Some readers may be shocked at the teaching about salvation through the receiving of the Divine Love rather than by the vicarious atonement through Jesus’ death on the cross. This chapter shows that the Bible, while containing many references to being saved by the sacrifice of Jesus, also has just as many references to the transformation of the heart, becoming a new creature, acquiring divine nature, undergoing a New Birth, experiencing the Divine Love, and other related concepts. Let’s go and explore.
Jesus was born as the prophesied Messiah or the anointed one. While the Jews expected a Messiah’s coming based on ancient prophecies, they were hoping for a conqueror who would free Judea from Roman domination and set up an earthly kingdom. While Jesus came as a king, his kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36). Rather, it was the Kingdom of God – a Celestial Kingdom of Divine Love. The anointing that Jesus received involved God bestowing His Divine Love into Jesus’ soul by means of His Holy Spirit. This was God’s gift given first to Jesus, but thereafter available to all who would ask for it with sincere and heartfelt prayer. Thus Jesus was the first of many brethren to become a true child of God (Rom. 8:29), whose soul was transformed by the Divine Love from divine image into divine substance.
The message of the Divine Love that Jesus brought became lost in the copying and rewriting of the present biblical texts, but traces of it can be seen throughout, in the same way that traces of other teachings of Jesus and the early Christians are apparent.
Indeed, the New Testament gospels, written decades after the events they describe, contain several intertwining messages. This is the result of historical events being perceived and recorded by various individuals, as well as follow-up reinterpretations and editing by later writers and editors whose thinking and prejudices also found their way into the texts. This chapter addresses two of the threads – namely the message of Jesus versus a later message about Jesus.
Jesus’ Teaching
Key thoughts of the message that Jesus brought deal with the availability of Divine Love (imparted by the Holy Spirit) as follows:
1. God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). This Divine Love (Greek agape) transcends the natural human love, which at its best can include unconditional acceptance and lofty deeds.
2. God’s Love was displayed by sending Jesus (1 John 4:9) and through him the message that the Divine Love and nature is available to humans as a gift for the asking. This was also the message that God’s Kingdom was near (Matt. 4:17). Through acquiring the Divine Love, by which the individual will would align with divine will, the way to God’s Kingdom (the Celestial Spheres) was open (Matt. 7:21).
3. Jesus, as the Messiah (Christ or anointed) was the first to experience the New Birth that he taught about. He manifested the Divine Love, received through the Holy Spirit, and set an example of a life motivated by this Love (Matt. 11:29). While his countrymen expected him to establish an earthly kingdom and overthrow the Romans, Jesus taught that his kingdom was not visible in the ordinary sense. Yet, the kingdom was among them – through his person, and could be within them – by receiving the Divine Love in their souls as he had (Matt. 17:21 – the Greek word can have both meanings).
4. Those who in their soul desire the gift of the Divine Love and sincerely pray for it will receive it and have their soul transformed from divine image into divine substance. This is the New Birth – being born again of imperishable seed or being born of God (John 1:13; 3:3, 5; Titus 3:5; 1 Peter 1:23; 1 John 4:7-9).
5. Jesus practiced and taught love for one another (1 John 3:11). The apostle John, who among the disciples was spiritually the closest to Jesus, later showed how if we truly love one another and walk as Jesus did, God, through His Love, lives in us and we in Him, and His Love is made complete in us (1 John 2:5-6; 4:12, 16). The Divine Love transforming our souls gives us the knowledge of our unity (at-onement) with the Father (John 17:20-26).
6. The Holy Spirit is a spirit of power, love and self-control (Acts 1:8; 2 Tim. 1:7). Jesus and his disciples manifested the gift of the Divine Love by the power to heal (e.g., Matt. 4:23; 12:15; 14:14; Mark 1:30-34; 6:55-56; 8:22-25; Luke 8:27-29, 41-48; 9:38-42). Empowered through the Divine Love, the disciples were sent out on their mission two by two to heal and preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God (Mark 6:7-13; Luke 9:1-2, 6; Luke 10:1-17). However, it was on the day of Pentecost that the promise of the Father occurred and the Holy Spirit came and delivered the Divine Love in great abundance. Then the apostles were able to do even greater works (Acts 2:1-43; 3:3-8; 5:12-16).
7. Jesus also used parables to help people understand the preciousness of this powerful, yet invisible gift, comparing it to a treasure or a pearl of great value worth all that one has (Matt. 13:44-46). He also showed its power to transform through the parables of the mustard seed and yeast in a batch of dough (Matt. 13:31-32). He taught that the Father is more willing to grant this gift to His children than earthly parents enjoy giving good gifts to their offspring (Luke 11:13).
8. The gift of the Divine Love is referred to in the New Testament as
In addition to the above, many biblical references to the Holy Spirit can be seen as synonymous with Divine Love in that the Spirit, like the Divine Love, is a means of conversion, new life, new heart, becoming a new creation / creature, salvation, and resurrection to immortality.
Another “Gospel”
In addition to the message about the Divine Love that Jesus preached and lived, the gospel books and other New Testament writings contain a second “gospel” – about Jesus and emphasizing his death by crucifixion which is said to have paid the penalty for our sins (e.g., Rom. 3:25; Eph. 5:2; Heb. 7:27; 9:12-14; 26-28; 10:11-12; 1 John 2:2; 4:10). In contrast to Jesus’ own message, this one was introduced by others who subsequently tried to make sense of and explain the “impermissible” death of the Messiah. Jesus as the Messiah was expected to overthrow the Romans, not be killed by them – despite the fact that Jesus stressed that his kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36). His unexpected death then became interpreted as a part of God’s plan in providing a sacrifice for sin and a vicarious atonement.
In keeping with the interpretation of Jesus’ death, authors and editors of New Testament books reframed the narratives of his life to conform to these ideas. Words were placed in Jesus’ mouth and Hebrew Scriptures misquoted or quoted out of context to substantiate the concept of Jesus as a “sacrificial lamb” (John 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19).
The conflict between the two messages or “gospels” is that on the one hand, God’s Love and salvation is a gift from a loving and merciful Father, while on the other hand, the gift first had to be paid for as a ransom to satisfy a wrathful God. These ideas are also incompatible in that Jesus (as God) would have had to pay for his own gift with his life or pay for the Father’s gift – in which case it would have been a gift from Jesus, not the Father. Yet Jesus teaches that the gift of salvation is given by God (John 4:10). In addition, God owns everything and can bestow gifts and absolve debts (Luke 15:21-24) – without requiring a sacrifice.
While Jesus travelled from town to town preaching, his message always dealt with present matters, not with his future death as a payment for sin. Rather the Kingdom of God and the New Birth were available in the present (John 3:1-8; Luke 4:21).
The often quoted verse of John 3:16 stating that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” is interesting in the use of the word “gave” – possibly changed by the editors as in the next verse, verse 17(1), and a related passage in 1 John 4:9-17(2) use the word “sent”. So John 3:16 would read better as “God so loved the world that He sent His Son, that whoever believes him [his teachings] shall not perish but have eternal life” Alternatively, “God so loved the world that He gave us His Divine Love, that whoever receives it shall not perish but have eternal life.”
In summary, there is no efficacy in Jesus’ blood to save or pay for human sins and reconcile people to the Father. Those who believe in Jesus Christ’s death as a means of their salvation may be neglecting the one vital requirement, and that is the New Birth. This and this only saves humans from their sins and fits them to enter the Kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of Jesus, for he is the Prince of that kingdom, and the master and ruler thereof.