Seeing Christ Through The Eyes Of Paul

Neville Goddard 03-31-1967

Tonight’s subject is very, very practical, yet profoundly spiritual, for we are going to search for the cause of the phenomena of life called in scripture, “the Father”. So come with me and let me show you Jesus Christ, the father of life, through the eyes of Paul. Now, there is no mention of Paul in any contemporary work of the first century, nor is there any historical record of a man named Paul. He is mentioned in the last part of the Book of Acts and in his thirteen letters – but who is he? Paul, like Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus Christ is a state of consciousness.

The Bible speaks of a fundamental state of consciousness from which other states derive. That fundamental state is the Father, the creative power in you. This world is made up of God and the extension of himself called “you”. Say “I am” and you have said God’s name.

Now let us look at Jesus Christ through the eyes of the state of Paul. Schooled in the traditions of his father, Paul knew Hebrew backwards. He knew the law of Moses and protected these traditions with his life, opposing anyone who was in conflict with his belief.

Then he saw the spirit behind the letter. Just as you – believing what you were taught by your mother and father and Sunday school teacher – when you enter the state called Paul you will understand the meaning behind the allegory; and – like Paul – you will be just as ardent in promoting it as you were in defending your belief in a physical Jesus Christ.

Paul makes the statement: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who has faith. That power is Christ.” And it is Paul who confesses: “Even though I once regarded Christ from a human point of view, I regard him thus no longer.” Having learned from the traditions of his earthly father that he was to “Make no graven image unto me” Paul believed that Jesus Christ was an individual like himself. But when he realized who Jesus Christ really was, he defined him in his letter to the Corinthians as the power of God and the wisdom of God saying: “I preach only Jesus Christ crucified and raised from the dead.”

Paul teaches that the power of God and the wisdom of God is crucified and buried in Man, and from that state of death will he rise. Now seeing Christ as his human imagination Paul confesses: “I once regarded Christ from a human point of view; I regard him thus no longer.” Who is this creative power who was once regarded as human? In the 10th chapter of Matthew it is made to say: “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. Think not that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. To set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Anyone who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”

Claiming that he came into the world not to abolish the law of Moses but to fulfill it (and the 5th commandment is “Honor your father and mother”) how can he ask us to love him more than our father and mother? When I was a child I heard these stories in my Sunday school class, and I knew that if I had to love Jesus more than my mother and father I was not worthy of him. To ask me to love some invisible power more than I loved my sweet, kind, loving mother and the giant of a man who was my father was to ask the impossible of me. So what is being said here?

Father and mother are the obvious physical causes of the birth of a child in this world. Whether it is human, bird, or animal, we all have fathers and mothers. They are the physical cause of the phenomena of life, as you are now an objective fact. Then comes an invisible cause saying you must love it more than visible causation. No one is setting you against your father or mother, daughter or daughter-in-law – how could they!