Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ
Neville Goddard 02-23-1968
Although only a few are teaching this wonderful principle at the present time, many others will follow; and because the Christian world believes in a man, this question will be asked over and over: “Do you not believe that a man called Jesus Christ walked the earth?” It is my hope that I will be able to clarify this point for you tonight.
Listen to these words from scripture: “You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Thy Word is truth.” And speaking of Jesus Christ: “His name shall be called the Word of God.” Here we see he has a name, so he is a person, yet he is the Word, the truth that sets man free. Confessing that he came into the world to do his Father’s will, in the 6th chapter of the book of John he makes this statement: “This is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.”
Now, there is not a truth (or a lie) that does not have a man as its agent, as it takes a man to express either a lie or a truth, and Jesus Christ is called the truth! So when you are called upon to answer the question: “Don’t you believe on e unique man was born in 4 B.C. and named Jesus Christ?” answer it in this way: “Jesus Christ is not a man, but God’s plan of salvation.
One of the saddest and yet poignant statements in the Bible is recorded in the Book of Samuel. David’s son, Absalom revolted against him and tried to take over the kingdom. All during the battle, however, David inquired over and over again: “How is it with the lad, Absalom?” And when he receives the news of Absalom’s death he goes up to the chamber over the gate of Jerusalem and weeps, crying: “Oh Absalom, my son, my son. Would I have died instead of you. Oh Absalom, my son, my son.” This is a foreshadowing in a not altogether conclusive or immediately evident way of the story recorded in the New Testament.
In the New Testament, we find that God the Father does that which David longed to do. He longed to give his life to restore his son, but he couldn’t do it, for only God can give his live to save his Son. Speaking to humanity, Blake put these words into the mouth of Jesus: “Fear not! Unless I die thou can’st not live. But if I die I shall arise again and thou with me. Wouldest thou love one who never died for thee? Or ever die for one who had not died for thee? And if God dieth not for Man, and giveth not himself eternally for Man, Man could not exist.” God died by emptying himself of his divinity. He is not pretending he is dead, but actually becomes the very breath of life of every child born of woman.
Now walking in the forgetfulness of Man, God has prepared a plan for his return, a plan whereby everyone is redeemed.
This plan of redemption is Jesus Christ, but because it is personified man has taken the vehicle that conveyed the instruction for the instruction, and the agent that expressed the great truth for the truth expressed. If truth is to be expressed, it takes an individual man to express it. Therefore, when the story of redemption unfolds in a man, he relates his own experience.
Now we are told: “Everyone who sees and believes in the Son has eternal life.” The words “see” and “know” the same in both Hebrew and Greek, so if tonight I paint a word picture of the plan of salvation, I am showing you God’s Son. It does not necessarily follow that you will understand what I am saying and believe me, so the statement is made: “To everyone who sees the Son and believes…” Tonight I hope I can tell it so clearly that everyone can follow and understand what I say and accept it!