This is a synopsis of the Urantia Papers’ Part 4, “The life of Jesus,” commencing from his early adult life and progressing through to his crucifixion and resurrection.

We are called upon to live our lives as Jesus lived his. But knowing where he went and what he did is of little help in our task. Jesus’ life was a revelation of the nature of God. To emulate him, we need to know how he thought and what he thought. We must know the mind of Jesus. Only then could we do as Jesus would do.

This synopsis constitutes a framework for thinking about Jesus’ mind based upon spiritual aspects of his thought and teaching. When used in cooperative meditation with our indwelling Father-Spirit, each page is also suitable for use as a daily devotion having the potential to aid in our personal spiritualization and our capacity to know and do the Father’s will.

The Teachings of Jesus

(A synopsis from Part 4, The Urantia Papers.)

These Papers confirm that the purpose of Jesus’ life on our planet included revealing God to man and man to God, and that his life was to exhibit “the transcendent possibilities attainable by a God-knowing mortal being during the short career of mortal existence.”

Having fully achieved his purpose, Jesus left us with this injunction: “Your mission to the world is founded on the fact that I lived a God-revealing life among you; on the truth that you and all other men and women are the sons and daughters of God; and it shall consist in the life which you will live among them—the actual and living experience of loving them and serving them—even as I have loved and served you.”

Consequently the Papers tell us: “that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it.”

The Papers take almost 700 pages to achieve that task. Human memory is such that it is helpful to most to have a framework upon which to build. Herein we endeavor to provide such a framework.

However, missing from this coverage is a description of the role of the indwelling Spirit of the Father, in the Papers most often referred to as our Thought Adjuster (meaning our Thought Helper, not a ‘thought controller’). Compensation for this omission is made by including information coming from elsewhere in the Papers.

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The function of the indwelling Father-Spirit is described as: “The great goal of our human existence is to attune to the divinity of the indwelling Spirit. The great achievement of our mortal life is the attainment of a true and understanding consecration to the eternal aims of the divine Spirit who waits and works within our mind. And our ideal life is one of loving service to our fellow travelers.”

We start this narrative as Jesus entered his 28^th year at which time he began to be certain that he was indwelt by the Spirit of God. As this relationship grew, he also became aware that this same Spirit of the Father indwells all of his earthly children as their mentor and guide.

In deciphering Jesus’ life be mindful of his purposes—first, to acquire creature experience, second, to reveal the Paradise Father, and third, to untangle the consequences of our rebellious sin. (later Christianity reversed this order, making Jesus’ sacrificial death his primary purpose.)

Jesus taught: ‘The will of God is the way of God, partnership with the choice of God in the face of any potential alternative. To do the will of God is the progressive experience of becoming more and more like God—who is the source and destiny of all that is good and beautiful and true.’

‘Only in the perfection, harmony, and unanimity of will can the creature become as one with the Creator…always must the desire to do the Father’s will be supreme in the soul and dominant over the mind of a mortal child of God.’

‘Become interested in your fellows; learn how to love them and watch for the opportunity to do something for them that you are sure they want done. They who would have friends must first show themselves friendly.’

‘When wise men and women understand the inner impulses of their fellows, they will love them. And when you love your brothers and sisters, you have already forgiven them.’

During a lengthy period of intimate association with religious leaders in his early career, never once did Jesus attack their errors or even mention the flaws in their teaching. In each case he would select the truth in what they taught and then proceed to embellish and illuminate this truth in their minds that in a very short time this enhancement of truth effectively crowded out the associated error.

He taught: ‘Goodness, like truth, is always relative, unfailingly evil contrasted, living, and always progressing, a personal experience that is everlastingly correlated with the discernment of truth and beauty.’

‘Goodness is found in the recognition of positive truth—its values at the spiritual level, which must, in human experience, be contrasted with the negative counterpart—the shadows of potential evil.’

‘Evil becomes a reality of personal choice only when a moral mind makes evil its choice.‘

‘Truth cannot be defined with words, only by living.’

‘Revealed truth, personally discovered truth is the joint creation of the material mind and the indwelling Spirit.’

‘But truth can never become our possession without the exercise of faith. Faith acts to release the superhuman activities of the divine spark that indwells us.’

‘Human life continues—survives—because it has a universe function, the task of finding God.’

‘Prayer is the great unifier of the inspirations and faith urges of a soul trying to identify itself with the spirit ideals of the Indwelling Spirit.’

‘There are only two groups of mortals in the eyes of God; those who desire to do his will and those who do not. Likewise there are two great classes—those who know God and those who do not.’

‘If we know God, our real business on Earth is so to live as to permit the Father to reveal himself in our lives, and thus will all God-seeking persons see the Father in us and ask for our help in finding out more about God who in this manner finds expression in our lives.’

Jesus taught a young associate: ‘I have absolute confidence in my Father’s overcare; I am consecrated to doing the will of my Father in heaven. I do not believe that real harm can befall me. I am absolutely assured that the entire universe is friendly to me—this all-powerful truth I insist on believing with a whole hearted trust in spite of all appearances to the contrary.’

‘The soul of man is distinct from the divine Spirit that dwells within the mind. The divine Spirit arrives simultaneously with the first moral activity of the human mind, and that is the occasion of the birth of the soul.’

‘The soul is self-reflective, truth discerning, and spirit-perceiving, the part of mankind which elevates the human being above the level of the animal world. Self-consciousness is, in and of itself, not the soul. Moral self-consciousness is true human self-realization and constitutes the foundation of the human soul—and the soul is that which represents the survival value of human experience. Moral choice and spiritual attainment, the ability to know God and the urge to be like him are the characteristics of the soul.’

On the day of his baptism, Jesus stood in the Jordan a perfected mortal of the evolutionary worlds of time and space. Perfect synchrony and full communication had become established between the mortal mind of Jesus and his indwelling Spirit of the Father.

Following his baptism, the choices confronting Jesus for the kind of ministry to adopt were: his own way—one that might seem profitable from the stand point of immediate needs; or the Father’s way—one that provided an example to humanity of a farseeing ideal of creature life.

There was just one motive in Jesus’ post baptismal life and that was a better and truer revelation of his Paradise Father; he was the pioneer of the new and better way to God, the way of faith and love—which he insisted on going about in the most quiet and non-dramatic manner, avoiding all display of power.

Jesus told his apostles, ‘Make no mistake; we go forth to labor for a generation of sign seekers…but they will be slow to recognize in the revelation of my Father’s love, the credentials of my mission.’

Jesus did not make the mistake of over-teaching. He did not precipitate confusion in his audience by the presentation of truth too far beyond their capacity to comprehend.

‘My Father’s kingdom concerns not things visible and material. For wherever the Spirit of God teaches and leads the soul of man, there, in reality, is the kingdom of heaven. And this kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.’

‘In my Father’s kingdom there shall be neither Jew nor gentile, only those who seek perfection through service, for I declare that he who would be great in my Father’s kingdom must first become of server of all.’

Jesus’ program—he would not cater to the physical gratification of his people. He would not deal out bread to the multitudes; he would not attract attention to himself through wonder working; nor would he use temporal power or authority to gain acceptance of a spiritual message.

Jesus taught the apostles to preach forgiveness of sin through faith in God but without penance or sacrifice. They also early learned that Jesus had a profound respect and sympathetic regard for every human being he met, and that nothing ever seemed so important to him as the individual human who chanced to be in his immediate presence.

Jesus never ceased repeating that faith only was necessary in the business of finding God, adding that, ‘it will be by the lives you live that others will know that you have been with me and have learned of the realities of the kingdom.’

He told his disciples that the kingdom of God is within you, that you do not have to see alike, feel alike, even think alike in order, spiritually, to be alike. ‘Harmony,’ he said, ‘grows from the fact that each of us is identical in origin, nature, and destiny.’

‘Spirit unity implies two things—first you are possessed of a common motive for soul service—to do the will of the Father—and second, you have a common goal of existence—to find the Father and to become like him.’

Again and again Jesus warned against the formulation of creeds and the establishment of traditions as a means of guiding believers. ‘Lead men into the kingdom,’ he said, ‘and the great and living truths of the kingdom will presently drive out all serious error. Your business is to reveal God to the individual as their heavenly Father, to lead men and women to become God-conscious—and to present them to God as his faith children.’

The only reward to Jesus’ followers—in this world, spiritual joy and divine communion; in the next world, eternal life in the progress of divine spirit realities of the Father.

Jesus was a teacher, not a preacher. He came to present spiritual truths to material minds. He came to do the Father’s will and only his Father’s will. And because of this singleness of purpose he was not anxiously bothered by evil in the world. He paid no attention to public opinion and was not influenced by praise. He was never excited, vexed, or disconcerted, sometimes saddened, but never discouraged. And he was always unselfish.

Love is the rule of living in the kingdom—supreme devotion to God while loving your neighbor as yourself. Obedience to the will of the Father, yielding the fruits of the spirit in one’s personal life is the law of the kingdom.

‘If you recognize you are children of the Father, then you have been born of the spirit of God; and whosoever has been born of the spirit has the power within himself to overcome all doubt.’

There are high values in mortal existence—intellectual mastery and spiritual achievement—which far transcend the gratification of man’s purely physical appetites and urges.

‘The evidence to all the world that you have been born of the spirit is that you sincerely love one another.’

‘Just as earthly families are built on tolerance, patience, forgiveness, and love, so with the earthly family of God.’

To his disciples, Jesus said, ‘Temporal matters are the concern of the men of the world. You are spiritual ambassadors of a spiritual kingdom, special representatives of the spirit Father. Love is the greatest of all spirit realities. Truth is a liberating revelation but love is the supreme relationship.’

The Master was a perfect specimen of human self-control. When he was reviled, he reviled not; when he suffered, he uttered no threats; when he was denounced, he simply committed himself to the righteous judgment of the Father.

‘I come with a new message of self-forgetfulness and self-control. I show you the way of life as revealed to me by my Father in heaven. By your love for one another you are to convince the world you have passed from death into life everlasting.’

Jesus taught: ‘If the Spirit dwells within you, you are free and liberated children of the Spirit. Your secret of self-mastery is faith in the Indwelling Spirit which ever works by love. If then you are born of the Spirit, you are forever delivered from a life of self-denial and watch-care over the desires of the flesh and are translated into the joyous kingdom of the Spirit whence you spontaneously show forth the fruits of the spirit in your daily lives.’

‘When you have become wholly dedicated to doing the will of the Father, all your petitions will be forthcoming because all these petitions will be in full accordance with the Father’s will.’

‘Avoid materialistic praying; pray in the spirit and for the abundant gifts of the Spirit.’

Jesus taught that the prayer for divine guidance over the earthly life was next in importance to a petition for knowledge of the Father’s will. In reality this means a prayer for divine wisdom.

We worship God by the aid of the Indwelling Spirit. And this spirit of the Father speaks best to man when the human mind is in an attitude of true worship. Worship, taught Jesus, makes one increasingly like the one who is being worshipped.

‘The degree of your love for others is the direct measure of just how much you have yielded your soul to the teaching and guidance of your indwelling God-Spirit.’

‘Whereas the level of brotherly love is upgraded when it embraces unselfish devotion to the welfare of our fellows, the greatest advance is at the level of spirit insight and spiritual interpretation which impels us to recognize in this rule of life the divine command to treat all people as we conceive God would treat them.’

‘The Father never sends affliction as an arbitrary punishment for wrong doing. Mankind should not blame God for those afflictions that are a natural result of the way they choose to live, nor complain of experiences that are the natural result of life as it is lived on this world.’

Jesus transcended the teachings of his forbears when he boldly substituted clean hearts for clean hands as the mark of true religion.

Jesus taught: ‘Emotionally people react individually. The only uniform thing about them is the Indwelling Spirit of God. Thus, only through and by appeal to this indwelling Spirit can mankind ever attain unity and brotherhood.’

Anger is a material (animalistic) manifestation indicating failure of the spiritual nature to gain control. “Anger rests in the bosom of fools.”

Jesus said, ‘Let your hearts be so dominated by love that your indwelling Spirit will have little trouble in delivering you from the tendency to give vent to those outbursts of animal anger which are so inconsistent with the status of a child of the Father.’

Jesus always preached temperance and consistency—pointing out that excessive zeal can lead to recklessness and presumption, while too much prudence and discretion can lead to cowardice and failure.

Jesus said: ‘Your forebears feared God because he was mighty and mysterious. You shall adore him because he is magnificent in love, plenteous in mercy, and glorious in truth.’

‘I have come into the world to put love in the place of fear, joy in the place of sorrow, confidence in the place of dread, loving service and appreciative worship in the place of slavish bondage and meaningless ceremonies.’

‘You do well to be meek before God and self-controlled before men; but let your meekness be of spiritual origin and not the self-deceptive display of a self-conscious sense of self-righteous superiority. My Father disdains pride, loathes hypocrisy, and abhors iniquity.’

‘The Father has sent me into the world to show how he desires to indwell and guide all his earthly children; and I have so lived this life in the flesh as to inspire everybody likewise ever to seek to know and do the will of the indwelling Spirit of the heavenly Father.’

Jesus’ kingdom is founded on love, proclaimed in mercy, and established by unselfish service.

‘Let me emphatically state this eternal truth: if you, by truth coordination learn to exemplify in your lives this beautiful wholeness of righteousness, your acquaintances will then seek after you that they may gain what you have acquired.’

‘The measure wherewith truth seekers are drawn to you represents the measure of your truth endowment, your righteousness. The extent to which you have to go with your message to the people is, in a way, the measure of your failure to live the whole or righteous life, the truth coordinated life.’

‘Many souls can best be led to love the unseen God by first being taught to love their brothers and sisters whom they can see.’

‘When religion is wholly spiritual in motive, it makes all of life more worthwhile, filling it with high purposes, dignifying it with transcendent values, inspiring it with superb motives, all the while comforting the human soul with a sublime and sustaining hope.’

‘The most thrilling and inspiring of all possible human experiences is the personal quest for truth, the determination to explore the realities of personal religious experience, and the exhilaration of facing the perils of intellectual discovery. It is the supreme satisfaction of experiencing the personal victory of spiritual faith over intellectual doubt as it is honestly won in that supreme adventure of all human existence—man seeking God for himself, of himself, and as himself—and finding him.’

‘The religion of the spirit means effort, struggle, conflict, faith, determination, love, loyalty, and progress.’

Jesus continued: ‘We will shortly begin the bold proclamation of a new religion—a religion that makes its chief appeal to the divine spirit of my Father that resides in the mind of man—a religion that shall derive its authority from the fruits of its acceptance.’

‘I have called upon you to discover the supernal experience of finding God for yourself, in yourself, and of yourself and as a fact of your own experience. The religion of the spirit leaves you forever free to follow the truth wherever the leadings of the spirit may take you.’

‘The supreme experience of human existence is: finding God for yourselves and knowing him in your own souls.’

‘Never forget there is only one adventure that is more satisfying than the attempt to discover the will of God, and that is the supreme experience of honestly trying to do the divine will.’

‘Spiritual destiny is dependent on faith, love and devotion to truth—hunger and thirst for righteousness—the whole hearted desire to find God and to be like him.’

‘You are destined to live a narrow and mean life if you learn to love only those who love you. The less of love in any person’s nature the greater their love need—and the more does divine love seek to satisfy such need.’

‘Kingdom believers should have an implicit faith, a whole souled belief in the certain triumph of righteousness. They must increasingly learn to step aside from the harassments of material existence while they refresh the soul, inspire the mind, and renew the spirit by worshipful communion.’

‘In advancing the cause of the kingdom, make your appeals directly to the divine spirit that dwells within the mind.’

‘In bringing others into the kingdom, do not lesson or destroy their self-respect. It is the purpose of this gospel to restore self-esteem to those who have lost it and to restrain it in those who have it.’

‘Do not make the mistake of only condemning the wrongs in peoples’ lives. Accord generous recognition for the most praiseworthy things in their lives. Forget not that I will stop at nothing to restore self-esteem to those who have lost it and who really desire to regain it.’

‘Idleness is destructive to self-esteem; therefore encourage your brethren to ever keep busy at their chosen tasks.’

‘God’s children die searching for the very same God who dwells within them.’

‘The believer has only one battle and that is against doubt—unbelief. In preaching the gospel you are simply teaching friendship with God.’

‘If you dare to believe in me and wholeheartedly follow me, you shall most certainly, by so doing, enter upon a sure pathway to trouble. I do not promise to deliver you from the waters of adversity, but I do promise to go with you through all of them.’

‘Never forget, the Father does not limit the revelation of truth to any one generation or to any one people.’

‘Fear not those who are able to kill the body but after that have no more power over you. I admonish you to fear no one, neither in heaven nor on Earth but rejoice in the knowledge of him who has power to deliver you from all unrighteousness and to present you blameless before the judgment seat.’

‘The Father never compels anyone to enter the kingdom. Though the door to life may be narrow, it is wide enough to admit all those who sincerely seek to find him.’

‘I am the new and living way. Whosoever wills may enter to embark upon the endless truth-search for eternal life. All too long have your fathers believed that prosperity was the token of divine approval, that adversity was the proof of God’s displeasure. Such beliefs are superstitions.’

Jesus on prayer: ‘All true prayers are addressed to spiritual beings, and all such petitions must be answered in spiritual terms and consist in spiritual realities. Spirit beings cannot bestow material answers to the spirit petitions of material beings.’

‘In this world, the kingdom is the supreme desire to do the will of God, the unselfish love of your fellow man which yields the good fruits of improved ethical and moral conduct.’

‘In heaven, the kingdom is the goal of mortal believers wherein their love of God is perfected.’

Jesus taught that we enter the kingdom by faith. Two things only are essential, firstly to come with the faith-sincerity of a little child to receive our entry as a gift while submitting to the Father’s will unconditionally, and secondly, truth hunger, the thirst for righteousness—the acquirement of the motive to find God and to be like him.

The receipt of God’s forgiveness involves a four step process:

God’s forgiveness is actually made available and is personally experienced just in so far as we have forgiven our neighbor.

We will not truly forgive our neighbors unless we love them as ourselves.

To thus love our neighbor is the highest ethics.

Moral conduct, true righteousness, becomes then, the natural result of such love.

‘The righteousness of any act must be measured by the motive.’

Jesus spread good cheer everywhere he went. He was full of grace and truth. His associates never ceased to wonder at the gracious words that proceeded from his mouth. You can cultivate gracefulness, but graciousness is the aroma of friendliness which emanates from a love-saturated soul.

Goodness is attractive only when it is gracious—and is effective only when it is attractive.

Jesus was always ready and willing to stop or detain a multitude while he ministered to the needs of a single person or to a little child. Most of the really important things that Jesus said or did seemed to happen casually, ‘as he passed by.’ He dispensed health and happiness naturally and gracefully as he journeyed though life. It was literally true, ‘he went about doing good.’

And so it behooves the Master’s followers in all ages to learn to minister ‘as they pass by’ –to do unselfish good as they go about their daily duties.

‘When the wise understand the inner impulses of others, they will love them. And when you love your neighbors, you have already forgiven them. This capacity to understand human nature and to forgive apparent wrongdoing is Godlike.’

‘Your inability or unwillingness to forgive your neighbor is the measure of your immaturity, your failure to attain adult sympathy, understanding, and love. You hold grudges and nurse vengefulness in direct proportion to your ignorance of the inner nature and true longings of your fellow human beings.’

‘Love is the outworking of the divine and inner urge of life. It is founded on understanding, nurtured by unselfish service and perfected in wisdom. Seek not in your daily lives, self-glorification, but seek rather the glory of God.’

‘You cannot stand still in the affairs of the eternal kingdom. My father requires all his children to grow in grace and in the knowledge of truth. You who know these truths must yield the increase of the fruits of the spirit and manifest a growing devotion to the unselfish service of your fellows. In faithfulness do what is entrusted to you, and thereby shall you be ready for the reckoning call of death.’

In teaching children to pray “Our Father,” an enormous responsibility is placed upon earthly fathers so to live and order their homes so that the word “father” has worthy connotations while becoming enshrined in the minds and hearts of growing children.

‘The fruits of the spirit, your sincere and loving service, are the mighty social lever to uplift the races of darkness. And this Spirit of Truth will become your powerful multiplying fulcrum.’

‘Remember that you are commissioned to preach this gospel of the kingdom—the supreme desire to do the Father’s will coupled with the supreme joy of the faith realization of sonship with God.’

‘Humanitarian labors are social by-products that must not replace the proclamation of the gospel.’

‘Labor to persuade the minds of others but never dare to compel them.’

‘Be gentle in your dealings with erring mortals, patient in intercourse with the ignorant, and forbearing under provocation—but be valiant in defense of righteousness, mighty in the promulgation of truth, and aggressive in preaching the gospel of the kingdom’

‘The revelation I have made is a living revelation, and in accordance with the laws of spiritual growth and adaptive development, it shall bear appropriate fruits in each generation.’

‘Do not forget that you are commissioned to go forth preaching only the good news. You are not to attack the old ways; you are skillfully to put the leaven of new truth in the midst of the old beliefs. Let the Spirit of Truth do his own work.’

‘Remember always to love one another. Do not strive with others, even with unbelievers. Sow mercy, even to those who despitefully abuse you.’

‘He who would be great among you, let him become server of all.’

The remembrance supper is the emblem of the bestowal ministry of the Spirit of Truth. It is also a symbol of our emergence from the bondage of ceremonialism and selfishness into the spiritual joy of brotherhood and fellowship. [Note: the Spirit of Truth is the spirit of Jesus which was bestowed upon all believers after his resurrection.]

Upon all such occasions (a remembrance supper), the Master is really present and his spirit fraternizes with our indwelling Father-Spirit.

Jesus to his disciples: ‘And so I give you a new commandment, that you love one another even as I have loved you. And by this will all mankind know that you are my disciples if you thus love one another as I have loved you.’

Jesus: ‘If you abide in me and my words live in you, you will be able to commune freely with me, and then can my living Spirit so infuse you that you may ask whatsoever my Spirit wills and the Father will grant us our petition.’

‘Prayer is a way of taking God’s way, an experience of learning how to recognize and execute the Father’s will.’

‘You are in this world but your lives are not to be world-like. I have chosen you ‘out of the world’ to represent the spirit of another world even to this.’

‘With the coming of the Spirit of Truth all the children of light will be drawn toward one another. And my Father and I will be able to live in the souls of each one of you, and also in the hearts of all other men who love us and make that love real in their experiences by loving one another even as I am now loving you.’

This new teacher is the spirit of living and growing truth, expanding, unfolding, and adaptive truth.

Divine truth is a spirit discerned and living reality. Living truth is dynamic and can enjoy only an experiential existence in the human mind.

Truth is a spiritual reality value experienced only by spirit-endowed beings who function on supermaterial levels of universe consciousness, and who, after the realization of truth, permit its spirit of activation to live and reign within their souls.

’Love, unselfishness, must undergo a constant and living re-adaptive interpretation of relationships in accordance with the leading of Spirit of Truth. Love must grasp the ever changing concept of the highest cosmic good of the individual who is loved. And such love goes on to strike this same attitude to all individuals who could possibly be influenced by one spirit-led mortal’s love for his fellows.

The golden rule and the teaching of non-resistance cannot be dogmatized; they can only be comprehended by living them in accordance with the interpretation of the Spirit of Truth who directs the loving contact of one human being with another.

‘When the new teacher comes, then shall this Spirit of Truth lead each of you abroad to labor for the kingdom.’

‘God is no respector of persons; in the sight of God, all are equal, all believers are the children of God.’

‘When the new teacher comes let him teach you the poise of compassion and that sympathetic tolerance which is born of sublime confidence in me and of perfect submission to the Father’s will.’

‘Dedicate your life to demonstrating the combined human affection and divine dignity of the God-knowing disciple.’

‘As far as is in your power live long on Earth that your life of many years may be fruitful in souls won for the heavenly kingdom.’

‘To him who is God-knowing there is no such thing as common labor or secular toil. All earthly labor is sacred and is a service—even to God the Father.’

‘Learn that the expression of even a good thought must be modulated in accordance with the intellectual status and spiritual development of the hearer.’

‘Be not dismayed that you fail to grasp the full meaning of the gospel. You are but finite and fallible mortal men—and that which I have taught you is infinite, divine, and eternal.’

Participation in the religion of Jesus is the sure and certain technique whereby spiritually isolated and cosmically lonely individuals can escape personality isolation and all its consequences of fear and helplessness.

‘In half-civilized man there still lurks an evil brutality that seeks to vent itself upon those who are superior in wisdom and spiritual attainment.’

Having revealed God to man, Jesus was now (at his crucifixion) engaged in making an unprecedented revelation of man to God. He was now revealing to the worlds the final triumph over all fears of creature personality isolation.

As taunts, insults, and blows fell upon Jesus, he was not vanquished, merely uncontending in the material sense.

Jesus was not even angry when, at his trial, ignorant mortals derisively struck him in the face after blindfolding him.

As they nailed Jesus on the cross, his only words were, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” He could not have so mercifully and lovingly interceded for his executioners if such thoughts of affectionate devotion had not been the mainspring of all his life of unselfish service.

The gospel of the good news that we mortals may, by faith, become spirit-conscious that we are children of God, is not in any way dependent on the death of Jesus. True, indeed, this gospel of the kingdom has been illuminated by the master’s death, but even more so, by his life.

Moses taught the dignity and justice of a creator God; but Jesus portrayed the love and mercy of a heavenly Father.

It is wholly correct to refer to Jesus as our savior. He forever made the way of salvation (survival) more clear and more certain.

The concept of atonement and sacrificial salvation is rooted and grounded in selfishness. The believer’s chief concern should not be the selfish desire for personal salvation but rather the unselfish urge to love and serve our fellow beings even as Jesus loved and served mortal man.

The great thing about the death of Jesus, as it is related to the enrichment of human experience and the enlargement of the way of salvation, is not the fact of his death but rather the superb manner and the matchless spirit in which he met that death.

The cross forever shows that the attitude of Jesus toward sinners was neither condemnation nor condonation, but rather eternal and loving salvation.

When thinking men and women look upon Jesus as he offered up his life on the cross, they will hardly again permit themselves to complain at even the severest hardships of life, much less at petty harassments and fictitious grievances.

Jesus is truly a savior in the sense that his life and death do win us over to goodness and righteous survival.

Jesus loved us so much that his love awakens the response of love in the human heart. Love is truly contagious—and eternally creative.

Jesus portrayed a higher quality of righteousness than justice—mere technical right and wrong. Divine love does not merely forgive wrongs; it absorbs and actually destroys them.

Greater love can no one have than this—that they would be willing to lay down their life for their friends. And Jesus had such love that he was willing to lay down his life even for his enemies.

‘Your mission