VI — Receiving Grace Quickly*
(* Possibly this is the most esoteric chapter in the book and it is suggested that it be studied carefully. Also, see the quoted passages regarding the Comforter at the end of the previous chapter.)
More wonderful than the key of understanding that the Saviour consciousness is with us, around us, as a contactible, friendly, although invisible presence, is the master key of the perception that, as the Comforter, the Paraclete, this Grace is within us.
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth (believeth in) me shall be (aware that he is) loved of my Father, and (he will know that) I will love him; and will manifest myself unto him (will be an actual state of perfected realization in him and therefore a complete power to bless him on earth as in heaven.)
Is it not a commandment by Jesus that we shall “believe on Him,” risen and ascended, as our saving consciousness?
There are psychically developed people who claim that they have had visions of the risen and ascended Lord in the ethers before them. This is quite possible but psychic phenomena are not spiritual illuminations although such mental manifestations may follow or seem to accompany Holy Spirit revelation. These visions are not necessary accompaniments of divine inspiration, and in Unity it is considered unwise to try to develop psychic power, since we may unleash invisible forces beyond our ability to control. The higher interpretation of Jesus’ promise, “I . . . will manifest myself unto him” is that He will be a “finished” state of soul (thoughts and feelings) for all who love Him. And how can He be this for us if His perfected awareness does not get into us? Only that which is inside us can save us from the ills that afflict the mortal man.
Speaking of the Comforter when He promised Him (It), Jesus said, in St. John 16:14,
“He shall take of mine and declare it unto you.”
He shall take of Jesus’ perfected consciousness and declare that it is now an actual, tangible state of soul in us.
That this Comforter could “come” to us only after Jesus’ ascension—and that therefore that ascension would add to other men’s power of attainment, St. John tells us in chapter 7:39 of his Gospel:
“. . . this spake he (Jesus) of the Spirit which they that believed on Him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
This glorification, the ascension, is described in St. Mark 16:19. There we read, as taking place immediately after Jesus promised the signs that will accompany them that believe in His risen and ascended consciousness as their own, “So then, the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto them, was received up into Heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.”
Generally, although not always, it is the right hand of people that does things in the objective world. There are, of course, the ambidextrous who do things equally well with both hands; and some people who have been outstanding in achievement have been left-handed. However, in Bible symbology the right hand stands for actual, not potential, power to do, to achieve, to perform.
The Christed Jesus sitting at the right hand of God means that God’s executive power, power to accomplish (right hand), is, in Jesus, not now just Christ, the potential ability to manifest good; it is now Christ Jesus, the Word made flesh. It is the state of realization in Jesus, not that He may become Christ in actuality, but that He has become the perfected, finished soul and power of expression of the Christ.
Does it not mean that this is now true of all men, not just Jesus?
Since the Father in one person is one with the Father in all other persons; and since the Christed Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father in Jesus, does not the Christed Jesus sit at the right hand of the Father in all other persons—in you and in me?
Or: since God in Jesus is no longer just the Word but the Word made flesh, is this not true of God in all men—since God in one person is the same as God in all other persons, as the Christian religion teaches?
This means for every individual: God in me is no longer just a potential power to manifest good, but God in me is now a realized ability to demonstrate blessing.
This is the epitome of Grace: that God-in-man, Christ, the Word, the Idea, is now the Word made flesh, the blessing manifest, in and for all men, through the change of the Word to the Word made flesh, in Jesus.
Again we postulate: The perfect Saviour knowing is omnipresent. Since this is so, must not this Holy consciousness be within as well as with every man? Can any man’s spiritual identity be outside the universal infinite? Obviously no.
Is not the following true?
Before Jesus’ coming, there was in man and contactible by him in the silence, the intelligence of God the Father that spiritual man, Christ, the divine Idea of man in man, was perfect, and that this perfection could be expressed by man as divine fulfillment of any good desire. But there was in man no consciousness to the point of sustained realization that this divine Idea of man was manifest, or fulfilled in desired expression. Jesus contributed that awareness—the Comforter.
Logically, man can accept this: Jesus changed something in me—Christ to Christ Jesus.
I am greater than I have thought; for His Name is in me.
(* Greater, not in human egotism, but in His infinite love and wisdom and power of divine, harmonious living.)
With regard to any desired blessing, the Holy Trinity (three-way manner of God-Mind activity) is not now just:
- God the Father, Divine Mind,
- God the Son, Christ in us, a potential power in us to manifest God,
- God the Holy Spirit, a possible expression through us of the whole nature of God, from the Son, the Word.
Instead, through Jesus’ merits, His realization, in us as the Comforter, the Holy Trinity is now:
- God the Father, Divine Mind,
- God the Son manifest, Christ Jesus in us, a realized power in us to manifest God,
- God the Holy Spirit Comforter, an actual, factual realization and expression through us of the whole nature of God, from the Son manifest, the Word made flesh, in the form that we desire it to appear.
The second part of the Trinity is now no longer just Christ the Word, but Christ Jesus, the Word made flesh.
With St. Paul we declare:
“I do not make void the grace of God, for if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for naught.” If righteousness (realization and manifestation of Christhood) is through the law (of individual, single-handed soul development) then Christ (really the imperfect consciousness in Jesus) died for naught. If there is not this Grace now available—the perfected consciousness of Jesus permeating the universal thought atmosphere and “added to” the Christ in us to transform the inner Christ into Christ Jesus—then all that was imperfect in Jesus died for naught, as far as we are concerned; but surely we do not believe that it did.
Obviously it can be no more impossible nor improbable to demonstrate over some problem by having faith in the ascended consciousness of Jesus in us than it is to triumph over the trouble by having faith in the prayer of another person who is able to know the “nothingness” of it. (Knowing the “nothingness” of a difficulty is being “ascended” about it.) Another person’s realization of the nothingness of our problem must “touch” our spirit and quicken it to divine activity in our consciousness before his prayer can be answered for us—witii anything even approaching a permanent healing.
The ascended Jesus is the great healer, the intercessor for the race, the eternal “pray-er” for all. “Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25). That we cannot see Jesus with our human eyes cannot make His divine faith any the less available, or powerful, to heal us; because His consciousness is now within us. Moreover, as a universalized state of realization of truth, existing in every man, it must be able to heal more people than Jesus as a person could do.
“I do not make void the grace of God.”
Jesus has changed something in me—Christ to Christ Jesus. I am greater than I have thought; for His Name is in me.
© 1947, Crichton Russ Boatwright
