Could I have chosen a more triggering title…
What does it mean to be “saved?”
“Salvation is understood as the hope of eternal life in communion with God in heaven.”
A statement which seems at first glance, pretty straight forward. Many Christians take it at face value and will agree that this statement, broken down into it’s simplest form, means thusly:
My soul will go to heaven to be with God when this earthly form expires. Ie. I (my soul) will go to heaven and live forever there with God if I am saved, and if I am not saved, when my body dies, my soul goes to hell to suffer everlasting torment.
In a nutshell: In the minds of most Christians, to be saved means that you are saved from hell, and your soul given everlasting life in heaven.
This belief is based on the premise that everlasting life only happens in heaven, after your body has died. And that the only time you get to be with God is there, in heaven, as a soul, after your body has died.
I see things a little differently.
Catholics prescribes to the belief that God calls us all to be holy, in essence, to be saints. They believe that ONLY saints enter heaven. It is not good enough to be “saved” in the strictly Christian sense. We must be TRANSFORMED. Made HOLY. Sanctified. So that we SEE God the way that Jesus did, KNOW God the way Jesus did.
“And I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am going, you may also be” -John 14:3
I see Christ as a SPIRIT, a spirit that came to fruition in the man called Jesus, who was ordained to be the man who would manifest this spirit, the spirit and essence of God.
A spirit of Truth and Love and Obedience and Humility and Servitude. A spirit that can and SHOULD become part of our own psyches, the force to transform the mind and soul.
“Believe you not that I am in the Father and that the Father is in Me?” John 14:11
Adonai’s own spirit resided in Jesus and Jesus resided in Gods heart, He could not have performed the miracles that He did if this were not the case.
To reside in the heart of God means to be Obedient to His will, Humbled to the point of ego death, in essence, an empty vessel to carry out the will of He who sent us all out into the world to discover this Truth for ourselves.
Jesus was the first and only human to fully embody Gods spirit, He was the first to achieve the empty vessel like state, the humility and obedience, necessary to obtain this state. And He was ORDAINED to do this, from the beginning of time.
In fact, the spirit of Christ WAS with God in the beggining, at creation.
“In the beggining was the Word, and the Word was with God and the word WAS God.” John 1:1
” In Him was life, and the life was the light of man…there was a man named John, and He came to give testimony of the light.” John 1:4-7
And so Jesus was born into the world, with the spirit of Christ. He was half divine, half man.
Was Jesus perfectly divine? I do not believe that He was nor could He have been, for the sacrifice He made to hold any water.
If God came to earth, knowing COMPLETELY that He was God…there would be no fear in Him, for what is an earthly death to God? There would be no need of faith, for why would God need to have faith in what He KNEW to be true?
That would not be a sacrifice at all, like an adult pretending to lose at a game to make a child feel good about themself. The adult would not feel the pain of that loss at all and the win would not be real. No, Jesus was made half human, He thought He was that child, and He felt the pain of his sacrifice.
In the garden of Gethsemany, Jesus asks for the cup to pass from Him..and He cried tears of blood, so deep was His anguish in the knowledge of what He must suffer.
Jesus also knew He was God yes, BUT the human side of Him, the part of Him grounded in flesh and therefore the ignorance of “sin” ( I find it annoying how easily Christian speak has worked it’s way into my writing but believe me… there is not an easier way to say these things. I can call the flesh “ego” and I can call sin “acts which cause unconsciousness” and I can call “unconsciousness” disconnect from God” and sometimes I will, but sometimes…I’ll stick to biblical terms because lets face it…there won’t be many non Christians reading this article.) Where was I? Ah yes…
Jesus also knew He was God yes, BUT the human side of Him, the part of Him grounded in flesh and therefore the ignorance of “sin”…doubted. Because that is what it means to be human, that is what it means to be vulnerable to the attack of he who plants doubt and clouds our knowledge of who we were created to be. (I am talking about Satan. Who is not so much the ENEMY of God as he is the embodiment of that which is NOT God, ie. Evil.)
Also, this is what it means to be called to have FAITH. For what good is faith if we KNOW?
So, Jesus lived a dual life, inside His mind and outside of it.
I imagine He fought mental wars against the forces of evil just as any human would do.
An angel on one shoulder and a demon on the other.
The big difference being…His faith. His connection to God, and the presence of the Holy spirit AND the spirit of Christ within Him gave Him power to continuously defeat that evil. And so…He was Christ, the faithful, the obedient and humble. God on earth. He became that which He was made to be, over, I believe, many a lifetime.
There are passages in the bible which hint at reincarnation but since the adoption of this philosophy into eastern spiritual practice it has become something of a swear word amongst Christians. I WILL SPEAK MORE ON THIS IN ANOTHER ARTICLE AND PROVIDE BIBLICAL REFERENCE TOO.
“But you see me: Because I live, and you shall live. In that day you shall know that I am in my Father: and you in me and I in you.”
“He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, He it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father: and I will love him and manifest myself to him”
If anyone love me he will keep my word. And my Father will love him and we will come to him and will make our abode with him.
So what exactly is the point of this article? Why am I telling Christians that they are not REALLY saved, until they are sanctified, and begin to be transformed by the spirit of Christ, until nothing of their impure flesh remains to marr their perception of God?
Because I perceive that ALL Christians are stopping short of the goal that God has for them.
I believe that Christ will come again, but I am still uncertain of the specifics of His coming.
Will He come again manifested as Jesus, in the same bodily form?
Or will His spirit come again, manifesting this time through humans already alive? Humans transformed BY the spirit?
Will Jesus bring the kingdom, or will Gods kingdom come, when God’s will is done…on earth as it is in heaven?
“Neither shall they say: behold here, or behold there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:21
And to non Christians, why does this matter?
I think it is an undeniable fact that, if the world were ruled by men and women manifesting the spirit of Christ, that the world not be in the mess that it is in.
There would be no inequality, for inequality is a byproduct of greed. There would be no violence, for violence in a byproduct of ignorance, the need to control, prejudice and again…greed. There would be no misunderstandings between religions because Truth would shine a light on long held misconceptions of exactly WHO God is…because the spirit of Christ comes to shake things up and dispels such delusions.
Was Christ not killed by the Jews for this very reason?
We are called to be holy, and not by our own strength, because no ways are we strong enough to overcome the ruler of this world, who is Satan. It is only through full surrender to God, and to His spirit, Christ, that we can be strengthened and transformed. And only the faithful will surrender and obey. It goes against the very NATURE of what it is to be human, obedience and humility. Almost as if, our very nature is intrinsically linked to the nature of he who manifests that which is not God..ie Satan.
Adonai tells us to pray (1 thessalonians) and Jesus tells us HOW. (Luke 11:1)
Jesus tells us that only those who obey God’s will, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Mathew 7:21)
Jesus also tells us that He will only reveal himself to those that love Him and that to love Him means to obey His commandments. (John 14:21-24)
I am not “sola scriptura” but I do believe that these verses alone are enough to blow “salvation through faith alone” out of the water.
God allows mistakes and oversights and if I have made any in this article I know I am forgiven so long as I admit fault and ask forgiveness. God knows.. my intellect has fooled me before.
I am open, as always, to debates and questions.
I will end in prayer
God, Adonai, please show us who you are. Send your spirit to transform our hearts and open our eyes. Be there to comfort us when we awaken and begin to see the life we have lost to sin and ignorance, give us the strength to turn away from sin and the humility to ask for forgiveness. Touch the hearts of non-believers in such a way that it is no longer possible to deny your existence. Free us from bondage. Protect us from Satan and his army of demons who move undetected amongst us, causing generational trauma and turning hearts to stone. SHOW THEM TRUTH ADONAI. Only You can.
Amen.
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fromtheedgeofsanity.com 
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