VI. Waking to Redemption
- It is impossible not to believe what you see, but it is equally impossible to see what you do not believe. Perceptions are built upon the basis of experience, and experience leads to beliefs. It is not until beliefs are fixed that perceptions stabilize. In effect, then, what you believe you do see. That is what I meant when I said, “Blessed are ye who have not seen and still believe,” for those who believe in the resurrection will see it. The resurrection is the complete triumph of Christ over the ego, not by attack but by transcendence. For Christ does rise above the ego and all its works and ascends to the Father and His Kingdom.
- Would you join in the resurrection or the crucifixion? Would you condemn your brothers or free them? Would you transcend your prison and ascend to the Father? These questions are all the same and are answered together. There has been much confusion about what perception means because the word is used both for awareness and for the interpretation of awareness. Yet you cannot be aware without interpretation, for what you perceive is your interpretation.
- This course is perfectly clear. If you do not see it clearly, it is because you are interpreting against it, and therefore do not believe it. And since belief determines perception, you do not perceive and therefore do not accept it. Yet different experiences lead to different beliefs, and with them different perceptions. For perceptions are learned with beliefs, and experience does teach. I am leading you to a new kind of experience that you will become less and less willing to deny. Learning of Christ is easy, for to perceive with Him involves no strain at all. His perceptions are your natural awareness, and it is only the distortions you introduce that tire you. Let the Christ in you interpret for you, and do not try to limit what you see by narrow little beliefs that are not worthy of God’s Son. For until Christ comes into His Own, the Son of God will see himself Fatherless.
- I am your resurrection and your life. You live in me because you live in God. And everyone lives in you, as you live in everyone. Can you, then, perceive unworthiness in a brother and not perceive it in yourself? And can you perceive it in yourself and not perceive it in God? Believe in the resurrection because it has been accomplished, and it has been accomplished in you. This is as true now as it will ever be, for the resurrection is the will of God, which knows no time and no exceptions. But make no exceptions yourself, or you will not perceive what has been accomplished for you. For we ascend unto the Father together, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, for such is the nature of God’s Son as his Father created him.
- Do not underestimate the power of the devotion of God’s Son, nor the power the god he worships has over him. For he places himself at the altar of his god, whether it be the god he made or the God who created him. That is why his slavery is as complete as his freedom, for he will obey only the god he accepts. The god of crucifixion demands that he crucify, and his worshippers obey. In his name they crucify themselves, saying that the power of the Son of God is born of sacrifice and pain. The God of resurrection demands nothing, for He does not will to take away. He does not require obedience, for obedience implies submission. He would only have you learn your will and follow it, not in the spirit of sacrifice and submission, but in the gladness of freedom.
- Resurrection must compel your allegiance gladly because it is this symbol of joy. Its whole compelling power lies in the fact that it represents what you want to be. The freedom to leave behind everything that hurts you and humbles you and frightens you cannot be thrust upon you, but it can be offered you through the grace of God. And you can accept it by His grace, for God is gracious to His Son, accepting him without question as His Own. Who, then, is your own? The Father has given you all that is His, and He Himself is yours with them. Guard them in their resurrection, for otherwise you will not awaken in God, safely surrounded by what is yours forever.
- You will not find peace until you have removed the nails from the hands of God’s Son and taken the last thorn from his forehead. The Love of God surrounds His Son whom the god of crucifixion condemns. Teach not that I died in vain. Teach rather that I did not die by demonstrating that I live in you. For the undoing of the crucifixion of God’s Son is the work of the redemption, in which everyone has a part of equal value. God does not judge His guiltless Son. Having given Himself to him, how could it be otherwise?
- You have nailed yourself to a cross and placed a crown of thorns upon your own head. Yet you cannot crucify God’s Son, for the Will of God cannot die. His Son has been redeemed from his own crucifixion, and you cannot assign to death whom God has given eternal life. The dream of crucifixion still lies heavy on your eyes, but what you see in dreams is not reality. While you perceive the Son of God as crucified, you are asleep. And as long as you believe that you can crucify him, you are only having nightmares. You who are beginning to wake are still aware of dreams and have not yet forgotten them. The forgetting of dreams and the awareness of Christ come with the awakening of others to share your redemption.
- You will awaken to your own call, for the call to awake is within you. If I live in you, you are awake. Yet you must see the works I do through you, or you will not perceive that I have done them onto you. Do not set limits on what you believe I can do through you, or you will not accept what I can do for you. Yet it is done already, and unless you give all that you have received you will not know that your Redeemer lives, and that you have awakened with Him. Redemption is recognized only by sharing it.
- God’s Son is saved. Bring only this awareness to the Sonship, and you will have a part in the redemption as valuable as mine. For your part must be like mine if you learn it of me. If you believe that yours is limited, you are limiting mine. There is no order of difficulty in miracles because all of God’s Sons are of equal value, and their equality is their oneness. The whole power of God is in every part of Him, and nothing contradictory to His Will is either great or small. What does not exist has no size and no measure. To God all things are possible. And to Christ it is given to be like the Father. [1]
Just as seeing is believing, we cannot see what we do not believe. Our sight in the perceptual world is built upon our experiences in it – our experience in the perceptual world leads to our beliefs about and towards the perceptual world even as our experiences in the spiritual domain lead to our beliefs about the spiritual domain. When our beliefs become fixed – our perceptions become fixed –our belief systems then determine what we can see and instead of believing when we see, it will become believing what we see.
So then in Christ’s resurrection, we will perceive the resurrection. We will know the complete triumph of Christ over the ego. Christ does not war with the ego, in Christ we rise above the ego to our Father and to our Kingdom.
Are we part of the crucifixion or do we join with Christ in the resurrection? Do we condemn others, or do we set them free? Will we transcend the bondage to ego and return to God’s Kingdom? Each of these questions are based upon what we choose to see and to believe. There is no reason to be confused about perception. The term perception is used for awareness and is also used for the interpretation of awareness. But we cannot be aware without interpretation, for what we perceive is also our interpretation of what we see. If I perceive you as my friend, I have perceived you and interpreted you as a friend. My perception of you is also my interpretation of you. If I perceive you as a foe, I have perceived and interpreted you as a foe. Again my perception of you is also my interpretation of you.
Jesus is asking us to transcend the ego’s perception of the crucifixion and resurrect with Christ, transcend the condemnation of our ego perception and set our brothers free, transcend our bondage to the suffering of Christ and ascend to His magnitude and glory in God. He is asking us to change our interpretation of salvation in order to change our identification in Him. Instead of causing the suffering and shame of Christ, we join Him in extending the magnitude and glory of God through His resurrection and through His love.
This course makes it perfectly clear that our perceptions are learned by our beliefs. I can only perceive you truly with the perceptions of Holy Spirit. If I look at you through the ego’s eyes my perceptions of you will be clouded by my beliefs that I have about people who look like you, talk like you, smell like you, act like you. My perceptions of you will be based upon whether you are a man or a woman, whether you are rich or poor, whether you are fit or unfit, whether you are black or white, Chinese, Japanese, or Canadian. My perception of you is learned by my beliefs about people who are like you. My beliefs are made by my experiences or the experiences of others who have taught me what I can expect of people like you.
Jesus is leading us to a new kind of experience that we will be far less likely to deny. As we learn to perceive through the vision of Christ we experience no strain at all. Perceiving with Christ is our natural awareness – it is the ego’s distortions that wear us out, cause a lot of strain and stress, and keep us at each other’s throats. When we let the Mind of Christ interpret for us, we are no longer limited by our lower minds which are not worthy of God’s Son. When Christ is formed in our minds, we will no longer be willing to crucify or condemn each other for any reason for we will recognize ourselves as the Brotherhood of Christ, as mutual Sons of God.
Christ is our resurrection; He is our life. Our life is in Christ, our life is in God, our life is in all of Creation even as all of Creation is in us. What I perceive in you then is what I perceive in myself. What I perceive in myself I perceive in God. The resurrection has been accomplished in us; the resurrection is the Will of God, which is beyond time and beyond exception. We simply cannot perceive this reality if we deny a place to our brothers – for we must all go together to the Father. This is as we were created. We do not return to God carrying the cross, the condemnation, the guilt and shame and sorrow of the ego perception. We return to God – resurrected with Christ. Freed from the bondage to the ego perception which would make of us miserable sinners, we return to God whole and complete – as His Son.
Do not take lightly the power of our devotion to the crucifixion or to the resurrection. We place ourselves at the altar of the one we choose. When we choose the ego’s version of salvation we will be slaves to crucifying others, condemning them, denying them a place in God’s Kingdom. We will say that God is a God of sacrifice and pain and fear – we will project all of the ego’s bloodthirsty calls for suffering and sorrow unto God and our spiritual paths will be a burden to us, full of questions, doubts, and uncertainty. Our God will let us down time and again and never live up to His promise for He will be changeable, chancy, and catastrophic. The blame and shame of our humanity will be laid upon us and we will never escape no matter how much we call forth for the blood of Jesus, no matter how many praises we sing, no matter how much work we do for His Kingdom. It will never be enough.
The God of resurrection demands nothing for He would never take anything away from us. There is no need for God to demand obedience from us, for obedience denotes slavery and submission, obedience pertains to servanthood, which is unworthy of the Son of God. Obedience is unnecessary, for when our wills are aligned with God, we operate under the law of love. We do not oppose God. We are not taking what God made and making an opposite – for we find our freedom and liberty in love, peace, and joy rather than fear, war, and sorrow that poses for freedom in the ego realm.
I would never ask of my grown children that they be obedient to me, for this would disrespect their freedom and liberty. Nor would I demand that they love me, take joy in my company, and come to me in peace rather than in war, for the law of love would prohibit demanding anything of anyone. However, in order for us to maintain our family relationships, for the love and devotion to each other that we have established to expand and grow – every individual in our family must be as devoted to love, peace, and joy as I am. This means I expect them to do everything they can to get along. We do not come to the table to fight, we come to the table to enjoy one another and to resolve differences. I expect them as mature adults to let the petty little grievances and jealousies that can occur in families go in their devotion to our family happiness. I expect them to repay loans they make to each other. I expect them to keep their word. I expect them to treat their father and I with respect and not ridicule, make judgments, or condemn us behind our backs. We do not signify in any way that we are more than or less than our children, but rather we expect them to have arrived at a natural level of maturity that befits their stage in life. These are much the same expectations that God has for us – they are not demands, they are just natural outcomes of a strong, loving, respectful approach between Creator and created.
When we join in the resurrection of Christ, we join without dread because the resurrection represents life, love, joy, and peace. Joining in the resurrection gives us the freedom to leave everything that is not life, love, joy, and peace behind. We accept the resurrection in grace and by the grace of God. When we realize what we are to God, we no longer accept His grace with a groveling attitude, but with the graciousness that comes from a Son that receives the inheritance from His Loving Father. He gives His all to us for He is our Father. He brought us into existence and everything He has brought into existence is ours as well. Thus, we are to protect and never harm the Creation of God, for through our inheritance, it is ours. Just as we have joined the resurrection, we must join Creation to the resurrection for otherwise our awakening in God would dissolve into a selfish attempt to save ourselves and leave Creation behind.
There is no everlasting peace for us until we stop crucifying and condemning the Creation of God. God loves each one of us. He loves all of Creation. He poured Himself into Creation – but the ego, which has no creative ability of its own, is only bent on crucifying and condemning. To join in any type of harmful practice toward others, toward Creation, to hold anything but forgiveness toward others for their human failings and ego deception teaches that Christ died for nothing. He did not end death and sorrow, but rather perpetuated it.
We undo the crucifixion when we join in the resurrection. We teach that death did not defeat Christ, but He rose again and that He lives in me and He lives in you. This is the work of redemption – and all of us have a part that is of equal value. This is not a competition to see who can earn the most stars nor who can attract and keep the biggest congregations or build the most elaborate tabernacles. We shackle ourselves to the earthly kingdom when we judge by earthly standards. We join in the resurrection when we do what we are called to do, and we do our best. God sees only our best for that is what the author of Love sees. He knows the whole story about each one of us. He knows the quiet, unassuming healing thoughts of love, peace, and joy we generate for His Kingdom. He loves us; therefore He does not judge us.
The call to awaken is in each one of us. Christ abides in us as we abide in Him. This is not a matter of belief for we do not have to believe in reality to make it real. However, until we see the love, the peace, the joy of Christ in our lives, until we experience the freedom and liberty of being set free from the bondage of ego in our lives, we will not perceive the living Christ within us.
There are simply no limits to what joining the Resurrection does in our lives, yet we can go through lifetimes without knowing Christ as our Redeemer simply because we become fixated on the condemnation of the crucifixion. This makes of us fearful witnesses. We let the established belief systems stand because we are afraid to speak the truth. We go with the flow of humanity because we feel alone and are afraid of sharing the truth that has been made apparent to us. But it is only when we do share it that we can awaken fully. There is no need for our walk with God to be lonely for every single one of us knows the truth because God placed His Spirit within us, and nothing can take it away. We will recognize the truth when we hear it for it will call to us and ring true in our hearts and minds. It will make sense to us. Rather than raising unanswerable questions and demanding unquestionable allegiance that fill our hearts with fear, doubt, and sorrow, God’s truth answers our questions and brings love, joy, and peace to our minds and hearts.
God has never cast us out of His Kingdom. He awaits our wakening with love and devotion. We may have forgotten who and what we are, but God never has and never will. He awaits our coming to our senses. He awaits our return to His Kingdom. He awaits our laying down of arms and our return to the brotherhood of Christ. When we share this with our brothers our part in the redemption is as worthy as Christ’s part.
If we believe that we are somehow unworthy of Christ, that He is always bigger and better, purer and sweeter – we are making of our brother an idol. We are making of His blood a magical potion. We are cherishing His crucifixion and joining Him in death instead of joining Him in life. Because we have been content to idolize Christ, to mystify Him, to build earthly cathedrals and perform meaningless rites and rituals in His name, we join in the crucifixion – and we are still in much the same state as when Jesus walked the earth thousands of years ago.
But Jesus tells us that we are not miserable sinners, we are Sons of God who have lost our way. Jesus did not come to be one with us because we are unworthy, He came to save us, for we are His beloved brothers, we are equals with Him as Sons of God. Our equality is our oneness. The whole power of God is in every part of Him and there is nothing real that opposes Him, contradicts Him, or has any existence. No matter how seemingly big, no matter how seemingly small, when something is not real it is simply no threat to God and His Kingdom.
Today in your personal devotional practice, meditate upon the concepts that are covered in Waking to Redemption. Ask Holy Spirit to illuminate your mind and show you who and what you really are in the eyes of God. Do we accept the ego’s version of our identity or do we accept God’s version of our identity? Do we teach God’s wrath, condemnation and our unworthiness of His love or do we live, teach, and share the resurrection story of the Son of God, worthy and blameless?
These are very critical concepts that will determine how long we remain asleep in a dream that promises salvation but keeps us spinning in cycles that keeps us from entering the Kingdom of God as a Son, redeemed for our worth not our unworthiness. Do we really want to bow down and worship and placate an angry, wounded, grudging God for all of eternity, singing songs that tell Him how big and beautiful and strong He is compared to every other god? Really consider this and ask Holy Spirit to give you the courage to get past your programming, your fear, your inability to look squarely at what we have been asked to accept as truth. We cannot truly align ourselves with such a God, for nobody in their right mind would be able to joyfully accept an eternity with a God that frightened them, made them suffer and demanded their blood to prove their love to Him. We cannot truly love a God who would send our brothers to everlasting torments for not believing the right doctrines or performing the correct rituals. We cannot love a God who can only be appeased through the shedding of blood or the torment of those who lost their way in darkness. We cannot cherish a God Who would turn His back upon His own creation. We, who were made in and for love, to be love – know in our hearts that none of these harsh concepts of God can be true for they frighten us and drive us away and not toward Him.
Only when we change our concept of God can we love and devote ourselves to Him without fear and without doubt and uncertainty. When our perception of God is true, we are drawn to Him, we find our way back to Him, we put down our crosses and we begin to truly live. Today ask Holy Spirit to reacquaint you with your Father, to remind you of His love, His peace, His joy and happiness that He has in you, His Son.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Chapter 11 God or the ego. VI Waking to redemption. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
For daily 2021 Workbook lessons, visit www.i-choose-love.com courtesy of Linda R.
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