Christ

Christ – in the incarnation he is known to us as: Jesus of Nazareth – is a very attractive and important personality. A personality to whom love – not in name, but in actual fact – is everything. The greatest of all.

Here, I am not thinking of him in the evangelical tradition, but rather as he comes to meet us in Toward the Light.

According to the biblical tradition, he is to many the crucified and resurrected saviour, God’s only begotten son, who by his death and resurrection has atoned for all human sin.

And throughout the ages, this faith, this hope, have evoked quite a few noble feelings, sincere feelings of repentance and many loving and merciful actions between people.

Through the incarnation of Christ, we see human suffering but also beauty: We are inspired to want to help those who need our help, and we commit ourselves to love.

And yet, it should be said, based on Toward the Light, that a large part of people’s love, gratitude and devotion to Christ rests on false pretences:

Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, has not atoned for our sins, has not borne them on the cross, and faith in his (eternal) life-giving death and resurrection makes no difference in relation to what we ourselves are guilty of.

Christ is not God, and taking the sacrament where people believe they obtain forgiveness of sins by drinking his blood and eating his flesh does not settle the score with God either.

I say this in the name of God Almighty. That is how it is; no different than that.

But this fact does not diminish Christ; it rather makes him far greater. Because Toward the Light teaches us that love, rather than death, is greatest of all.

We should not love Christ for his death and (alleged physical) resurrection, or based on our misconception of him as the final atoning sacrifice, but for his life and what he sought to give us: Love, the simple and beautiful teaching of how we should live and love each other and take responsibility.

He did not, as Jesus the man, fully manage to spread this teaching. Instead, he is passing it on through Toward the Light.

The fact that Christ did not manage to spread his teachings as a man was mainly due to him suffering defeat  – like so many before and after him – in his attempt to break the power of darkness by winning back Satan to the Light and God through forgiveness and prayer.

You can read more about this in Toward the Light.

But later – as a discarnate spirit – Christ was a key figure in the process that led to Satan’s (Ardor’s) return to God.

This is also what I mean when I say that Toward the Light does not diminish Christ, but makes him greater:

He was key to breaking the power of darkness, and he has, through the Revelation Toward the Light passed on to us the simple and easy-to-understand teachings about some of God’s laws on life, and on how we should live to be God’s children in spirit and in truth (see the Speech of Christ in the work).

Therefore, we should not love Christ for his death and ‘resurrection’, but rather love him back for his rich love for us – as our elder brother, not as God.