I’d like to share some thoughts arising from the Cosmic Christ of Whom I wrote in ‘Which Jesus’. John in the opening chapter of his Gospel writes of Jesus as the Word of God Who ‘was with God at the beginning, through Whom all things came to be; without Him no created being came into being. In Him was life, and that life was the light of mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never mastered it.’
Paul speaks similarly in Philippians 2:5-11. “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death– even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
This divine template is clear: the Cosmic Christ has existed from the very beginning of everything, has been involved in the creation of everything, and is the light of every single human person who ever was and ever will be, and that light has never been put out; He emptied Himself, became a human being and was crucified; and God then raised Him from death and exalted Him to sit at God’s right hand.
Its only recently that some of the implications of this teaching have begun to sink in, and they are simple yet profound. They change everything.
1] I believe that this is not only the divine template for Jesus but ours too: that, like Jesus, we come from God prior to our birth and that we return to God after our death, and that our lives only truly make sense within this bigger picture.
[2] Jesus of Nazareth sought to live His life is response to the loving God from Whom He came, by living a life and a death rooted in the divine spark [the light] within Him, in preparation for His return to God after His death. Our task is the same, although what specifically that means will be different for each of us.
[3] This is not just your story and mine. It is the story of every human being who ever was and who ever will be. All come from God, and the inner light of the Cosmic Christ burns in each. That’s not just the men and women of the Old and New Testaments, but the women and men of all cultures, faiths and times. The divine spark of the Cosmic Christ is the light of everyone; it is the image of God in everyone; a common, if un-named experience of everyone.
[4] This changes our understanding of the role of the Christian Church. The Church doesn’t consist of the select few in whom that divine spark burned brightly. The Church’s point of distinction is rather that it knows the good news that the divine spark of the loving God is in everyone. If this is true then our attitude to people of other faiths and no faith should be one of humble openness and mutual respect. We all possess the seed of God-given wisdom. We all have some inner experience of God.
[5] So the Church’s mission is not as we have imagined it. We are not to tell people of a God they do not know. We are rather to name a God they already know, but may not have named. We are to be open and share what God has revealed of Godself to us, and to humbly listen to what God has revealed of Godself to them.
Some years ago Roy Gregory and I edited a book entitled ‘The God you already know’ based on our experience of listening to men and women who wanted to talk about God and their experience of God. Our conclusion was that most people did not need new information: but what they appeared to welcome was a safe place where they could begin to articulate and trust what deep down they already knew, hence the title of our book.
The Cosmic Christ has taken the ideas Roy and I expressed in ‘The God you already know’ to a new and deeper level for me. All men and women possess the divine spark of the Cosmic Christ within them. They already know about God. This is true across all cultures. Such is the graciousness that the Cosmic Christ reveals.
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