|
Jesus and revelation (continued)
Religion is the revelation to man of his divine and eternal destiny. It is designed to find those values that call forth faith, trust, and assurance--and culminate in worship. It discovers supreme values--superhuman insight that can be had through genuine religious experience.
A lasting social system without a morality predicated on spiritual realities can no more be maintained than could the solar system without gravity.
When there is so much good truth to publish and proclaim, why dwell upon evil?
Experiential religion
In religion, Jesus advocated and followed the method of experience--even as science pursues the technique of experiment. We find God through spiritual insight, but we approach God through the love of the beautiful, pursuit of truth, loyalty to duty, and worship of divine goodness. But of all these values, love is the true guide to real insight.
No matter what the conflict between materialism and the teachings of Jesus may be, eventually Jesus' teachings will fully triumph.
In reality true religion cannot become involved in controversy with science or materialism as it is in no way concerned with material things--only with things of the spirit.
Freedom or initiative in any realm of existence is directly proportional to the degree of spiritual influence and cosmic mind control; that is, in human experience, the degree of actuality of doing the Father's will. And so, when once you start out to find God--and seek to do his will--that is the conclusive proof that God has already found you.
The religion of Jesus stands as the transcendent spiritual summons, calling to the best there is in man to rise above all these legacies of animal evolution and, by grace, attain the moral heights of true human destiny.
Modern culture must become spiritually baptized with a new revelation of Jesus' life.
Religion is only an exalted humanism until it is made divine by the discovery of the reality of the presence of God in personal experience.
Jesus' religion
Jesus' religion is based on personal spiritual relations with the Father and wholly validated by the supreme authority of genuine personal experience.
Jesus' faith was so real and all-encompassing that it absolutely swept away any spiritual doubts and effectively destroyed every conflicting desire.
Jesus' personal faith, spiritual hope, and moral devotion were always correlated with the keen realization of the reality and sacredness of all human loyalties--personal honor, family love, religious obligations, social duty, and economic necessity.
The personal faith of Jesus in the certainty and security of the guidance and protection of the heavenly Father imparted to his unique life a profound endowment of spiritual reality.
As a man of the realm, Jesus brought to God the greatest of all offerings; the consecration and dedication of his own will to the majestic service of doing the divine will. Jesus always and consistently interpreted religion in terms of the Father's will.
God-consciousness
The secret of Jesus' unparalleled religious life was his consciousness of the presence of God and he attained it by intelligent prayer and sincere worship--unbroken communion with God--and not by leadings, visions, or extraordinary religious practices.
Jesus trusted God much as the child trusts a parent. He had a profound confidence in the universe--just such a trust as a child has in its parents.
|
|
