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| From Bethlehem to Calvary - Chapter Five - The Fourth Initiation - The Crucifixion |
| Let me state here, briefly and succinctly, what it would
appear really transpired when Christ died upon the Cross. He rendered up the form aspect
and identified Himself as Man with the life aspect of Deity. He thereby liberate us from
the form side of life, of religion and of matter, and demonstrated to us the possibility
of being in the world and yet not of the world, (St. John, XVII, 16.) living as souls,
released from the trammels and limitations of the flesh, while yet walking on earth. To
the very deeps of its being humanity is tired of death. Its only rest lies in the belief
that the ultimate victory is over death, and that some day death will be abolished. This
we shall go into more definitely in our next chapter, but in passing, it may be said that
the race is so imbued with the thought of death that it has been the line of least
resistance for theology to emphasize the death of Christ, and to omit to lay the major
emphasis upon the renewal of life to which that death was the prelude. This practice will
end because the world today demands a living Christ rather than a dead Savior. It demands
an ideal so universal in its implications - so inclusive of time and space and life - that
the constant explanations and the endless attempts to make theology conform to the
requirements of a deeply sensed vital truth will no longer be needed. The world has
outlived the thought of a wrathful God who demands a blood sacrifice. Intelligent people
today must agree that "...modern thought does not clash with primitive Christian
ideas; but in regard to the propitiation for these evil inclinations the case is
different. We can no longer accept the appalling theological doctrine that for some mystic
reason a propitiatory sacrifice was necessary. It outrages either our conception of God as
almighty or else our conception of Him as all-loving." (The Paganism in Our
Christiantity, by Arthur Weigall, p. 152.) Humanity will accept the thought of a God
who so loved the world that He sent His Son to give us the final expression of the cosmic
sacrifice and to say to us, as He did [188] upon the Cross: "It is finished."
(St. John XIX, 30.) We can now "enter into the joy of the Lord." (St. Matt.,
XXV, 21.) Men are learning to love, and the will, and do, repudiate a theology which makes
of God a force of hardness and cruelty in the world, unparalleled by men. The whole trend of human life tends to repudiate those ancient tenets which were founded in fear, and instead, courageously faces the facts and the responsibilities which are inherent in its spiritual birthright. |
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