WE WANT to talk with you in this article about a very great Truth, one which very few on earth understand in its wonderful significance and reality. This Truth is that of Jesus Christ.

If we should say that perhaps only one in a million really knows just who and what is Jesus Christ, before we finish this talk you will comprehend what we mean. For the mental picture of the man, Jesus of Nazareth, stands in the way of men’s understanding Him; a picture created by the illustrations in Bibles and books, the symbolic story of His life in the Bible itself, the teachings of the church, and finally the accepted beliefs of almost the whole world of Christianity.

Our reason for making this definite and unusual statement is that Jesus Christ was and is God, Himself! And we will try to prove it, and in such a way that you will know Him as He is, and as God intends that every man sooner or later shall know Him.

We wish that everyone who reads this could have access to the editorial on “Our True Self,” published in the January, 1934, issue of THE INNER LIFE; for we would like to have you study it carefully as a preparation for what we now have to say. It contains some very wonderful truths so plainly stated, and which leads up to what follows, that it would make all much easier of comprehension for those who are in possession of those truths.

Jesus Christ was not a man, which is why there is so much mystery about His birth. He was the Holy Spirit of God, the actual Image and Likeness of God, appearing in the form and in the nature of man. But only so God could show to man what He intends every man to become, the pattern or example for every man to see and visualize, in order that through the cooperation of man’s mind and its creative power, He can grow every man into Christ’s Image; until all humanity takes on the likeness of Jesus Christ, and thus through Christ will return unto God, the Father of all.

Now let us again consider that wonderfully illuminating statement, “God is All in all.” How can God be All in all without His Life, His Consciousness, His Power, His Nature, being likewise in all? Then He, God, must be the “Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” According to St. John, in the first chapter of his Gospel he plainly states that Jesus Christ is the Light that lighteth every man. But he tells us also that the “Light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.”

This is all too mystical for anyone fully to comprehend until he is able to see the key which is given you when we say that God alone is the Light which lighteth every man; for is He not All in all? With this key and what we have said above, that Jesus is God, Himself, and that He is the Holy Spirit of God, the Light that is the life of every man, then you can understand the meaning of the following marvelous words of St. John:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

“The Word was in the beginning with God.

“All things were made by him (the Word Who was God); and without him was not anything made that was made.

“In Him (the Word, Jesus Christ, God) was life, and the life was the light of men.”

Study these words carefully, especially in connection with what we just said and with what follows in the same chapter, where it tells of God sending John to bear witness of the Light Who was to come, He Who is the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Now listen;

“He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.” (This can only mean that God was already in the world in every man, and that when He came in His Perfect Form as Jesus Christ, the world knew Him not.)

“He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.

“But as many as received Him (or recognized Him as God), to them gave He power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe in His name (have faith in His promises and His power).”

Just think what that means, dear friends; that all of us who recognize and accept Jesus as God, and who believe in His promises and power as of God, will be given the power to become Sons of God, and to become like Jesus in every way!

Which also means that we become newly “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” For does this not then at once connect us in consciousness with God Himself, Who is not only in us, but Who is all that we are, being All in all?

“And (therefore, God as Jesus Christ) the Word was made flesh, and (actually) dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory (we who know Him as God), the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Do you begin to get a glimpse now of the meaning of the “only begotten of the Father?” How Jesus was and, in the light of the foregoing, is the “only begotten Son?” Listen to Jesus’ own words:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but should have everlasting life.”

Jesus undoubtedly referred to Himself, when uttering these words; for there had never been and was not then in the world anyone but Himself whom He could have meant. St. John likewise indicates Him as the “only begotten Son” in the following words that succeed his statement that while the law was given by Moses, “grace and truth” came by Jesus Christ:

“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.”

What can this mean? Surely but one thing—that only Jesus Christ, from out the bosom or heart of God in every man, declares and outpictures the Father. Therefore Jesus Christ must be not only the Holy Spirit of God manifested in human form for thirty-three years, nineteen hundred years ago, but He must be that same Spirit of God that lighteth and forms the life of every man in the world today.

We cannot get away from it. Jesus Christ, to be the “only begotten Son,” must be the Son of God that is in every man. Therefore, Jesus Christ was not a man; but He is the life, the consciousness, and the potential nature of every man. He, deep within every man, is the life, the intelligence, and the power that is growing every man, and Who eventually, when he brings them to their fruitage, will express His perfect nature and manifest His perfect Self in every man. For He is God in expression.

NO MAN has ever seen God, or could see God in His Infinite Being. Knowing this, God sent His “only begotten Son,” or sent forth His Holy Spirit, a Divine thought-form of Himself, the Word made flesh, to show unto the minds of men an Example of what He wanted them to be, and to teach them the only way how to become like Him—by believing on Him and by following every step of the way He pointed.

Just so long as you allow yourself to be confused by the two—God and Jesus, and look upon Jesus as a man, and do not see Him as God, you are not truly following and worshipping God. Jesus saw this plainly, even in His own disciples, which caused Him to say to them:

“It is expedient that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart I will send Him unto you.”

“And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment;

“Of sin, because they believe not in Me (as being God);

“Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more (when they will have to look only to God within themselves);

“Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged (for then must all determine what is not of God and what is only self,—self, the prince of this world).

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now (because they do not yet know God, the Christ within themselves).

“Howbeit, when the Spirit of Truth (the Comforter) is come, He will guide you unto all truth.

“He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.

“All things that the Father hath are Mine; therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you.”

God, as Jesus Christ, cometh to His own, but His own knoweth Him not. Their eyes are blinded by self, the prince of this world.

Yet in order that they might not be left without a sure guide and teacher in the world, He planted in the minds of men the seed picture of Jesus Christ and the great truths that He taught, that this picture and these truths might live throughout the ages and be a Light that would lead all men and finally back into His Heavenly Consciousness.

Jesus plainly showed this when He said, “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and go to the Father.”

And when, at another time, after He had said, “If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also; and from henceforth ye know Him and have seen Him;” and Philip had asked Him to show them the Father and it would suffice, Jesus replied in these memorable words:

“Philip, he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou then, Show us the Father?”

Do you grasp the great significance of this statement?

Again in the 44th and 45th verse of the twelfth chaper, He said:

“He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me but on Him that sent Me.

“And he that seeth Me, seeth Him that sent Me.

“I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in the darkness (confirming St. John’s word and ours above about His being the Light).

“And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. (Think of the wonderful significance of these words! Who but God Himself could save the world?)

“He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” (Verily will this be so; then will those who did not acknowledge Him for Who and What He is, learn how they were denying God Himself.)

Can any words—and these were Jesus’ own, remember—make it plainer, that He and the Father are One?

Oh why will men not believe—even those who profess to follow Him, and why do they insist on worshipping a personality—the man Jesus, and not the wonderful truth He tried to convey?

Why will men insist on believing them who know Him not, and who teach their man-made theories, and in the face of His own plain words?

We will tell you why, dear ones: it is because they could not comprehend Him until they had found Him in their own hearts as the Comforter. And how few there are that have so found Him! However, He understood; did He not say:

“Let not your hearts be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me.”

“I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you.”

“I go to prepare a place for you. . . . And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I am ye may be also.”

“At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.”

They know not the meaning of these words, for to them they are a deep mystery. But to you who have found Him and have learned to abide in Him and He abides in you, it is no mystery; you know and rejoice, and you glorify and worship Him as God in you—He Who is all that you are. You make no distinction between Him and God.

NOW WE would have you consider for a moment these words of Jesus, “that whosoever believeth in Him (as God’s only begotten Son) should not perish, but should have everlasting life.”

You must see that can only mean that whosoever believes in Jesus Christ as God, and surrenders all to Him, shall have eternal life. Have you ever fully thought what such a surrender would do to this outer human self of you? Let us try to grasp as much of it as we may.

In the first place, self would be no more. That would then mean that our Divine Self, a Son of God, the Christ within, would stand forth and be in complete evidence and possession. And Who is He and how would He appear?

He is the Real—the Only You, who in Your True Self are too glorious to show Yourself to the eyes of men—they could not stand the Glory of it; so You veil Yourself in an outer expression of that Image and Likeness that was created in the soul realm in the beginning, and in which perfect form You have had Your abode ever since the soul was reborn and You descended into it. But now that all of self and its ideas, concepts and beliefs are no longer hindering in Your outer consciousness, there is nothing to prevent the inner becoming the outer, so the Jesus Christ You are appearing on earth, even as You are in the Heaven of the soul world.

In other words, the Word, or the God You, can come forth into what was the flesh, but is now cleansed of self—which means of all material ideas—and be the flesh! Can you conceive of what that signifies? You would then be even as Jesus Christ was when on earth. His body was not flesh; it was Light, it was life, it was God. No man could touch it, unless He permitted; and when anyone did touch it, he was either healed or all his infirmities, or he was blasted—if he was not worthy.

Do you think this possible for us? Yes, it is possible, even in this day and age; and because of this day and age, when many are looking for Him to come. These are the last days of the age; the times bear witness to it; and it was then that He told His disciples that He would come in all His Glory—though no man would know the day or the hour.

Therefore, dear ones, let us prepare ourselves for His coming, so that as many of us as may, will receive Him, and will receive the power to be Sons of God, here in the flesh; even those who believe on His Name.

Let us surrender all to Him—all we are, all we have, and all we hope to be and to have. Let Him take complete possession, and live His Fullest Life in us, do His loving Will in us, and be His perfect Self in us, NOW and forevermore.

So that when you hear Him say from within you,

“I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father except through Me,”

You may also know that the Father cometh to you only through the Christ, His Holy Spirit ever within you. For no matter how Jesus may seem to come to you—through your seeing Him, or hearing His Voice, or feeling His Presence, or just feeling a Great Love in your heart—it is God’s way of reaching, teaching, helping and blessing you. It is actually He, from deep within you, making Himself known to your human mind.

Then, dear ones, why not now put all your love and trust in God, your Loving Father, and in Jesus Christ, His Only Begotten Son, Who as your life, consciousness and nature is God’s evidence of His ever-Presence in you and in every man in the world. —Reprinted in The Inner Life, April 1936.