REFERENCES
To
our universe and all its inhabited worlds the Sovereign Son
is, to all practical intents and purposes, God. 33:1.4
Though
the Spirit of Truth is poured out upon all flesh, this spirit
of the Son is almost wholly limited in function and power by man's
personal reception of that which constitutes the sum and substance
of the mission of the bestowal Son. 34:5.5
Even
on Urantia, these seraphim teach the everlasting truth: If your
own mind does not serve you well, you can exchange it for the mind
of Jesus of Nazareth, who always serves you well. 48:6.15
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." 100:7.18
Jesus
was and is the new and living way whereby man can come into
the divine inheritance which the Father has decreed shall be his
for but the asking. 101:6.10
Jesus
made it plain that he had come to establish personal and eternal
relations with men which should forever take precedence over all
other human relationships. 141:7.5
On
both friends and foes he exercised a strong and peculiarly fascinating
influence. Multitudes would follow him for weeks, just to hear his
gracious words and behold his simple life. Devoted men and women
loved Jesus with a well-nigh superhuman affection. And the better
they knew him the more they loved him. And all this is still true;
even today and in all future ages, the more man comes to know this
God-man, the more he will love and follow after him. 149:2.14
These
gentiles were not afraid of Jesus; they dared to accept his
message. All down through the ages men have not been unable to comprehend
Jesus; they have been afraid to. 156:2.4
You
learn about God from Jesus by observing the divinity of his
life, not by depending on his teachings. From the life of the Master
you may each assimilate that concept of God which represents the
measure of your capacity to perceive realities spiritual and divine,
truths real and eternal. The finite can never hope to comprehend
the Infinite except as the Infinite was focalized in the time-space
personality of the finite experience of the human life of Jesus
of Nazareth.
Jesus
well knew that God can be known only by the realities of experience;
never can he be understood by the mere teaching of the mind. Jesus
taught his apostles that, while they never could fully understand
God, they could most certainly know him, even as they had
known the Son of Man. You can know God, not by understanding what
Jesus said, but by knowing what Jesus was. Jesus was a revelation
of God. 169:4.3&4
Jesus
is the spiritual lens in human likeness which makes visible
to the material creature Him who is invisible. He is your elder
brother who, in the flesh, makes known to you a Being of
infinite attributes whom not even the celestial hosts can presume
fully to understand. 169:4.13
"You
must abide in me, and I in you; the branch will die if it is
separated from the vine. As the branch cannot bear fruit except
it abides in the vine, so neither can you yield the fruits of loving
service except you abide in me. Remember: I am the real vine, and
you are the living branches. He who lives in me, and I in him, will
bear much fruit of the spirit and experience the supreme joy of
yielding this spiritual harvest. If you will maintain this living
spiritual connection with me, you will bear abundant fruit. If you
abide in me and my words live in you, you will be able to commune
freely with me, and then can my living spirit so infuse you that
you may ask whatsoever my spirit wills and do all this with the
assurance that the Father will grant us our petition." 180:2.1
Christianity
has indeed done a great service for this world, but what is
now most needed is Jesus. The world needs to see Jesus living again
on earth in the experience of spirit-born mortals who effectively
reveal the Master to all men. It is futile to talk about a revival
of primitive Christianity; you must go forward from where you find
yourselves. Modern culture must become spiritually baptized with
a new revelation of Jesus' life and illuminated with a new understanding
of his gospel of eternal salvation. And when Jesus becomes thus
lifted up, he will draw all men to himself. Jesus' disciples should
be more than conquerors, even overflowing sources of inspiration
and enhanced living to all men. 195:10.1
To
"follow Jesus" means to personally share his religious faith
and to enter into the spirit of the Master's life of unselfish service
for man. One of the most important things in human living is to
find out what Jesus believed, to discover his ideals, and to strive
for the achievement of his exalted life purpose. Of all human knowledge,
that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of
Jesus and how he lived it. 196:1.3
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