Page 194
Read John 19:1-42.
Jesus' crucifixion on Calvary was a final step in a work that had been going on in Him for thirty-three years, and when He arose He was entirely free from the carnal mind with all its limitations. He had overcome all the carnal tendencies which He had taken on that He might free the race from its bondage.
The word crucifixion means the crossing out in consciousness of certain errors that have become fixed states of mind; it is the enactment by a master of the final extinction of carnal mind, the giving up of the whole personality in order that the Christ Mind may be expressed in all its fullness. This is represented by the crucifixion of Jesus. Calvary means "the place of a skull." The carnal mind has appropriated the brain and its skull and it is here that the final battle is fought. Every time we give up error there is a crucifixion.
The three days Jesus was in the tomb represent the three steps in overcoming error. First, nonresistance; second, the taking on of divine activity, or receiving the will of God; third, the assimilation and fulfillment of the divine will.
I deny the self that I may unite with the selfless. I give up the mortal that I may attain the immortal. I dissolve the thought of the physical body that I may realize the spiritual body. This is a mental process with a physical effect.
I affirm:
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."
