Recently I had a conversation – well, really it was more like listening in on a conversation that someone was having with himself in my presence. Does that make sense?
What I heard went something like this.
“… They’re deceived. At least I’m not deceived – not that it will make any difference. I’m not doing what I should be doing. Rebellious. That’s what I am. Rebellious. Hell will be a hotter for me. I should do differently but I’m not. I KNOW what I should be doing but I just won’t do it. Etc.”
He went on to say a bit about what Jesus has done for us – but claimed it wouldn’t do any good for him.
He was stuck in a pit of Christian guilt.
Christian guilt.
Ain’t nothing like it – is there? And it’s a common place to be stuck.
So where does this guilt come from?
Do you remember when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil?
What happened to their feelings toward God?
They were overcome with guilt. They had no choice but to hide from God – to keep out of sight. Their guilt simply would not permit a relationship with God.
I mention Adam and Eve just to point out that the guilt complex is nothing new. Humans have been plagued with this from the beginning.
It is wired into our DNA to think and accept that there is something wrong with us – something that has huge consequences.
This willingness to believe that something is wrong with us is the product of enjoying the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.
Knowing good from evil is a judgment call. It’s a judgment we make effortlessly and without any thought.
And when we make that judgment, we judge ourselves and we always find ourselves guilty.
Why is this? How can we always be guilty? Are we really all so bad that we can never be found innocent by the judge and jury of our on mind?
Nope. We’re always guilty.
To be innocent we have to be perfect. Perfect is the highest form of good. And it represents a judgment too.
Think about what perfect means to you.
Do it before you read any further. If you were perfect, what would you look like? What would you be doing? How would you be living your life?
OK. Now that you’ve gotten a vision of your own perfection in your mind, think about where your idea of perfection comes from.
Your idea of perfection comes from the judgments you’ve made about good and evil. And the way you judge good and evil is purely a judgment call on your part.
You don’t think it is right now and likely your mind is in resistance to the idea.
You see, the components of perfection are different for different people. Perfection is a judgment.
Oh you say – well it doesn’t matter what I say – it only matters what God says.
OK. Let’s go see what God said to Adam and Eve.
“Who told you that you were naked?” Remember that question? That’s what God asked Adam and Eve.
God came walking in the garden looking for Adam and Eve just like He always did and they hid because they were naked.
Did God just catch them right after a bath?
No! They’d always been naked!
They were hiding because they now believed that being naked was bad or wrong, or at least less than perfect.
Making judgments about good and evil means that YOU decide that YOU are less than perfect and that makes you guilty before God and unworthy to stand in His presence.
You might say – “Well the reason they were guilty before God is because they ate the fruit that God told them not to eat”.
My friends, the eating of the fruit is symbolic of the error we commit when we make judgments about good and evil.
The thing that made Adam and Eve guilty was the judgment they made about their nakedness.
The thing that makes YOU guilty before God is YOUR judgment about who you are.
And God says to you “Who told you that you were naked?”
Your answer would have to be a sheepish “I did….”
You could say…. “The snake told me and I believed it….” “My parents told me and I believed it.” “My church told me and I believed it.” “I read it in the Bible and I believed it.”
It really doesn’t matter where it came from.
The thing that makes it real for you is your belief. In the instant you accepted the judgment that you made, you judged yourself.
And there’s no ticket out – not even the sacrifice of Jesus.
Nothing anyone else does can change the judgment with which you have judged your self.
Only YOU can reverse the judgment.
And it’s not easy. It will go against everything within you.
Thousands of years of collective human judgment/guilt consciousness have provided us with a solid foundation upon which to build our edifices of guilt and shame. We’re more comfortable with being judged and condemned to a life of guilt and shame than we are of being free!
You say you believe in Jesus and that his sacrifice has set you free. Are you perfect yet?
“No – I’m not perfect you say, I’ll never be perfect, but it doesn’t matter because I’m saved.”
Saved from what?
Until you can accept that you are perfect, you’re not saved.
Let me ask you another question.
In whose eyes was Jesus seen as perfect?
Obviously the religious leaders of his day did not judge him as perfect. They killed him.
His disciples didn’t judge him as perfect. They had a great deal of trouble believing him. I’d rather think if you really believed someone to be perfect you’d believe what they had to say – would you not?
Jesus wasn’t seen as a perfect man in his day.
Somehow it’s easy for us 2000 years later to see Jesus as perfect – though we wonder about some of his actions.
Let’s be real here. We have a few questions about how he threw the money changers out of the temple, or his use of wine, just to name a couple.
So even though we say Jesus was perfect, we have to make some judgments about some of the things he did that we don’t understand – and we rationalize all this stuff out in our mind to conclude that Jesus was perfect and we are not – and thus it shall ever remain. But somehow we are saved but we don’t feel saved because our guilt plagues us no matter how hard we try to say Jesus has washed it all away.
Remember what I said earlier?
Only YOU can reverse the judgment.
Salvation results when you turn (repent) from the error of your judging (Judge not that you be not judged) and reverse the judgments you’ve placed upon yourself.
You don’t have to accept what thousands of human beings have accepted for themselves.
And this is where the going gets difficult. It’s hard to go against traditional thinking. It’s hard to do something different than what most are doing.
It’s difficult to do what Jesus did.
What did he do? He went against the traditional thinking “There is something wrong with me”.
He lived as if he were the Son of God! He believed it, he lived it!
How is He different than you?
He’s not! He wasn’t.
That’s why he taught us to live like he lived. That’s why he admonished us to be perfect. That’s why he said we’d do all the works he did and greater.
So what is the first step in living like Jesus lived, being perfect like he was and doing amazing things like he did?
Let’s not worry about miracles and miraculous works for now. Let’s just be thinking about the way Jesus lived with confidence and assurance of his oneness with God.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be turning water into wine, but it’s far more important to me to live at peace with God. I can get wine at any grocery store!
So what does it take to live in full assurance of your oneness with God?
Have Faith. Believe.
First you must believe in the possibility.
What do I mean exactly?
You must live with the belief and idea that you can be one with God NOW. That’s a tall order for a lot of believers.
Most Christians have a belief in some future oneness with God. There’s the belief that it all happens for you after you die, or after the judgment day.
I’m going to be blunt here. If you’re putting your salvation off into the future somewhere, you’ll never reach it.
You must believe in whatever you believe in now. Believe that it is possible for you in this moment. That’s how Jesus showed us to live.
He didn’t live with a bunch of questions around his relationship with God with a hope that after he passed from the physical there would be some kind of miraculous transition and everything would be OK with God again.
No. That’s not faith.
That’s hell my friends. That’s guilt, shame, wondering where you stand. That’s where we live when we have conversations like I’m telling you about.
So, if you’re a Christian living in hell, it’s time to get some faith and get out!
Believe that you can live right now in full assurance of your oneness with God.
As you live each day from that perspective you’ll notice some things you probably never noticed before.
You’ll begin to understand scriptures you didn’t understand before. You’ll notice that the teachings of Jesus make more sense. You’ll have more answers and fewer questions.
You’ll have less fear about your future and more confidence. Eventually you’ll have no fear.
Which is exactly where Jesus told us to live – “Fear not little flock….”
I’ve found it helpful to always think about where you want to be in your spiritual life and bring it to the present.
Don’t put peace with God off. Bring it to the present. Live with the belief that makes it possible.
If you uncover a belief that causes you to doubt God, to doubt your peace with God, your oneness with God, take a good look at that thing and decide if it’s worth hanging on to or not! (It’s not.)
Remember beliefs are not truth. You choose what you believe. You may think all your beliefs are truth, but they’re not.
You might as well choose beliefs that have no root in fear, doubt, confusion, and all the other things that make you guilty and ashamed before God who is one with you.
OK. I’m going to stop now before this little article becomes the book that I didn’t intend to write today but that I do want to write eventually!
If you’ve read this far I’m sure you have some thoughts coming up. Why not share them?
Leave a comment below! Thanks!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you Robert for writing this article because I sense a powerful shift will occur once I stop judging myself and accept me as being perfect and one with God. Ever since reading this last night, I experienced such joy and happiness at the thought that I’m already perfect! God is good, He really is. He always gives me just what I need right when I need it!
But traditional thought is trying to pull me back and cause doubt. Then I choose not to believe (judge myself) and I’m back to being stuck and guilty. You’re right when you say that it goes “against everything within you” to think in this way but I KNOW I’m on the verge of a magnificent, life changing revelation!
I do have questions though because I’m really want to understand. Bear with me, I’m still trying to process all of this:
1. We/humans became “aware” of what is good/evil, and with that awareness came judgment? So good and evil exisits/separation from God, hence the plan of salvation?
2. Many of the judgments we have hold about ourselves and our actions come from the bible/commandments. How do we reconcile that?
Just yesterday I was plagued by guilt because I judged myself as unworthy due to my actions, doing something I really don’t want to do and feel is unholy before God. I actually would like to go more into detail with you if possible, but writing this portion here because someone else might feel the same way I do (working on did!) and would be blessed by reading your response. I repented, am sincerely remorseful and don’t practice this “sin” but I judged myself and felt horrible. This affected my relationship with the Father because I felt I could not commune with Him as I normally do. Your article reasonated with me and I knew that God was talking to me directly. I was truly blessed as the insights you gave begin settling into my soul and the change in my thinking brought me back into beautiful fellowship and peace with the Father, which is priceless!
I believe it comes down to having faith and believing……I know I’m almost there! Thanks again – your work blesses!
You said, “How is [Jesus] different than you? He’s not! He wasn’t.”
Are you saying that Jesus (the Christ) was not The Lord? or Divine?
You also said, “The eating of the fruit is symbolic of the error we commit when we make judgments about good and evil.”
Are you saying that God does not judge as at all for the good/evil that we do?
Just asking for clarification.
Josh,
Great questions! And I’ll preface my answer with this is how I see it:
Jesus the man was no different than any of us. The thing that made him unique was his absolute connectedness (is that a word?) with his oneness with God. The divine part of him was no different than the divine part of you, or me. He lived in complete awareness of that. We are still waking up to that truth, even though it is what he told us, and what he showed us.
Now to say Jesus is Lord… What does that really mean? The man Jesus cannot be Lord of anything. He’s dead. The essence of Jesus, the Christ, The Light, is something that goes far beyond the physical body that died. That essence, spirit or whatever you wish to call it, showed us how to be Lord over all things, and that essence can be in us producing the same thing in each who are aware and allow.
Now about God judging us. He doesn’t. God doesn’t need to, because in the instant we judge ourselves, we are judged. We’ve tried to blame this on God, but it’s not his doing. The only error anyone ever commits is the judgment “I’m not enough”. The “wrong” actions that follow this kind of judgment get us into all kinds of trouble here on the physical plane.
Again, this is how I see it. Don’t just accept what I say. Take it and check it out for yourself. Take it for checking.
I hope that clarifies some!
Blessings,
Robert
Dear Trace,
It does take a bit to process it! Please be patient with yourself. Rejoice in your perfection!
There is no awareness of good and evil. It is judgment that creates the illusion of good and evil. Take away judgment and good and evil don’t exist. I suggest that this is where true peace, joy, and salvation lies.
Remember that the Bible was written by, for, and about people just like you and me. They suffered from the effects of their judgments just like you and I. I see the record of their lives as something to learn from – and we don’t have to repeat their judgments! Jesus demonstrated freedom from all that. That’s what we’re supposed to get from the Bible! Somehow we miss the message, don’t we?
But that’s ok. We are learning. We are on the path, and we are growing!
Blessings, and thanks for sharing!
Robert
Does God not throw people into Hell? Or do you maybe believe that is something that THEY do to THEMSELVES? Like, there is no Hell (which might be seen as “evil”)
Joshua,
I see hell as the result of our judgment. We judge ourselves, we are condemned and the suffering is hell. God desires that all be saved. No I don’t see God throwing people into hell.
The idea of hell being this hot place with eternal fires burning the spirits who are placed there doesn’t line up with how I see the spiritual realm. For one thing I just don’t think that spirits are sensitive to temperature. I think the idea of hell evolved from a very physical, judgemental perspective. Being stuck in a fire is a terrible fate for the physical body. Being thirsty, and having no water, again a terrible punishment for the physical. But spirit? Spirit needs nothing that the physical requires.
Take it for checking!
Robert