"I taught them to say 'Our Father,' for He was their Father as He was my Father, and if they did His will, and so overcame sin, they were truly my brethren,2 and were partakers with me of that true life which I revealed unto them. "I prayed unto God as Lord of heaven and earth.3 So I taught them that my Father answered prayer, and taught them to pray to Him. I taught them to ask for blessings of the Father in my name. "In 5 my last acts upon earth, my agony in Gethsemane and death on the cross, I prayed to the Father-my Father and their Father. "If I had taught them that I was God, I would not have worshipped, and prayed unto, myself." 66 * * * Why and how could men so misconstrue my mission and my nature? Could they not comprehend that I was sent forth from these psychic realms as a spiritual being endowed to do the work that I did? To unfold unto them the way and the destiny of that life which reposes in the bosom of the Father's love? "While I was on earth men revered 6 me and besought me for my blessings of healing and of the spirit, which I bestowed upon them by the power of my Father; I asked and demanded of them in return for my love that they love me and the Father through me, above all earthly things, yea, above their own lives. But I taught them to worship God. "I did not teach them that I was the Father. "I did not teach them that I was one and the same in being with the Father; but I taught them that I was one Compare: 1 Mat. 5; 6-15. Luke 6; 35. Luke 11; 1-5. 3 Mat. II; 25. Mark 135, and 6; 46. Luke 10; 21. 4 Mat. 18; 19. John 16: 23, 26, 27. 5 Mark 14; 35.-40. Luke 22; 42. Mat. 26; 39. Luke 23; 46. See what Schaff says of the "Reverence given to Christ, as distin guished from "Worship" in Schaff's Com. on Mat, page 151. that bear witness of myself, and the Father who sent me was another, who also bear witness of me.7 For it was written in their law that the testimony of two was true.7 "I taught them that there was unity between me and the Father, as there was between each holy soul and the Father, and that I was in union with the Father, as my disciples were with me; 8 but I taught that I was distinct from the Father, and was His Son, and that I was one, and the Father was another.9 "I taught them that I was sent of the Father to do His work, and that I did not do mine own will but the Father's will.10 "I taught them that they who received me, received Him that sent me; " and I called upon them to believe in me as one sent by the Father; for in so accepting me, they must needs believe in Him who sent me, and that they might thus have faith in God. "Thus I taught them that they might receive of me, as by authority, those spiritual truths which assured unto them this eternal life, that we here know, and which there they know not of. "For they knew not of this eternal life in the spirit, and I proclaimed it, and demonstrated it, to them in my life and works. "I showed them the Father, for I taught them that I was sent to them by Him to bear them His love and mercy, His holiness and righteousness; to teach them in my life of love of His love and compassion for them; and so constrain them that they should deeply repent 12 of their sin, and 7 John 5; 31, 32, 37. John 8; 13, 14-18. 8 John 17; 21-23. John 16; 27. 9 John 5; 31, 32, 37. John 8; 13, 14, 18. 10 Mat. 26; 36-44. Mark 14; 36. Luke 22; 42, 43. 11 Mat. 10; 40. 12 Compare: Luke 13; 1-5, and 3; 3. evil, even unto remission,1 renunciation of their sins; and should turn to the Father, and accept of His love, and in their lives overcome all sin and grow into His righteousness. In my life, and even unto my death, I taught them remission of their sin and evil ways, and how to live unto the Father. "I went into that realm of sin; became as a servant unto them; gave my life in my fleshly body to sinful powers as a ransom 2 for them, that by my life there I might show them the way of relief from the bondage of sin which they had brought upon themselves by their evil habits and disobedience, which kept them from all knowledge of true life. "Thus I became a ransom for them to their enemy (a), which was sin, submitting myself unto all shame and I Mat. 26; 28. Luke 24; 47. Luke 3; 3. 2 Mat. 20; 28, Mark 10; 45. "to rescue,' means "to de means (a) NOTE-The verb "To ransom,' liver from an enemy," to release from bondage or the power and control of an enemy. As a noun "ransom "that which procures the release of a captive or of captured property "(Webster-Blackstone). Bearing these definitions in mind, it is very plain and rational to comprehend and interpret what Christ means when He speaks of His becoming a ransom for men, and of ransoming them. The paraphrase given in the text of this book makes Christ's work in this respect plain, rational, and comprehensible. Who, or what, was the enemy of men, that they needed to be delivered from? Not God, their Father, for we are His " offspring," says Paul; we are His "children," says Christ; He loves us with "an everlasting love," and "His mercy endureth forever," says the Psalmist; we are the creatures of the Infinite Power," says Science; what only power or thing in the universe is the real enemy of man and of his happiness and greatness? Sin! Evil! the perversion of that moral order of our perfect growth and development; which sin arises and abides only in the free, personal human soul and life, by which men are perverted and enslaved. Christ came and submitted Himself to this material body and environment, with all their limitations and temptations and trials, in order that He might make plain in His life the "way" of "deliverance" out of sinful enslavement, and "proclaim (i. e., declare, teach and establish) release to the captives," and "set at liberty them that are bruised" (Luke 4; 18). And in all His words and gospel He taught that He came "to save men from their 66 travail and death that I might be enabled to teach them deliverance from sin, and show them how to vanquish it in their nature. "God was not their enemy demanding a ransom—for He loved the children of men so dearly that He sent me unto them to teach them of His love, and to lead them unto Him. "The Father was not their enemy, nor had He vengeance against the children of men, nor hate, that needed to be appeased by bloody sacrifices of innocent victims. "For the prophetic teachers of old had taught that, 'Sacrifice and oblation, Thou dost not desire, but Thou hast opened ears for me. "Burnt-offering and sin-offering Thou wouldst not, but that I should come to do thy will. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a lowly and a contrite heart, O God.' 1 "So the prophet Isaiah taught: "Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha. "To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your victims? saith the Lord. I desire not holocausts of rams and fatlings, the blood of calves, and sheep and goats. "When ye come to appear before me, who hath required these things at your hands?' 66 6 Offer sacrifices no more, your new moons and festivals I cannot abide; your assemblies are wicked. sins," and to teach them "salvation from their sins." Both Christ and the Apostles emphasized the truth that men were in bondage to sin, and not to God, as an enemy, and that it was release from this captivity which Christ came to proclaim. 99.66 Grant that God was angry with men on account of their sins, how would a sacrifice, made to appease His wrath, “release,” ransom," men from the sinful perversions and tendencies and propensities incurred by their free, self-choosing, self-debased, personal selves? I 40th Psalm and other Psalms. 66 6 My soul hateth your solemnities, when you stretch forth your hands I turn away Mine eyes, for your hands are full of blood.* "So the prophet Jeremias taught : "I, the Lord, spake not to your fathers, and I commanded them not in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt offerings and sacrifices. "But this one thing I commanded them, saying, Hearken to My voice, and walk in My way. "But they have set their abominations in the house that is called by My name, to pollute it.' "So I taught the children of men when I was on earth that God was full of yearning love for them, that He hated not them, but those sins and evils that kept His children away from Him, and that He desired always that they should abide holily and sweetly in the bosom of His tender compassion. "I nowhere taught them that our blessed Father was full of wrath against them, that needed to be placated by the bloody sacrifices of innocent victims, writhing and quivering in gory pain and death before Him. But that He desired them to accept of His tender love for them and of His light and truth, which I went to earth to bear to them, and to illustrate to them in my life of light and love, that by so doing they might cease from their sins which alone kept them from perfect life and love and union with the Father. "All these truths I bore them in my life and work and teaching, as living bread and water sent down to them from this heaven of God, and I called upon them to eat and drink of these spiritual realities and so have eternal life. "I taught them that as they were loved by me and by the Father, so they must love the Father, love me, and love one * See also teaching in Amos, 5th chap., 14, 15, 21, 24 verses. |