32nd & 33rd Days of Lent – Who is Jesus?

John 1:1-5 is easily the most esoteric passage in the entire Bible. It reaches back in time to Genesis 1:1-3 – “God created the heavens and the earth in the very beginning. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water. And God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” (Lamsa’s translation from the Aramaic of the Peshitta)nnJohn 1:1-5 reads “The Word was in the beginning, and that very Word was with God, and God was that Word. The same was in the beginning with God. Everything came to be by his hand; and without him not even one thing that was created came to be. The life was in him, and the life is the light of men. And the same light shines in darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.” (Lamsa)nnThe concept of the “Word” has been prominent in Greek philosophy since Heraclitus in the 6th century B.C.E. (Harper’s Bible Dictionary) It was also widely used in Jewish wisdom literature and in Philo’s writings. The Greek word translated “Word” is “logos,” meaning the spoken word. As used in John 1, the Word (Logos) is an independent, personified “Word of God.” (Walter’s Bauer’s A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament)nnI will allow Charles Fillmore to explain this very abstract concept. “In pure metaphysics there is but one word, the Word of God. This is the original creative Word or thought of Being. It is the ‘God said’ of Genesis…. [The word “Logos”] cannot be adequately translated into English. In the original it denotes wisdom, judgment, power, and in fact all the inherent potentialities of Being. This divine Logos was and always is in God; in fact it is God as creative power. Divine Mind creates under law; that is spiritual law. Man may get a comprehension of the creative process of Being by analyzing the action of his own mind. First is mind, then the idea in mind of what the act is to be, then the act itself. Thus the Word and the divine process of creating are identical. Apart from mind nothing can be made. Even man, in his forming and bringing anything into manifestation, uses the same creative process that God used; to the degree that the qualities of the one Mind enter into man’s thought in the process, his work will be enduring.”nn“The divine idea—the Christ or Word of God—is always everywhere present.” (Charles Fillmore, Mysteries of John)nnJesus became a prototype human being in whose likeness we can pattern our lives. This is why Jesus would state in John 14:12 – “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” The Apostle Paul taught in Phiippians 2:5 – “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” We are to become an anointed one, a christed being—just like Jesus. Remember Jesus’ parable of the vine in John 15—with Jesus as the vine and us as the branches, we are of the same substance.nn“The Christ” is a cosmic energy. The Greek verb “chrio” means to anoint …. “Christos” is an adjective describing the person who has been anointed. In the Bible, “Christos” is frequently used as an appellative or title/name. (Bauer, pgs. 886-887) Thus, Jesus the Christ means Jesus, the one who has been anointed. Jesus, the prototype man, became Jesus the Christ. nnThe Christ energy is “the only begotten Son of God.” Jesus became the Anointed One by allowing the light of life to so permeate his consciousness that he became a Son of God. You and I are also to become a Son/Daughter of God by attaining the mind that was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5) … by becoming perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48) nnJesus, by his crucifixion and resurrection, demonstrated for humanity that the physical body can be so saturated with Light, or Christ energy, that it can physically ascend into higher dimensions of reality. “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.” (John 17:21)nnWho is Jesus? A Wayshower … prototype human being … a Christed One … a perfect One … a Son of God. One we are to emulate, not worship!