worry one of the main spiritual difficulties of our time? What can your faith do for these people?

 

The will of God

^{1:1.2 (22.5)} The Universal Father never imposes any form of arbitrary recognition, formal worship, or slavish service upon the intelligent will creatures of the universes. The evolutionary inhabitants of the worlds of time and space must of themselves — in their own hearts — recognize, love, and voluntarily worship him. The Creator refuses to coerce or compel the submission of the spiritual free wills of his material creatures. The affectionate dedication of the human will to the doing of the Father’s will is man’s choicest gift to God; in fact, such a consecration of creature will constitutes man’s only possible gift of true value to the Paradise Father. In God, man lives, moves, and has his being; there is nothing which man can give to God except this choosing to abide by the Father’s will, and such decisions, effected by the intelligent will creatures of the universes, constitute the reality of that true worship which is so satisfying to the love-dominated nature of the Creator Father.

 

^{141:2.1 (1588.4)} The night before they left Pella, Jesus gave the apostles some further instruction with regard to the new kingdom. Said the Master: “You have been taught to look for the coming of the kingdom of God, and now I come announcing that this long-looked-for kingdom is near at hand, even that it is already here and in our midst. In every kingdom there must be a king seated upon his throne and decreeing the laws of the realm. And so have you developed a concept of the kingdom of heaven as a glorified rule of the Jewish people over all the peoples of the earth with Messiah sitting on David’s throne and from this place of miraculous power promulgating the laws of all the world. But, my children, you see not with the eye of faith, and you hear not with the understanding of the spirit. I declare that the kingdom of heaven is the realization and acknowledgment of God’s rule within the hearts of men. True, there is a King in this kingdom, and that King is my Father and your Father. We are indeed his loyal subjects, but far transcending that fact is the transforming truth that we are his sons. In my life this truth is to become manifest to all. Our Father also sits upon a throne, but not one made with hands. The throne of the Infinite is the eternal dwelling place of the Father in the heaven of heavens; he fills all things and proclaims his laws to universes upon universes. And the Father also rules within the hearts of his children on earth by the spirit which he has sent to live within the souls of mortal men.

^{141:2.2 (1588.5)} “When you are the subjects of this kingdom, you indeed are made to hear the law of the Universe Ruler; but when, because of the gospel of the kingdom which I have come to declare, you faith-discover yourselves as sons, you henceforth look not upon yourselves as law-subject creatures of an all-powerful king but as privileged sons of a loving and divine Father. Verily, verily, I say to you, when the Father’s will is your law, you are hardly in the kingdom. But when the Father’s will becomes truly your will, then are you in very truth in the kingdom because the kingdom has thereby become an established experience in you. When God’s will is your law, you are noble slave subjects; but when you believe in this new gospel of divine sonship, my Father’s will becomes your will, and you are elevated to the high position of the free children of God, liberated sons of the kingdom.”

This teaching could be regarded as a teaching of eternal truth as applied to Jesus’ place and time—and therefore as ripe for the exercise of restating it to meet the spiritual difficulties of the present generation. Or the teaching could be regarded as address an enduring human problem, “the ascent from the status of servants of God to the joy and liberty of the sons of God.”

People ask how we are to find the will of God. First, it is a matter of the supreme desire to do our Father’s will. Next, it is a matter of what we do. And third, how we do something is even more important than what we do. If our desire is supreme, there is less difficulty with the other factors. The kingdom of heaven includes “faith in the effectiveness of the supreme human desire to do the will of God — to be like God) (140:10.0/1585.7).

The will of God is specified in the commands to love God and the neighbor; in the rule of living, the golden rule; and in various specific duties.

Finding the will of God is a matter of prayer. There are conditions of effective prayer (91:9/1002).

^{91:8.11 (1002.3)} God answers man’s prayer by giving him an increased revelation of truth, an enhanced appreciation of beauty, and an augmented concept of goodness.

 

 

The quest for perfection, becoming like God, being like God, righteousness, the beautiful wholeness of righteousness, character growth, the fruit of the spirit

We all know that Paradise perfection is a long way off. But many do not recognize that there is a sense in which we can be perfect here on earth.

^{1:0.3 (21.3)} The enlightened worlds all recognize and worship the Universal Father, the eternal maker and infinite upholder of all creation. The will creatures of universe upon universe have embarked upon the long, long Paradise journey, the fascinating struggle of the eternal adventure of attaining God the Father. The transcendent goal of the children of time is to find the eternal God, to comprehend the divine nature, to recognize the Universal Father. God-knowing creatures have only one supreme ambition, just one consuming desire, and that is to become, as they are in their spheres, like him as he is in his Paradise perfection of personality and in his universal sphere of righteous supremacy.

For the human being, righteous supremacy at least implies self-mastery. Jesus gave two great teachings on self-mastery; the first was deeply spiritual, the second gave a practical technique to work with. The core of the first one is this sentence:

^{143:2.4 (1609.5)} “By the old way you seek to suppress, obey, and conform to the rules of living; by the new way you are first transformed by the Spirit of Truth and thereby strengthened in your inner soul by the constant spiritual renewing of your mind, and so are you endowed with the power of the certain and joyous performance of the gracious, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

This spiritual transformation has its human complement in the practical method of attaining self-mastery.

^{156:5.4 (1738.3)} “It is not strange that you ask such questions seeing that you are beginning to know the Father as I know him, and not as the early Hebrew prophets so dimly saw him. You well know how our forefathers were disposed to see God in almost everything that happened. They looked for the hand of God in all natural occurrences and in every unusual episode of human experience. They connected God with both good and evil. They thought he softened the heart of Moses and hardened the heart of Pharaoh. When man had a strong urge to do something, good or evil, he was in the habit of accounting for these unusual emotions by remarking: ‘The Lord spoke to me saying, do thus and so, or go here and there.’ Accordingly, since men so often and so violently ran into temptation, it became the habit of our forefathers to believe that God led them thither for testing, punishing, or strengthening. But you, indeed, now know better. You know that men are all too often led into temptation by the urge of their own selfishness and by the impulses of their animal natures. When you are in this way tempted, I admonish you that, while you recognize temptation honestly and sincerely for just what it is, you intelligently redirect the energies of spirit, mind, and body, which are seeking expression, into higher channels and toward more idealistic goals. In this way may you transform your temptations into the highest types of uplifting mortal ministry while you almost wholly avoid these wasteful and weakening conflicts between the animal and spiritual natures.

^{156:5.5 (1738.4)} “But let me warn you against the folly of undertaking to surmount temptation by the effort of supplanting one desire by another and supposedly superior desire through the mere force of the human will. If you would be truly triumphant over the temptations of the lesser and lower nature, you must come to that place of spiritual advantage where you have really and truly developed an actual interest in, and love for, those higher and more idealistic forms of conduct which your mind is desirous of substituting for these lower and less idealistic habits of behavior that you recognize as temptation. You will in this way be delivered through spiritual transformation rather than be increasingly overburdened with the deceptive suppression of mortal desires. The old and the inferior will be forgotten in the love for the new and the superior. Beauty is always triumphant over ugliness in the hearts of all who are illuminated by the love of truth. There is mighty power in the expulsive energy of a new and sincere spiritual affection. And again I say to you, be not overcome by evil but rather overcome evil with good.”

 

The command to be perfect is an invitation command. It expresses such love and mercy, such invigorating faith in us, that we are transformed by embracing it.

 

Righteousness

^{140:3.4 (1570.5)} “Happy are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Next we see the most basic perfection that we can have . . . and how we acquire it.

^{140:10.1 (1584.4)} That evening while teaching in the house, for it had begun to rain, Jesus talked at great length, trying to show the twelve what they must be, not what they must do. They knew only a religion that imposed the doing of certain things as the means of attaining righteousness — salvation. But Jesus would reiterate, “In the kingdom you must be righteous in order to do the work.” Many times did he repeat, “Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” All the while was the Master explaining to his bewildered apostles that the salvation which he had come to bring to the world was to be had only by believing, by simple and sincere faith. Said Jesus: “John preached a baptism of repentance, sorrow for the old way of living. You are to proclaim the baptism of fellowship with God. Preach repentance to those who stand in need of such teaching, but to those already seeking sincere entrance to the kingdom, open the doors wide and bid them enter into the joyous fellowship of the sons of God.” But it was a difficult task to persuade these Galilean fishermen that, in the kingdom, being righteous, by faith, must precede doing righteousness in the daily life of the mortals of earth.

^{140:10.9 (1585.7)} “The kingdom of heaven consists in these three essentials: first, recognition of the fact of the sovereignty of God; second, belief in the truth of sonship with God; and third, faith in the effectiveness of the supreme human desire to do the will of God — to be like God.

^{150:5.2 (1682.4)} “Have you not read in the Scriptures where it says, ‘In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.’ Also where the Father says, ‘My righteousness is near; my salvation has gone forth, and my arms shall enfold my people.’ ‘My soul shall be joyful in the love of my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and has covered me with the robe of his righteousness.’ Have you not also read of the Father that his name ‘shall be called the Lord our righteousness.’ ‘Take away the filthy rags of self-righteousness and clothe my son with the robe of divine righteousness and eternal salvation.’

 

Next we have a higher grade of righteousness that is possible in this world. Here it is not only a matter of faith. There is something to learn.

 

^{155:1.4 (1726.1)} “In all that you do, become not one-sided and overspecialized. The Pharisees who seek our destruction verily think they are doing God’s service. They have become so narrowed by tradition that they are blinded by prejudice and hardened by fear. Consider the Greeks, who have a science without religion, while the Jews have a religion without science. And when men become thus misled into accepting a narrow and confused disintegration of truth, their only hope of salvation is to become truth-co-ordinated — converted.

^{155:1.5 (1726.2)} “Let me emphatically state this eternal truth: If you, by truth co-ordination, learn to exemplify in your lives this beautiful wholeness of righteousness, your fellow men will then seek after you that they may gain what you have so acquired. The measure wherewith truth seekers are drawn to you represents the measure of your truth endowment, your righteousness. The extent to which you have to go with your message to the people is, in a way, the measure of your failure to live the whole or righteous life, the truth-co-ordinated life.”

 

To add repleteness to the concept of truth-coordination, draw on the full range of phases of truth, beauty, and goodness presented in the context of the sketch of the new philosophy of living. These phases culminate in the grandeur of genuine character achievement. That achievement integrates the virtues acquired in each of the other six phases (note that religion’s moral mandates is one of the phases).

 

^{2:7.9 (43.2)} The great mistake of the Hebrew religion was its failure to associate the goodness of God with the factual truths of science and the appealing beauty of art. As civilization progressed, and since religion continued to pursue the same unwise course of overemphasizing the goodness of God to the relative exclusion of truth and neglect of beauty, there developed an increasing tendency for certain types of men to turn away from the abstract and dissociated concept of isolated goodness. The overstressed and isolated morality of modern religion, which fails to hold the devotion and loyalty of many twentieth-century men, would rehabilitate itself if, in addition to its moral mandates, it would give equal consideration to the truths of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience, and to the beauties of the physical creation, the charm of intellectual art, and the grandeur of genuine character achievement.

 

Fruits of the spirit

^{193:2.2 (2054.3)} “Peace be upon you. You rejoice to know that the Son of Man has risen from the dead because you thereby know that you and your brethren shall also survive mortal death. But such survival is dependent on your having been previously born of the spirit of truth-seeking and God-finding. The bread of life and the water thereof are given only to those who hunger for truth and thirst for righteousness — for God. The fact that the dead rise is not the gospel of the kingdom. These great truths and these universe facts are all related to this gospel in that they are a part of the result of believing the good news and are embraced in the subsequent experience of those who, by faith, become, in deed and in truth, the everlasting sons of the eternal God. My Father sent me into the world to proclaim this salvation of sonship to all men. And so send I you abroad to preach this salvation of sonship. Salvation is the free gift of God, but those who are born of the spirit will immediately begin to show forth the fruits of the spirit in loving service to their fellow creatures. And the fruits of the divine spirit which are yielded in the lives of spirit-born and God-knowing mortals are: loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace. If professed believers bear not these fruits of the divine spirit in their lives, they are dead; the Spirit of Truth is not in them; they are useless branches on the living vine, and they soon will be taken away. My Father requires of the children of faith that they bear much spirit fruit. If, therefore, you are not fruitful, he will dig about your roots and cut away your unfruitful branches. Increasingly, must you yield the fruits of the spirit as you progress heavenward in the kingdom of God. You may enter the kingdom as a child, but the Father requires that you grow up, by grace, to the full stature of spiritual adulthood. And when you go abroad to tell all nations the good news of this gospel, I will go before you, and my Spirit of Truth shall abide in your hearts. My peace I leave with you.”

Yes, it is a big job to seek the fullness of perfection-as-righteousness that we can attain in this life. Can we do it?

^{100:7.1 (1101.5)} Although the average mortal of Urantia cannot hope to attain the high perfection of character which Jesus of Nazareth acquired while sojourning in the flesh, it is altogether possible for every mortal believer to develop a strong and unified personality along the perfected lines of the Jesus personality. The unique feature of the Master’s personality was not so much its perfection as its symmetry, its exquisite and balanced unification.

^{100:7.18 (1103.6)} Jesus was the perfectly unified human personality. And today, as in Galilee, he continues to unify mortal experience and to co-ordinate human endeavors. He unifies life, ennobles character, and simplifies experience. He enters the human mind to elevate, transform, and transfigure it. It is literally true: “If any man has Christ Jesus within him, he is a new creature; old things are passing away; behold, all things are becoming new.”

 

 

Jesus’ divine Sonship

^{152:5.6 (1704.5)} The feeding of the five thousand . . . brought an end to the early era of teaching, training, and healing, thereby preparing the way for the inauguration of this last year of proclaiming the higher and more spiritual phases of the new gospel of the kingdom — divine sonship, spiritual liberty, and eternal salvation.

^{162:4.1 (1793.5)} The presence of people from all of the known world, from Spain to India, made the feast of tabernacles an ideal occasion for Jesus for the first time publicly to proclaim his full gospel in Jerusalem. . . . The apostles at last beheld their Master making the bold announcement of his mission on earth before all the world, as it were.

^{196:2.6 (2092.4)} Jesus founded the religion of personal experience in doing the will of God and serving the human brotherhood; Paul founded a religion in which the glorified Jesus became the object of worship and the brotherhood consisted of fellow believers in the divine Christ. In the bestowal of Jesus these two concepts were potential in his divine-human life, and it is indeed a pity that his followers failed to create a unified religion which might have given proper recognition to both the human and the divine natures of the Master as they were inseparably bound up in his earth life and so gloriously set forth in the original gospel of the kingdom.

For examples of Jesus’ public proclamation of his divine Sonship, see the sermon on the light of the world and the discourses on the water of life and on spiritual freedom (Paper 162), and the sermon on the good shepherd (Paper 165).

Additional themes could be listed and discussed, but this is plenty for now.

March 3, 2018