Series 1 - Lesson 6 - Annotation 15
What has man to do with the working out of his own salvation?
15. Man has a great deal to do with the work of salvation for he is a co-worker with his Father-Mother God. At first he may only be able to acknowledge the gift in awe and reverence, but he must come to the place of accepting it. God gives and man receives through faith. The reception of the gift is as vital as the giving of it. The acceptance of the gift means that man must make his mind receptive to the inflow of the spiritual ideas that make up the gift of salvation (the indwelling Christ). Through faith man must acknowledge the infinite grace and mercy of God and his own relationship as a son. Then he must use the divine ideas that come to him as his inheritance. In this way they are incorporated in his consciousness and spontaneously and naturally bring forth good in his body and environment.
Our environment is God. We are one with Him, and salvation is here and now. Our responsibility is to become conscious of it. As soon as we shake off the belief that we are only a product of the flesh and begin to claim our divinity as a son of God, we have our first perception of salvation. As our beliefs in separation, limitation, and difference are dissolved from consciousness, and replaced by faith in our unity, oneness, with God, humanity, the universe, our perception of life grows clearer. Salvation is of the Lord, but the attaining of the consciousness of it is dependent on man's receptivity to and use of the revelations of Spirit. Its perpetuity is dependent on man's constant application of the spiritual principles (divine ideas) that make up the Christ principle.
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Preceding Entry: How does salvation come to men?
Following Entry: What is the first step in putting off the "old man" (Eph. 4:22)? What is the first step in putting on the "new man" (Eph. 4:24)?
