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Jesus adopted:
"Jesus had great difficulty in getting them to understand his personal practice of nonresistance. He absolutely refused to defend himself, and it appeared to the apostles that he would be pleased if they would pursue the same policy. He taught them not to resist evil, not to combat injustice or injury, but he did not teach passive tolerance of wrongdoing.
He never ceased to warn his disciples against the evil practice of retaliation; he made no allowance for revenge, the idea of getting even. He deplored the holding of grudges. He disallowed the idea of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. He discountenanced the whole concept of private and personal revenge, assigning these matters to civil government, on the one hand, and to the judgment of God, on the other. He made it clear to the three that his teachings applied to the individual, not the state. He summarized his instructions up to that time regarding these matters, as:
Love your enemies--remember the moral claims of human brotherhood.
The futility of evil: A wrong is not righted by vengeance. Do not make the mistake of fighting evil with its own weapons.
Have faith--confidence in the eventual triumph of divine justice and eternal goodness. (1579)
Unrealistic and impractical? Maybe, but that is what is asked of us modern, civilized men if we become sincere about following Jesus. Of course, Jesus never intended that we should be passive martyrs enduring all indignities thrust upon us:
"Jesus did not advocate the practice of negative submission to the indignities of those who might purposely seek to impose upon the practitioners of nonresistance to evil, but rather that his followers should be wise and alert in the quick and positive reaction of good to evil to the end that they might effectively overcome evil with good. Forget not, the truly good is invariably more powerful than the most malignant evil. The Master taught a positive standard of righteousness: 'Whosoever wishes to be my disciple, let him disregard himself and take up the full measure of his responsibilities daily to follow me.' And he so lived himself in that 'he went about doing good.'" (1770)
What is it that holds us back so easily from our quest to "be like Jesus?" Is there a way? Well, maybe. The book says, "in every mortal, there exists a dual nature: the inheritance of animal tendencies and the higher urge of spirit endowment." (381)
We Urantians suffer from a double deprivation due to the Caligastia rebellion and the Adamic default, and perhaps because of this fact, we are partially crippled by an abnormal amount of an animal-like component of our natures that inhibits the natural expression of the fruits of the spirit. And so "the dead theory of even the highest religious doctrines is powerless to transform human character or to control mortal behavior. What the world needs today is the truth that your teacher of old declared, 'Not in the word only but also in power and in the holy Spirit. "' (380)
The preceding quotation from The Urantia Book declares that even the highest religious doctrine is powerless to transform us!! Surely our Urantia Books contain the highest religious doctrine on our planet--yet it is powerless to transform us! It goes on: "The seed of theoretical truth is dead, the highest moral concepts without effect, unless and until the divine Spirit breathes upon the forms of truth and quickens the formulas of righteousness."
The bestowal of Jesus has prepared us in two ways to benefit from the fourth and fifth revelations. The book states: "Jesus showed mankind the new way of mortal living whereby human beings may very largely escape the dire consequences of the Caligastia rebellion and most effectively compensate for the deprivations resulting from the Adamic default. 'The spirit of the life of Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of animal living and the temptations of evil and sin. ' 'This is the victory that overcomes the flesh, even your faith."' (382)
Firstly Jesus showed us a new way, then he made his Spirit of Truth available to us.
The transforming power of that gift is evident in what happened to the apostles. "In less than a month after the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, the apostles made more individual progress than during their almost four years of personal and loving association with the Master." (2061)
Regarding the Spirit of Truth, the book states, "the spirit never creates a consciousness of himself, only a consciousness of Michael, the Son. From the beginning Jesus taught that the spirit would not speak of himself. The proof, therefore, of your fellowship with the Spirit of Truth is not to be found in your consciousness of this spirit but rather in your experience of enhanced fellowship with Michael." (2061)
It is not hard to perceive that we Urantians have been provided with a special means to compensate for our disadvantages by virtue of a transforming power that guides us into effective collaboration with our indwelling spirit of the Father. That power comes from the
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