Episode 42 reveals how Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom was also a gospel of eternal salvation. It reviews the requirements for true salvation and explains how each is achieved.

 

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I Am a Son of God

15. The Salvation of Jesus (Ep. 42)

         The gospel of the kingdom is also a gospel of eternal salvation. Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom is also a gospel of eternal salvation. How is this so? When we believe Jesus’ gospel that we are all sons and daughters of God and choose to do His will, we not only gain entrance into His kingdom, we also become faith children in the Father’s heavenly family and partakers of His eternal nature. In this way we unite with God’s inner spirit and thereby gain eternal life. Jesus taught that salvation is the free gift to all who have the faith to believe his gospel teaching that we are all children of God.

         Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom. Jesus’ basic message to struggling humanity was known as the gospel of the kingdom. This gospel was founded on the fact and truth that God is our loving heavenly Father. Before the time of Jesus the superstition that perhaps we are children of the devil still tormented human minds. The acceptance of the fact of the Fatherhood of God means that we also accept the saving truth that we are all sons and daughters of God. The third great truth of Jesus’ gospel is that since we are all sons and daughters of one God, the Father of all, we are all brothers and sisters to one another in God’s heavenly family. Thus, we may summarize the gospel of the kingdom as the teaching of the Fatherhood of God and the sonship–brotherhood of man.

         The birth of the spirit. When we believe and wholeheartedly accept Jesus’ gospel that God is our spiritual Father, and we are all his children, our minds are transformed by our faith in this great and inspiring truth. This belief that God is our Father naturally results in our choosing to abide by our Father’s will. When this happens, we are “born of the spirit.” Instead of exclusively following the ways and desires of self we become reoriented to seeking and following our Father’s spiritual guidance. Our mind rises above material concerns and adopts a new spiritual attitude, which is well expressed in Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, “Not my will, but yours, be done.” (Lk 22:42)

         The fruit of the spirit. By our acceptance of Jesus’ teaching of the Fatherhood of God we gain entrance into His heavenly kingdom and become faith children of God. However, to remain in God’s kingdom we must continue to obey the will of our heavenly Father. This naturally results in our increasingly showing forth the fruit of the Father’s spirit in our daily lives. Obedience to God, yielding the fruit of the spirit, is the law of living in the kingdom. We must understand that we cannot stand still in the kingdom; we must grow and progress. The Father requires of the children of faith that they bear abundant spiritual fruit. The apostle Paul lists a few of the fruit of the spirit as, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control.” (Gal 5:22-23)

         Loving service. Love is the rule of living in the kingdom–manifesting supreme devotion to God and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. The acceptance of the Fatherhood of God implies that we also freely accept the associated truth of the brotherhood of man. This means that we will be motivated to show forth the fruit of the spirit in loving service to our brothers and sisters in the flesh. Loving service to others is the highest concept of the Jesus brotherhood of kingdom believers.

         Righteousness. Belief in Jesus’ gospel, accompanied by our choice to follow the Father’s spiritual guidance, results in the birth of the spirit into the light of faith. When this happens, we begin to increasingly show forth the fruit of the spirit in loving service to our fellow man. By this process we not only gain entrance into the kingdom–we also attain the true righteousness that is required for living in the Father’s heavenly kingdom. Thus, it may be recognized that we are not saved because we live a righteous life; rather we live a righteous life because we have already been saved by accepting the truth that we are all God’s children and dedicating ourselves to the loving service of our fellow man. In this way we attain the righteousness that is necessary for life after death in the kingdom of God.

         Forgiveness. The attainment of salvation from sin requires that we receive forgiveness for our sins. Sin, the conscious transgression of the Father’s will, is incompatible with life in the Father’s righteous kingdom. Jesus taught that God’s forgiveness is freely available to us if we first forgive those who have sinned against us. He made this clear in the prayer he taught his apostles, “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Mt 6:12) When we fail to forgive others we thereby set up a barrier in our own minds which prevents us from receiving God’s divine forgiveness. God, our Creator Father, loves us with an infinite fatherly affection and this love is not secondary to anything else in the divine nature. As a loving human father freely forgives the transgressions of his own child, so our loving heavenly Father also freely forgives us our transgressions, but for us to receive this divine forgiveness we must first forgive those who transgress against us.

         Review of the four elements of Jesus’ salvation. The previous episode on the early history of salvation opened by listing four essential elements in the salvation taught by Jesus. First, Jesus’ salvation is salvation from sin. Second, this salvation requires that we detach ourselves from the temporal and material world and third, that we unite with an ultimate spiritual reality that survives mortal death. Fourth, when these first three requirements are met we attain survival after death and eternal life in God’s heavenly kingdom. We may recognize these four elements in the following outline of the technique of salvation taught by Jesus.

         The technique of survival, salvation. In our inner experience, mind is joined to matter (our physical body). Such material linked minds cannot survive mortal death. The technique of survival requires that our mind be transformed by faith in the Father’s indwelling spirit and that our will be adjusted to choosing the Father’s will over our own personal will. In this way we become increasingly spirit taught and eventually spirit lead. This results in our mind evolving from matter association to spirit union; the spirit phases of our mortal mind are transmuted into the higher realities of our immortal soul. Mortal mind subservient to matter is destined to become increasingly material and eventually to suffer personality extinction. Mind yielded to spirit is destined to become increasingly spiritual and achieve oneness with the surviving and guiding divine spirit. In this way we achieve survival after death and eternal personality existence

         Verses that express Jesus’ teachings on salvation. Following are some verse quotations that help make clear Jesus’ teachings on eternal life and salvation through faith:

Truly, truly, I say to you he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (Jn 5:24)

         And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Lk 7:50)

         For this is the will of my father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life. (Jn 6:40)        

         For whoever would save his life [selfishly] will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s shall save it. (Mk 8:35; my brackets)

         I am the door. If anyone enters by me he will be saved and will go in and find pasture. (Jn 10:9)

         And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and him whom you have sent. (Jn 17:3)

                  Truly, truly, I say to you he who believes has eternal life.  (Jn 6:47)

         Our attitude towards salvation. If we believe Jesus’ gospel that we are all children of God and sincerely seek to live as His sons and daughters what should be our attitude towards attaining salvation? As has already been made clear, our belief in Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom accompanied by our choice to do the Father’s will has two far reaching results. First, we achieve a righteous life showing forth the fruit of God’s spirit in loving service to our fellow man. And second, we also attain eternal salvation by our acceptance of sonship with the eternal God and eventual union with his immortal spirit presence. Thus, if we are to live as children of God our focus is not on the selfish desire to attain personal salvation but rather on the unselfish urge to love and serve our fellow man. As God’s loyal son or daughter, we should take salvation for granted and focus our energies on learning and doing the will of our heavenly Father.

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