1977-December-30

Bilalian News

The Mystery Of Christ Revealed: Part 3

Imam W. D. Muhammad

With the Name Allah (In the Name of God), the Gracious, the Compassionate.

As-Salaam-Alaikum

The effort from Genesis to Revelation is to establish the true identity of human life. The true identity of human life is not flesh and blood, but it is a combination of two great forces: the force of moral excellence and the force of intelligence, and this excellence is represented in two main figures. One is the Christ figure, who represents righteousness. You might say, "But Christ represents the rational knowledge too." Yes, you are right — but for moral and spiritual excellence. Christ never told his people to walk by the light of human rationale. He never told them to use reason. He used reason, but that was just to bring the people to faith.

Jesus told his people to follow righteous, instinctive perception. What do we mean by instinct? We mean natural or innate motivation. Jesus told them to just make their mind and heart right. To have faith in Almighty God, and not to think about what they were going to say. A rationally guided man thinks about what he is going to say. Jesus sent his disciples out and told them to "Think not, (take not thought) as to what you are going to say; the Holy Ghost will speak through you." I am not using the exact words, but I am giving you the exact meaning.

Jesus told his disciples to take no thought as to what you are going to say, just go out there and let it come out instinctively. He was telling them to use what we call instinctive perception or instinctive expression. What is its power? For the God fearing, its power is righteousness. His followers were to trust righteousness, and those who had faith in Jesus, they were saved. Not faith in the Jesus of flesh and blood, but faith in the Jesus of righteousness. Jesus established himself in righteous conscience, and whoever had faith in righteous conscience, they had the power of that faith working for their salvation.

The human being comes into the world naturally being motivated by fear and having respect for a superior being. He wants to become better and to improve upon his morals. He is ashamed of his sin, and he wants to please his God. This is a natural human being. This power in the human being drives him to higher and higher degrees of moral excellence, and to more and more obedience to God. It is Jesus, the Christ, that represents this kind of movement in all human beings. You might say, "Well doesn't Jesus have a nature?" Of course he does. He has a nature, he has substance, and he is a person. These arguments went on for over three centuries. Since we have lost the knowledge, we have to go back to this same argument. We are not supposed to worship the person, and we are not to worship his nature or his substance. Just what is his substance? His substance is knowledge. What nature brought him into that knowledge? It was the love for righteousness and obedience to God: complete and willing devotion of a heart innocent and sensitive to any and all suffering person.

We are not to worship Jesus in any of his identities even though we identify him as a flesh person, as a knowledge body, and as a motivation. Jesus was motivated, and it was this motivation that made up his nature. You should know that whatever motivates you designs your nature. If you are motivated by materialism, you will become materialistic in your nature. Christ is the love for righteousness and an undying devotion to God,
righteousness and obedience to God. Didn't Jesus demonstrate that in a most excellent way. He never became hypocritical and he never sympathized with any wrongdoers even though they were his own people. In fact, he called his own people a group of hypocrites and vipers But Jesus himself, never lost his righteousness and obedience to God. When he fasted for 40 days and Satan came to tempt him, he remained steadfast and loyal to God. He was not like some of these old mystics that get high on spiritualism and fall in the trap of Satan.

Jesus said, "Who do you say I, the Son of Man, am?" "Son" in the Bible simply means a follower. Where do we have proof of that? The Bible says, "Those who follow God in the spirit are the sons of God." It didn't say that those who had an immaculate flesh conception are the sons of God. It says that, those who follow in the spirit are the sons of God, and those who rebel against God in the spirit are not His sons or His followers. In the Book of Chronicles, there is a distinction made between a physical son and a follower. In religion, the physical son doesn't have any inheritance. The inheritance or position in the religion comes to the one who inherits the knowledge and has the good faith and the good morals to follow and obey that knowledge.

(To be continued)