What about “salvation?”
The Guide: The traditional interpretation of this word leaves a lot to be desired. It lends itself easily to misunderstanding, although the more enlightened among religionists do perceive the truth. Salvation means, among other things, Christ’s endless forgiveness and acceptance. It means that you can always find your way to God, no matter what you have done, no matter what your lower self still wishes to do. The door is always open – you are never, never locked out. All you have to do is knock.
Ask for the bread of God’s mercy, love, forgiveness and personal help in all ways, and you shall not receive a stone. Ask to know yourself, your lovability, your nobility of spirit, the beauty of your true being, through his redemptive love of you, and you shall receive it. That is salvation. All that, and more.
God’s personalized aspect has brought it about. The incarnated Christ has made it possible for all other incarnated entities to be saved from their painful state of untruth – sin – and consequent destructiveness of self and others.
It is a complete misunderstanding, though, to think that any act, even the greatest act of love, could be sufficient for humans to be liberated from their inner bonds. Those who like to believe that often do so because it would be very comfortable, indeed. Of course it is not so and Jesus’ words were never meant that way.
The Plan of Salvation reveals in what way the act of Jesus Christ constituted salvation for all the fallen beings, what his contribution was, and how it opened the door and showed the way. It was never implied or stated that the coming of Christ exempted the individual from personal work and effort. Quite the contrary is true.
It is very possible that people reach salvation, inner freedom and liberation from untruth, even though they do not accept Christ. This, however, does not change the facts. The facts are that Jesus Christ is the highest of all created beings, that he came to Earth, and that his coming was the turning point in the general development of the fallen spirits.
In other words, a person can start on a path of self-development and still harbor certain ideas which are not in accordance with truth, whether it concerns this subject or any other. At one time, however, truth will penetrate as the result of an inner experience, and not by any outward acceptance of a doctrine or a belief.
It is equally possible that people believe and accept this truth – or any other – and still retain in their souls the very obstructions that will not let them liberate themselves. People hold on to certain prejudices according to their upbringing, environment, and their personal inner misconceptions or images. Inner resistance blocks the way to truth.
Also, one may have very distorted emotions and embrace a truth by coincidence, so to speak. This truth, then, will be ineffective because the motives are wrong, and the underlying feelings are unhealthy. One may even resist an untruth out of inner blocks and subjectivity rather than out of freedom and objectivity. In short, you can resist an untruth out of unhealthy emotions, as well as accept a truth out of unhealthy emotions.
The requirement always and foremost should be the purification of the emotions. The right intent is what matters, and not what one outwardly accepts and believes. Why and how a belief has come about, on what inner motives it is based – that is what matters in the final analysis.
The path you are taking is bound to bring to the fore all distorted motives, no matter how deeply hidden and unconscious. Thereby, your soul will become healthy and free. This, in turn, will enable you to experience the truth you need to have and to know, rather than accepting it with your intellect only.
The truth of Jesus Christ will eventually be part of the inner experience for all people who develop their souls. With some, this truth comes sooner and other truths come later. With other people it is the other way round. But to say, “You have to accept Jesus Christ,” is just as wrong as saying, “You have to believe in God.” It only creates harmful reactions, such as compulsion, guilt, resistance or rebellion.
Faith in God, faith in Christ, faith, as such, is a major key. But it cannot be commanded. Faith comes naturally when obstructions are removed. All human beings possess an inner storehouse of faith, love, truth, wisdom – but these are locked away by the obstructions and deviations. All these divine attributes are automatically released in the measure that the inner deviations straighten themselves out through the work of self-development.
This comes always as an effect. It is a natural growth that can never be forced directly. When your earthly religious teachers drum into you that you must have faith, they do not accomplish anything. At best, it will be a superimposed faith. And the stronger the superimposition, the stronger the inner, unconscious rebellion against one’s own superimposed faith – adopted merely because it was expected and demanded.
It is the same with love. You cannot command yourself to love, but in this in-depth work, you eventually learn and understand why you have no faith or no love, and what the inner wrong conclusions are that make you close the door to your inner wells of faith and love – unconsciously in most cases.
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