유란시아 책
IV 부. 예수의 생애와 교훈
Paper 196
The Faith of Jesus
The Faith of Jesus
196:0.1 (2087.1)
JESUS enjoyed a sublime and wholehearted faith in God. He experienced the ordinary ups and downs of mortal existence, but he never religiously doubted the certainty of God’s watchcare and guidance. His faith was the outgrowth of the insight born of the activity of the divine presence, his indwelling Adjuster. His faith was neither traditional nor merely intellectual; it was wholly personal and purely spiritual.
인간 예수는 하나님을, 진실하고 아름답고 선하신 분일뿐 아니라, 거룩하고 정확하고 위대하신 분으로 여겼다. 예수께서는 이런 모든 신성{神性}dml 속성을, “하늘에 계신 아버지의 뜻”으로 마음 속에 깊이 간직했다. 예수의 하나님은, “이스라엘의 거룩하신 분”인 동시에, “살아계시고 사랑하시는, 하늘에 계신 아버지”이셨다. 하나님이 아버지시라는 개념을 예수가 창시하지는 않았으나, 하나님을 새롭게 드러냄으로써, 또한 모든 필사 피조물이 이 사랑의 아버지의 자녀요 하나님의 아들이라고 선언함으로써, 그 관념을 숭고한 체험으로 강화시키고 격상시켰다.
196:0.2 (2087.2)
The human Jesus saw God as being holy, just, and great, as well as being true, beautiful, and good. All these attributes of divinity he focused in his mind as the “will of the Father in heaven.” Jesus’ God was at one and the same time “The Holy One of Israel” and “The living and loving Father in heaven.” The concept of God as a Father was not original with Jesus, but he exalted and elevated the idea into a sublime experience by achieving a new revelation of God and by proclaiming that every mortal creature is a child of this Father of love, a son of God.
예수께서는, 마치 우주와 투쟁하느라 허덕이고, 적대하는 죄 많은 세상과 결사적으로 씨름하는 혼처럼 하나님을 믿는 신앙을 붙들지는 않았으며;신앙을 단순히 어려움 속에서 피난처로 삼거나 절망 속에서 안식처로 삼지 않았으며;신앙은 단지 불쾌한 현실 또는 삶의 슬픔을 보상해주는 착각이 아니었다. 필사자 실존이 당연히 겪는 모든 어려움과 일시적 모순에 직면해서도, 의심하지 않고 하나님을 의지하는 최상의 평안을 체험했고, 하늘 아버지의 바로 그 현존하심 속에서, 신앙으로 엄청난 삶의 짜릿함을 느꼈다. 그리고 승리를 거둔 이 신앙은, 실제 영 달성을 이룩한 생생한 체험이었다. 예수가 인간 체험의 가치에 가장 위대하게 공헌한 것은, 하늘에 계신 아버지에 관하여 대단히 많은 새 관념을 보여준 것이라기보다, 새롭고 높은 유형의 하나님을 믿는 생생한 신앙을, 대단히 격조 높게 인간적으로 드러낸 것이었다. 이 우주의 어느 세상에서든지 어떤 한 필사자 생애에서, 나사렛 예수의 인간 체험에서처럼, 하나님이 그토록 생생한 실체가 되신 적이 결코 없었다.
196:0.3 (2087.3)
Jesus did not cling to faith in God as would a struggling soul at war with the universe and at death grips with a hostile and sinful world; he did not resort to faith merely as a consolation in the midst of difficulties or as a comfort in threatened despair; faith was not just an illusory compensation for the unpleasant realities and the sorrows of living. In the very face of all the natural difficulties and the temporal contradictions of mortal existence, he experienced the tranquillity of supreme and unquestioned trust in God and felt the tremendous thrill of living, by faith, in the very presence of the heavenly Father. And this triumphant faith was a living experience of actual spirit attainment. Jesus’ great contribution to the values of human experience was not that he revealed so many new ideas about the Father in heaven, but rather that he so magnificently and humanly demonstrated a new and higher type of living faith in God. Never on all the worlds of this universe, in the life of any one mortal, did God ever become such a living reality as in the human experience of Jesus of Nazareth.
196:0.4 (2087.4)
In the Master’s life on Urantia, this and all other worlds of the local creation discover a new and higher type of religion, religion based on personal spiritual relations with the Universal Father and wholly validated by the supreme authority of genuine personal experience. This living faith of Jesus was more than an intellectual reflection, and it was not a mystic meditation.
신학은 신앙을 고정시키거나 공식화하거나 정의하거나 교리화할 수 있어도, 인간의 삶에서 보여준 예수의 신앙은, 개인적이고, 생생하고, 독창적이고, 자발적이고, 순전히 영적이었다. 이 신앙은, 전통을 숭상하는 것도, 단지 신성시되는 신조{信條}로서 그가 붙잡았던 지적 믿음에 불과한 것도 아니었으며, 오히려 그를 단단히 붙잡은 숭고한 체험이자 심오한 신념이었다. 예수의 신앙은 확실히 실제적이고 포괄적이어서, 모든 영적 의구심을 확실히 떨쳐버리게 했고, 모든 상반된 욕망을 부숴버렸다. 열렬하고 숭고하고 굽히지 않는 이 신앙의 영적 정박지{碇泊地}에서, 아무것도 그를 떼어 놓을 수 없었다. 명백한 패배에 직면하거나, 낙담과 끔찍한 절망의 진통을 겪을 때에도, 그는 전혀 두려움 없이 영적 불패{不敗}를 온전히 인식하면서 신의 임재 앞에 고요히 서 있었다. 예수께서는 굳건한 신앙을 소유하고 있다는 분명한 확신을 향유했고, 생활 속에서 고된 환경에 처할 때마다 항상 아버지 뜻에 대한 의심의 여지없는 충성을 보여줬다. 그리고 이 놀라운 신앙은, 굴욕적으로 죽임 당할 것이라는, 잔인하게 짓밟는 위협에도 움츠러들지 않았다.
196:0.5 (2087.5)
Theology may fix, formulate, define, and dogmatize faith, but in the human life of Jesus faith was personal, living, original, spontaneous, and purely spiritual. This faith was not reverence for tradition nor a mere intellectual belief which he held as a sacred creed, but rather a sublime experience and a profound conviction which securely held him. His faith was so real and all-encompassing that it absolutely swept away any spiritual doubts and effectively destroyed every conflicting desire. Nothing was able to tear him away from the spiritual anchorage of this fervent, sublime, and undaunted faith. Even in the face of apparent defeat or in the throes of disappointment and threatening despair, he calmly stood in the divine presence free from fear and fully conscious of spiritual invincibility. Jesus enjoyed the invigorating assurance of the possession of unflinching faith, and in each of life’s trying situations he unfailingly exhibited an unquestioning loyalty to the Father’s will. And this superb faith was undaunted even by the cruel and crushing threat of an ignominious death.
196:0.6 (2088.1)
In a religious genius, strong spiritual faith so many times leads directly to disastrous fanaticism, to exaggeration of the religious ego, but it was not so with Jesus. He was not unfavorably affected in his practical life by his extraordinary faith and spirit attainment because this spiritual exaltation was a wholly unconscious and spontaneous soul expression of his personal experience with God.
온전히-다-바치고 굽힐 줄 모르는 예수의 영적 신앙은 결코 광신에 빠지지 않았는데, 그의 신앙은 실용적이고 평범한 사회적, 경제적, 및 도덕적 생활환경의 조화된 가치에 관한 잘-균형잡힌 지적 판단을, 한 번도 피해가려한 적이 없었기 때문이다. 사람의 아들은 눈부시게 통합된 인간 인격이었으며;완전하게 갖춘 신성한 존재였으며;또한 이 땅에서 하나의 인격체로서 활동하는, 인간답고 신성한 통합된 존재로서 놀라울 정도로 조화를 이뤘다. 주님은, 혼에 속하는 신앙을, 노련한 체험으로 얻은 지혜로운-평가{評價}과 항상 조화시켰다. 모든 인간적 충실함--곧 개인의 명예, 가족의 사랑, 종교적 책무, 사회적 의무, 및 경제적 필요성--의 실체와 신성함을 예리하게 깨닫는 것과 조화롭게 어울린, 개인 신앙과 영적 희망과 도덕적 헌신은 비길 데 없이 종교적으로 통일되어 서로 연관됐다.
196:0.7 (2088.2)
The all-consuming and indomitable spiritual faith of Jesus never became fanatical, for it never attempted to run away with his well-balanced intellectual judgments concerning the proportional values of practical and commonplace social, economic, and moral life situations. The Son of Man was a splendidly unified human personality; he was a perfectly endowed divine being; he was also magnificently co-ordinated as a combined human and divine being functioning on earth as a single personality. Always did the Master co-ordinate the faith of the soul with the wisdom-appraisals of seasoned experience. Personal faith, spiritual hope, and moral devotion were always correlated in a matchless religious unity of harmonious association with the keen realization of the reality and sacredness of all human loyalties—personal honor, family love, religious obligation, social duty, and economic necessity.
예수의 신앙은, 하나님 나라에서 볼 수 있는 모든 영 가치관을 보여줬으며;따라서 그는, “먼저 하늘 나라를 구하라”고 말씀했다. 예수께서는, 천국의 진보되고 이상적인 친교에서, “하나님의 뜻”이 성취되고 충족되는 것을 봤다. 제자들에게 가르친 기도의 최고 핵심은, “당신의 나라가 임하시고 당신의 뜻이 이뤄지소서”였다. 예수께서는, 천국이 하나님 뜻에 합당하다고 그렇게 느꼈기 때문에, 놀랄만한 자기-망각과 끝없는 의욕으로 이를 실현하는 데 자신을 바쳤다. 그러나 열렬히 감당한 모든 사명에서, 그리고 이례적인 그의 생애 내내, 광신자의 격렬함이나 종교적으로 강한 자부심을 지닌 자의 피상적 천박함은 결코 나타나지 않았다.
196:0.8 (2088.3)
The faith of Jesus visualized all spirit values as being found in the kingdom of God; therefore he said, “Seek first the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus saw in the advanced and ideal fellowship of the kingdom the achievement and fulfillment of the “will of God.” The very heart of the prayer which he taught his disciples was, “Your kingdom come; your will be done.” Having thus conceived of the kingdom as comprising the will of God, he devoted himself to the cause of its realization with amazing self-forgetfulness and unbounded enthusiasm. But in all his intense mission and throughout his extraordinary life there never appeared the fury of the fanatic nor the superficial frothiness of the religious egotist.
주님의 생애 전체는, 살아있는 이 신앙, 숭고한 이 종교 체험으로 인해 한결같이 조절됐다. 이 영적 태도가, 그의 생각과 기분, 믿음과 기도, 가르침과 설교를 전적으로 지배했다. 하늘 아버지의 인도와 보호가 확실하고 안전하다고 믿는, 한 아들의 이런 개인 신앙이, 영적 실체라는 심오한 천부재능을 그의 독특한 생애에 부여했다. 그렇지만 이 갈릴리인 곧 하나님의 갈릴리인은 신성과 밀접한 관계를 아주 깊이 의식하면서도, 자신이 선한 선생님이라고 일컬음 받았을 때, “네가 어찌하여 나를 선하다고 일컫느냐?”라고 바로 응답했다. 그런 굉장한 자기-망각을 대할 때, 예수 안에서 우주 아버지가 어떻게 그토록 온전히 자신을 나타내셨고, 또한 그를 통해서 이 영역의 필사자에게 자신을 계시하시는지를, 우리는 비로소 이해하게 된다.
196:0.9 (2088.4)
The Master’s entire life was consistently conditioned by this living faith, this sublime religious experience. This spiritual attitude wholly dominated his thinking and feeling, his believing and praying, his teaching and preaching. This personal faith of a son in the certainty and security of the guidance and protection of the heavenly Father imparted to his unique life a profound endowment of spiritual reality. And yet, despite this very deep consciousness of close relationship with divinity, this Galilean, God’s Galilean, when addressed as Good Teacher, instantly replied, “Why do you call me good?” When we stand confronted by such splendid self-forgetfulness, we begin to understand how the Universal Father found it possible so fully to manifest himself to him and reveal himself through him to the mortals of the realms.
예수께서는 이 영역의 한 사람으로서 가장 큰 예물을 하나님께 바쳤는데:신의 뜻을 수행하는 장엄한 봉사에 자기 뜻을 성별{聖別}하여 봉헌한 것이다. 예수께서는 항상 일관되게, 전적으로 아버지 뜻에 의거하여 종교를 해석했다. 너희가 종교 생활 중에 기도 또는 다른 어떤 면이든지 고려하면서 예수의 생애를 연구할 때, 그가 가르쳤던 것보다는, 그가 행했던 것을 더 눈여겨봐야한다. 예수께서는 종교적 의무라서 기도한 적이 결코 없었다. 그에게 기도란, 영적 태도를 진지하게 표현함, 혼이 충성하겠다는 선언, 개인적 헌신을 설명함, 감사의 표현, 감정적 긴장 상태의 피난처, 갈등에 대한 예방, 지적{知的} 작용에 대한 찬미, 욕구를 고상하게 바꾸는 것, 도덕적 결정을 변호하는 것, 사고{思考}를 풍성하게 하는 것, 높은 차원의 성향으로 이끄는 것, 자극을 정화시키는 것, 관점을 순수하게 해주는 것, 신앙의 선언, 의지의 초월적 복종, 확신에 대한 최고의 표현, 용기를 드러냄, 발견했다는 선포, 최상의 헌신을 고백함, 성별{聖別}의 정당성, 어려움에 대처하는 기법이었으며, 이기심과 악과 죄를 향해 달려가는 모든 인간 성향을 물리치려고, 통합된 혼의 능력을 강력하게 동원하는 것이었다. 그는 아버지 뜻을 행하려고 기도드리면서 헌신하는 바로 그런 생애를 살았고, 바로 그런 기도와 함께 자신의 삶을 당당하게 마쳤다. 어디에도 비교될 수 없는 그의 종교적 생애의 비결은, 하나님 현존을 자각함에 있었으며;그는 그 비결을, 통솔력이나 음성이나 선견{先見} 또는 특별한 종교 습관이 아니라, 지성적인 기도와 진지한 경배로--곧 하나님과 중단 없이 교통함으로-- 달성했다.
196:0.10 (2088.5)
Jesus brought to God, as a man of the realm, the greatest of all offerings: the consecration and dedication of his own will to the majestic service of doing the divine will. Jesus always and consistently interpreted religion wholly in terms of the Father’s will. When you study the career of the Master, as concerns prayer or any other feature of the religious life, look not so much for what he taught as for what he did. Jesus never prayed as a religious duty. To him prayer was a sincere expression of spiritual attitude, a declaration of soul loyalty, a recital of personal devotion, an expression of thanksgiving, an avoidance of emotional tension, a prevention of conflict, an exaltation of intellection, an ennoblement of desire, a vindication of moral decision, an enrichment of thought, an invigoration of higher inclinations, a consecration of impulse, a clarification of viewpoint, a declaration of faith, a transcendental surrender of will, a sublime assertion of confidence, a revelation of courage, the proclamation of discovery, a confession of supreme devotion, the validation of consecration, a technique for the adjustment of difficulties, and the mighty mobilization of the combined soul powers to withstand all human tendencies toward selfishness, evil, and sin. He lived just such a life of prayerful consecration to the doing of his Father’s will and ended his life triumphantly with just such a prayer. The secret of his unparalleled religious life was this consciousness of the presence of God; and he attained it by intelligent prayer and sincere worship—unbroken communion with God—and not by leadings, voices, visions, or extraordinary religious practices.
예수의 이 세상 생애에서 종교는, 생생한 체험 곧 영적 경외심에서 실천적 정의{正義}에 이르기까지 직접 몸소 행동하는 것이었다. 예수의 신앙은 신성한 영의 초월적 열매를 맺었다. 그의 신앙은, 아이들의 신앙처럼 미숙하거나 경솔한 것이 아니라, 의심하지 않고 신임하는 어린아이의 마음과 여러 면에서 비슷했다. 예수께서는, 어린아이가 부모를 신뢰하듯이 하나님을 신뢰했다. 그는 우주를 확고하게 신임했다--부모가 제공하는 환경을 어린아이가 신뢰하듯이 신뢰했다. 우주가 근본적으로 선하다고 믿는 예수의 진정한 신앙은, 땅 위의 주변상황이 안전하다고 믿는 어린아이의 신뢰와 대단히 흡사했다. 어린아이가 이 세상 부모에게 의지하듯이 하늘 아버지께 의존했고, 그의 열렬한 신앙은 하늘 아버지의 온갖-보살피심이 확실하다는 것을 한 순간도 의심하지 않았다. 두려움이나 의심이나 회의{懷疑}로 인해 심하게 동요되지 않았다. 불신 때문에 자신의 삶에 대한 자유롭고 독창적인 표현을 하지 못한 적이 없었다. 그는 다-자란 성인의 건장하고 지성적인 용기와, 잘 믿는 아이의 진지하고 확신에 찬 낙천성을 겸비했다. 그의 신앙은 두려움 없는 신뢰의 경지까지 발전했다.
196:0.11 (2089.1)
In the earthly life of Jesus, religion was a living experience, a direct and personal movement from spiritual reverence to practical righteousness. The faith of Jesus bore the transcendent fruits of the divine spirit. His faith was not immature and credulous like that of a child, but in many ways it did resemble the unsuspecting trust of the child mind. Jesus trusted God much as the child trusts a parent. He had a profound confidence in the universe—just such a trust as the child has in its parental environment. Jesus’ wholehearted faith in the fundamental goodness of the universe very much resembled the child’s trust in the security of its earthly surroundings. He depended on the heavenly Father as a child leans upon its earthly parent, and his fervent faith never for one moment doubted the certainty of the heavenly Father’s overcare. He was not disturbed seriously by fears, doubts, and skepticism. Unbelief did not inhibit the free and original expression of his life. He combined the stalwart and intelligent courage of a full-grown man with the sincere and trusting optimism of a believing child. His faith grew to such heights of trust that it was devoid of fear.
예수의 신앙은, 어린아이가 신뢰하는 것 같은 순결함에 도달했다. 그의 신앙은 대단히 순전하고 확실해서, 동료 존재들과 접촉하는 매력에 그리고 우주의 경이로움에 반응했다. 신성한 세계에 대한 그의 신뢰감은 아주 철저하고 무척 확신에 찼으므로, 자신이 절대로 안전할 것을 기뻐하고 안심했다. 그는 종교 체험에서 머뭇거리면서 핑계를 댄 적이 없었다. 다-자란 어른의 이런 엄청난 지능 속에서, 종교적 의식{意識}에 관계되는 모든 문제에 어린아이의 신앙이 최고 권력을 행사했다. 그러므로 언젠가, “너희가 어린아이처럼 되지 않으면, 천국에 들어가지 못할 것이라”고 말씀한 것은 이상하지 않다. 예수의 신앙은 어린아이같았음에도, 어떤 점에서도 유치하지 않았다.
196:0.12 (2089.2)
The faith of Jesus attained the purity of a child’s trust. His faith was so absolute and undoubting that it responded to the charm of the contact of fellow beings and to the wonders of the universe. His sense of dependence on the divine was so complete and so confident that it yielded the joy and the assurance of absolute personal security. There was no hesitating pretense in his religious experience. In this giant intellect of the full-grown man the faith of the child reigned supreme in all matters relating to the religious consciousness. It is not strange that he once said, “Except you become as a little child, you shall not enter the kingdom.” Notwithstanding that Jesus’ faith was childlike, it was in no sense childish.
196:0.13 (2089.3)
Jesus does not require his disciples to believe in him but rather to believe with him, believe in the reality of the love of God and in full confidence accept the security of the assurance of sonship with the heavenly Father. The Master desires that all his followers should fully share his transcendent faith. Jesus most touchingly challenged his followers, not only to believe what he believed, but also to believe as he believed. This is the full significance of his one supreme requirement, “Follow me.”
196:0.14 (2090.1)
Jesus’ earthly life was devoted to one great purpose—doing the Father’s will, living the human life religiously and by faith. The faith of Jesus was trusting, like that of a child, but it was wholly free from presumption. He made robust and manly decisions, courageously faced manifold disappointments, resolutely surmounted extraordinary difficulties, and unflinchingly confronted the stern requirements of duty. It required a strong will and an unfailing confidence to believe what Jesus believed and as he believed.
아버지의 뜻에 그리고 사람에게 봉사하는 데 바친 예수의 열정은, 필사자의 결심이나 인간적 결단보다 훨씬 더한 것이었으며;사랑을 그렇게 아낌없이 주기까지, 온 마음으로 자신을 바치는 것이었다. 미가엘의 주권자 신분이라는 사실이 아무리 위대하더라도, 인간 예수가 사람으로부터 멀어지게 해서는 안 된다. 주님은 하나님으로서 뿐만 아니라 사람으로서 높은 자리에 올라갔으며;그는 사람에게 속하고;사람은 그에게 속한다. 고뇌하는 필사자로부터 인간 예수를 멀어지게 할 만큼 종교 자체가 잘못 해석된다면, 얼마나 애석한 일인가! 그리스도가 인간인지 신인지 토론하면서, 나사렛 예수가 신앙으로 하나님의 뜻을 알고 실천한 종교적 사람이었다는 예외적 진리를 손상시키지 말라;그는 일찍이 유란시아에 살았던 어느 누구보다도 가장 참되게 종교적인 사람이었다.
196:1.1 (2090.2)
Jesus’ devotion to the Father’s will and the service of man was even more than mortal decision and human determination; it was a wholehearted consecration of himself to such an unreserved bestowal of love. No matter how great the fact of the sovereignty of Michael, you must not take the human Jesus away from men. The Master has ascended on high as a man, as well as God; he belongs to men; men belong to him. How unfortunate that religion itself should be so misinterpreted as to take the human Jesus away from struggling mortals! Let not the discussions of the humanity or the divinity of the Christ obscure the saving truth that Jesus of Nazareth was a religious man who, by faith, achieved the knowing and the doing of the will of God; he was the most truly religious man who has ever lived on Urantia.
열아홉 세기 동안 신학의 전통과 종교 신조{信條} 한가운데에 그를 묻어놓은 무덤에서, 인간 예수의 상징적 부활을 목격하게 될 때가 무르익었다. 영화롭게 된 그리스도라는 화려한 개념으로 말미암아, 나사렛 예수가 더 이상 희생돼서는 안 된다. 본 계시를 통해서, 전통적 신학이라는 무덤으로부터 사람의 아들이 재발견되고, 그의 이름을 간직한 교회에, 그리고 다른 모든 종교에, 살아있는 예수로서 제시된다면, 얼마나 탁월한 공헌이 되겠는가! 믿는 자들의 그리스도교 공동체는, 아버지의 뜻을 행하려고 종교적으로 헌신하는, 그리고 사람에게 사심 없이 봉사하려고 성별{聖別}하는, 실제 생활의 모범을 보여줬던 주님의 “뒤를 좇아” 가도록, 신앙과 생활 풍습을 주저하지 않고 조정하게 될 것이 분명하다. 그리스도교인이라고 고백한 사람이, 사회적 체면과 이기적인 경제적 부적응으로 자기만-만족시키는 성별되지 않은 교제가 노출될까봐 두려워할까? 갈릴리의 예수께서, 필사적 사람들의 정신과 혼 속에, 개인적 종교 생활의 이상{理想}으로서 원래 상태로 회복된다면, 제도화된 그리스도교는, 전통적인 성직의 권위가 위협 받거나 폐지될 가능성 때문에 두려워할까? 정말로, 예수의 살아있는 종교가 예수에 관한 신학적 종교를 갑자기 대체하게 된다면, 사회적 재조정과 경제적 전환과 도덕적 원상 복구 그리고 그리스도교 문명의 종교적 개편이 격렬하게 혁명적으로 일어날 것이다.
196:1.2 (2090.3)
The time is ripe to witness the figurative resurrection of the human Jesus from his burial tomb amidst the theological traditions and the religious dogmas of nineteen centuries. Jesus of Nazareth must not be longer sacrificed to even the splendid concept of the glorified Christ. What a transcendent service if, through this revelation, the Son of Man should be recovered from the tomb of traditional theology and be presented as the living Jesus to the church that bears his name, and to all other religions! Surely the Christian fellowship of believers will not hesitate to make such adjustments of faith and of practices of living as will enable it to “follow after” the Master in the demonstration of his real life of religious devotion to the doing of his Father’s will and of consecration to the unselfish service of man. Do professed Christians fear the exposure of a self-sufficient and unconsecrated fellowship of social respectability and selfish economic maladjustment? Does institutional Christianity fear the possible jeopardy, or even the overthrow, of traditional ecclesiastical authority if the Jesus of Galilee is reinstated in the minds and souls of mortal men as the ideal of personal religious living? Indeed, the social readjustments, the economic transformations, the moral rejuvenations, and the religious revisions of Christian civilization would be drastic and revolutionary if the living religion of Jesus should suddenly supplant the theologic religion about Jesus.
196:1.3 (2090.4)
To “follow Jesus” means to personally share his religious faith and to enter into the spirit of the Master’s life of unselfish service for man. One of the most important things in human living is to find out what Jesus believed, to discover his ideals, and to strive for the achievement of his exalted life purpose. Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it.
196:1.4 (2090.5)
The common people heard Jesus gladly, and they will again respond to the presentation of his sincere human life of consecrated religious motivation if such truths shall again be proclaimed to the world. The people heard him gladly because he was one of them, an unpretentious layman; the world’s greatest religious teacher was indeed a layman.
196:1.5 (2091.1)
It should not be the aim of kingdom believers literally to imitate the outward life of Jesus in the flesh but rather to share his faith; to trust God as he trusted God and to believe in men as he believed in men. Jesus never argued about either the fatherhood of God or the brotherhood of men; he was a living illustration of the one and a profound demonstration of the other.
인간 세계를 자각한 때부터 신의 세계를 깨닫기까지 사람이 진보해야하는 것과 마찬가지로, 예수도 사람의 본성으로부터 하나님의 본성을 자각하는 데 이르기까지 올라갔다. 그리고 주님은, 자신의 필사자 지능의 신앙과, 자신에게 내주하는 섭리사의 활동이 공동으로 성취함으로써, 인간 세계로부터 신성한 세계에 이르기까지, 이처럼 높이 올라갔다. (인성의 실체를 내내 충분히 의식하면서) 신성의 총체에 도달했음을 사실로-깨닫기까지, 점차 신성화{神性化}돼가는 것을 신앙으로 의식하는 일곱 단계가 있었다. 이런 발전적 자아-실현 단계는, 주님의 증여 체험에서 다음과 같은 이례적 사건들로 구별됐다:
196:1.6 (2091.2)
Just as men must progress from the consciousness of the human to the realization of the divine, so did Jesus ascend from the nature of man to the consciousness of the nature of God. And the Master made this great ascent from the human to the divine by the conjoint achievement of the faith of his mortal intellect and the acts of his indwelling Adjuster. The fact-realization of the attainment of totality of divinity (all the while fully conscious of the reality of humanity) was attended by seven stages of faith consciousness of progressive divinization. These stages of progressive self-realization were marked off by the following extraordinary events in the Master’s bestowal experience:
언젠가 그리스도교 교회에, 우리 신앙의 창시자요 완성자이신 예수의 변질되지 않은 종교 교훈으로 돌아가기에 충분한 개혁이 일어나게 될지도 모른다. 너희는 예수에 관한 종교를 전도해도 괜찮지만, 반드시 예수의 종교를 실천해야한다. 오순절 열광 속에서, 베드로는 자기도 모르게 새 종교를 탄생시켰는데, 부활하여 영광을 얻으신 그리스도를 모시는 종교였다. 사도 바울은 나중에 이 새 복음을 그리스도교로 변형시켰는데, 그것은 자신의 신학 견해를 삽입시키고 다마스커스로 가는 길에서 예수를 만났던 독특한 개인 체험을 묘사한 종교였다. 천국 복음은 갈릴리 예수께서 몸소 겪은 종교 체험에 기초한 반면;그리스도교는 거의 전적으로 사도 바울의 개인 종교 체험에 기초했다. 신약 성경 가운데 거의 대부분은, 의미심장하고 영감을 주는 예수의 종교적 생애를 묘사하기보다, 바울의 종교 체험에 대한 토론과 그의 개인적 종교 신념에 대한 묘사에 치우쳐있다. 마태복음과 마가복음과 누가복음의 어떤 부분들은 제외하고, 이런 진술 중에서 주목할 예외는, 히브리서와 야고보서뿐이다. 베드로마저, 자신의 글에서 겨우 한번 예수의 개인 종교 생애에 눈길을 돌렸을 뿐이다. 신약 성경은 매우 훌륭한 그리스도교 문서지만, 예수를-닮게하는{Jesusonian} 문서라고 하기에는 빈약할 뿐이다.
196:2.1 (2091.10)
Some day a reformation in the Christian church may strike deep enough to get back to the unadulterated religious teachings of Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. You may preach a religion about Jesus, but, perforce, you must live the religion of Jesus. In the enthusiasm of Pentecost, Peter unintentionally inaugurated a new religion, the religion of the risen and glorified Christ. The Apostle Paul later on transformed this new gospel into Christianity, a religion embodying his own theologic views and portraying his own personal experience with the Jesus of the Damascus road. The gospel of the kingdom is founded on the personal religious experience of the Jesus of Galilee; Christianity is founded almost exclusively on the personal religious experience of the Apostle Paul. Almost the whole of the New Testament is devoted, not to the portrayal of the significant and inspiring religious life of Jesus, but to a discussion of Paul’s religious experience and to a portrayal of his personal religious convictions. The only notable exceptions to this statement, aside from certain parts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are the Book of Hebrews and the Epistle of James. Even Peter, in his writing, only once reverted to the personal religious life of his Master. The New Testament is a superb Christian document, but it is only meagerly Jesusonian.
육신을 입은 예수의 생애는, 원시적 두려움과 인간적 경외심이 나타나는 초기 관념으로부터, 몸소 영적 교류를 나누는 기간을 거쳐서, 마침내 아버지와 하나임을 인식하는 숭고한 신분에 도달하는 위대한 종교적 성장을 묘사한다. 그리하여 예수께서는 한 번의 짧은 생애 동안에, 사람이 땅에서 시작하고, 이어지는 낙원-이전{以前} 생애 수준의 여러 영 훈련 학교에서 오래 머문 후에야 대개 성취하게 되는, 종교의 영적 진행과정 체험을 모두 거쳤다. 예수께서는 개인의 종교 체험에서 신앙으로 확신하는, 순전히 인간적으로 의식하는 경지로부터, 자신의 신성한 본성을 적극적으로 실현하는 숭고한 영적 경지에 이르기까지, 그리고 우주 경영에서 우주 아버지와 긴밀하게 연합하는 것을 의식하기까지 나아갔다. 그는 자신을 선한 선생님이라고 부른 사람에게, “어찌하여 나를 선하다 하느냐? 선하신 분은 오직 하나님뿐이시라”고 자연스럽게 말하도록 자극받을 만큼, 필사자로서 의존하는 겸손한 신분으로부터, “너희 가운데 누가 나를 죄로 책잡겠느냐?”라고 주장할 수 있는, 성취된 신성을 숭고하게 자각하기까지 나아갔다. 인간 세계로부터 신의 세계에 이르는 이런 점진적 상승은, 전적으로 필사자로서 성취한 것이었다. 그리고 그렇게 신성에 도달하고 나서도, 그는 하나님의 아들일 뿐만 아니라, 여전히 동일한 인간 예수, 사람의 아들이었다.
196:2.2 (2091.11)
Jesus’ life in the flesh portrays a transcendent religious growth from the early ideas of primitive awe and human reverence up through years of personal spiritual communion until he finally arrived at that advanced and exalted status of the consciousness of his oneness with the Father. And thus, in one short life, did Jesus traverse that experience of religious spiritual progression which man begins on earth and ordinarily achieves only at the conclusion of his long sojourn in the spirit training schools of the successive levels of the pre-Paradise career. Jesus progressed from a purely human consciousness of the faith certainties of personal religious experience to the sublime spiritual heights of the positive realization of his divine nature and to the consciousness of his close association with the Universal Father in the management of a universe. He progressed from the humble status of mortal dependence which prompted him spontaneously to say to the one who called him Good Teacher, “Why do you call me good? None is good but God,” to that sublime consciousness of achieved divinity which led him to exclaim, “Which one of you convicts me of sin?” And this progressing ascent from the human to the divine was an exclusively mortal achievement. And when he had thus attained divinity, he was still the same human Jesus, the Son of Man as well as the Son of God.
196:2.3 (2092.1)
Mark, Matthew, and Luke retain something of the picture of the human Jesus as he engaged in the superb struggle to ascertain the divine will and to do that will. John presents a picture of the triumphant Jesus as he walked on earth in the full consciousness of divinity. The great mistake that has been made by those who have studied the Master’s life is that some have conceived of him as entirely human, while others have thought of him as only divine. Throughout his entire experience he was truly both human and divine, even as he yet is.
그러나 가장 큰 과오는, 인간 예수가 종교를 가졌다고 인식되기는 했어도, 신성한 예수(곧 그리스도)가 거의 하룻밤 사이에 종교가 됐기 때문에 발생됐다. 바울의 그리스도교는, 신성한 그리스도를 찬미하도록 했으나, 갈릴리의 분투하는 씩씩한 인간 예수의 모습을 거의 전적으로 잃어버린 반면, 인간 예수는, 종교적인 개인 신앙의 용맹함과 내주하는 섭리사의 영웅적 자질로, 낮은 단계의 인성으로부터 신성과 하나 되는 경지까지 올라갔고, 이처럼 어떤 필사자든지 그렇게 인성으로부터 신성으로 올라갈 수 있게 하는 새 생명의 길이 됐다. 어떤 영성 단계든지, 어떤 세계의 필사자든지, 가장 낮은 영 수준에서 가장 높은 신성한 가치에 이르기까지, 몸소 겪는 모든 종교 체험의 시작부터 끝까지 전진하는 동안, 힘과 영감을 주는 무엇을 예수의 개인 생애에서 발견할지도 모른다.
196:2.4 (2092.2)
But the greatest mistake was made in that, while the human Jesus was recognized as having a religion, the divine Jesus (Christ) almost overnight became a religion. Paul’s Christianity made sure of the adoration of the divine Christ, but it almost wholly lost sight of the struggling and valiant human Jesus of Galilee, who, by the valor of his personal religious faith and the heroism of his indwelling Adjuster, ascended from the lowly levels of humanity to become one with divinity, thus becoming the new and living way whereby all mortals may so ascend from humanity to divinity. Mortals in all stages of spirituality and on all worlds may find in the personal life of Jesus that which will strengthen and inspire them as they progress from the lowest spirit levels up to the highest divine values, from the beginning to the end of all personal religious experience.
196:2.5 (2092.3)
At the time of the writing of the New Testament, the authors not only most profoundly believed in the divinity of the risen Christ, but they also devotedly and sincerely believed in his immediate return to earth to consummate the heavenly kingdom. This strong faith in the Lord’s immediate return had much to do with the tendency to omit from the record those references which portrayed the purely human experiences and attributes of the Master. The whole Christian movement tended away from the human picture of Jesus of Nazareth toward the exaltation of the risen Christ, the glorified and soon-returning Lord Jesus Christ.
예수께서는, 하나님의 뜻을 행하고 인간의 형제관계를 위하여 봉사하면서 몸소 체험하는 종교를 설립했으나;바울은, 영광을 받은 예수를 경배 대상으로 삼고, 신성한 그리스도를 믿는 친구들로 구성된 형제단체를 수립했다. 신이자-인간인 생애동안 예수의 증여에 잠재돼있던 이 두 가지 개념에서, 따르는 자들이 통합된 종교를 만들지 못한 것은 매우 유감인데, 만약 그렇게 통합됐다면, 주님의 인간적인 본성과 신성한 본성 둘 다 그의 이 세상 생애동안에 떨어질 수 없도록 묶여있던대로, 그리하여 원래의 천국 복음에서 그토록 영광스럽게 제시됐던대로, 둘 다 올바르게 알아봤을지도 모른다.
196:2.6 (2092.4)
Jesus founded the religion of personal experience in doing the will of God and serving the human brotherhood; Paul founded a religion in which the glorified Jesus became the object of worship and the brotherhood consisted of fellow believers in the divine Christ. In the bestowal of Jesus these two concepts were potential in his divine-human life, and it is indeed a pity that his followers failed to create a unified religion which might have given proper recognition to both the human and the divine natures of the Master as they were inseparably bound up in his earth life and so gloriously set forth in the original gospel of the kingdom.
예수께서 세상에서 가장 진지하고 헌신적인 종교인이었음을 너희가 기억한다면, 그의 일부 강경한 발언 때문에 충격을 받거나 불안하지 않을 것이다. 그는 아버지 뜻을 행하기에 거리낌 없이 일생을 바친, 전적으로 헌신한 필사자였다. 무정한 듯한 그의 말씀 가운데 다수는, 따르는 자들에게 주는 명령이라기보다, 본인의 신앙 고백과 헌신의 서약이었다. 바로 이런 오로지 한 가지 목적과 이타적 헌신 때문에, 그는 짧은 생애동안 인간의 정신을 사로잡는 일에 그토록 엄청난 진전을 이룰 수 있었다. 그가 선언한 말씀 가운데 다수는, 따르는 자들 전체에게 무엇을 요구한 것이라기보다, 오히려 자신에게 부과한 요구를 고백한 것으로 간주돼야한다. 천국의 대의{大義}를 위하여 헌신하면서, 예수께서는 배수진{背水陣}을 쳤으며;아버지 뜻을 행하는 데 방해되는 모든 것을 희생시켰다.
196:2.7 (2093.1)
You would be neither shocked nor disturbed by some of Jesus’ strong pronouncements if you would only remember that he was the world’s most wholehearted and devoted religionist. He was a wholly consecrated mortal, unreservedly dedicated to doing his Father’s will. Many of his apparently hard sayings were more of a personal confession of faith and a pledge of devotion than commands to his followers. And it was this very singleness of purpose and unselfish devotion that enabled him to effect such extraordinary progress in the conquest of the human mind in one short life. Many of his declarations should be considered as a confession of what he demanded of himself rather than what he required of all his followers. In his devotion to the cause of the kingdom, Jesus burned all bridges behind him; he sacrificed all hindrances to the doing of his Father’s will.
예수께서는, 사람이 세상에서 편안함을 느끼도록 인도했으며;금기{禁忌}에 노예 된 처지로부터 저희를 구했고, 세상이 근본적으로 악하지 않다는 것을 저희에게 가르쳤다. 이 세상 생애로부터 도피하기를 원치 않았으며;육신 속에 있는 동안에 아버지 뜻을 훌륭히 해내는 기법을 터득했다. 그는 현실 세계의 한 복판에서 이상적 종교 생활의 경지에 도달했다. 바울은 인류에 대해 비관적인 견해를 가졌으나, 예수께서는 전혀 그렇지 않았다. 주님은 사람을 하나님의 아들로 봤고, 생존하기로 선택한 그들 앞에 펼쳐질 장엄하고 영원한 미래를 내다봤다. 도덕적으로 비관적이지 않았으며;사람에 대해 부정적인 견해가 아니라 긍정적인 견해를 가졌다. 그는 대부분의 사람이 사악하기보다 약하다고, 타락했다기보다 마음이 산란하다고 봤다. 그러나 그들의 처지가 어떻든지 상관없이, 그들은 모두 하나님의 자녀였고 그의 형제였다.
196:2.9 (2093.3)
Jesus led men to feel at home in the world; he delivered them from the slavery of taboo and taught them that the world was not fundamentally evil. He did not long to escape from his earthly life; he mastered a technique of acceptably doing the Father’s will while in the flesh. He attained an idealistic religious life in the very midst of a realistic world. Jesus did not share Paul’s pessimistic view of humankind. The Master looked upon men as the sons of God and foresaw a magnificent and eternal future for those who chose survival. He was not a moral skeptic; he viewed man positively, not negatively. He saw most men as weak rather than wicked, more distraught than depraved. But no matter what their status, they were all God’s children and his brethren.
196:2.10 (2093.4)
He taught men to place a high value upon themselves in time and in eternity. Because of this high estimate which Jesus placed upon men, he was willing to spend himself in the unremitting service of humankind. And it was this infinite worth of the finite that made the golden rule a vital factor in his religion. What mortal can fail to be uplifted by the extraordinary faith Jesus has in him?
196:2.11 (2093.5)
Jesus offered no rules for social advancement; his was a religious mission, and religion is an exclusively individual experience. The ultimate goal of society’s most advanced achievement can never hope to transcend Jesus’ brotherhood of men based on the recognition of the fatherhood of God. The ideal of all social attainment can be realized only in the coming of this divine kingdom.
개인의 영적 종교 체험은, 필사자가 겪는 대부분의 곤경에 대한 효율적인 해결책이며;인간의 모든 문제를 효과적으로 분류하고 평가하고 조절한다. 종교는, 인간의 곤란한 문제를 없애거나 파괴하지는 않지만, 이를 용해하고 흡수하고 밝혀주고 초월한다. 참된 종교는 필사자의 모든 요구 사항에 효과적으로 적응하도록 인격을 통합한다. 종교적 신앙은--곧 내재하는 신성한 현존의 적극적 인도는--, 하나님을-아는 사람으로 하여금 우주의 제1 근원을 그것으로 인식하는 지적 논리와, 이 제1 근원을 그분이라고 단언하는 혼의 적극적 선언, 이 둘 사이의 간격을 극복할 수 있도록 만들며, 예수의 복음에서 그분은 하늘 아버지요, 인간을 구원하는 인격있는 하나님이시다.
196:3.1 (2093.6)
Personal, spiritual religious experience is an efficient solvent for most mortal difficulties; it is an effective sorter, evaluator, and adjuster of all human problems. Religion does not remove or destroy human troubles, but it does dissolve, absorb, illuminate, and transcend them. True religion unifies the personality for effective adjustment to all mortal requirements. Religious faith—the positive leading of the indwelling divine presence—unfailingly enables the God-knowing man to bridge that gulf existing between the intellectual logic which recognizes the Universal First Cause as It and those positive affirmations of the soul which aver this First Cause is He, the heavenly Father of Jesus’ gospel, the personal God of human salvation.
196:3.2 (2094.1)
There are just three elements in universal reality: fact, idea, and relation. The religious consciousness identifies these realities as science, philosophy, and truth. Philosophy would be inclined to view these activities as reason, wisdom, and faith—physical reality, intellectual reality, and spiritual reality. We are in the habit of designating these realities as thing, meaning, and value.
196:3.3 (2094.2)
The progressive comprehension of reality is the equivalent of approaching God. The finding of God, the consciousness of identity with reality, is the equivalent of the experiencing of self-completion—self-entirety, self-totality. The experiencing of total reality is the full realization of God, the finality of the God-knowing experience.
196:3.6 (2094.5)
The mind of man can attain high levels of spiritual insight and corresponding spheres of divinity of values because it is not wholly material. There is a spirit nucleus in the mind of man—the Adjuster of the divine presence. There are three separate evidences of this spirit indwelling of the human mind:
196:3.16 (2094.15)
Unless a divine lover lived in man, he could not unselfishly and spiritually love. Unless an interpreter lived in the mind, man could not truly realize the unity of the universe. Unless an evaluator dwelt with man, he could not possibly appraise moral values and recognize spiritual meanings. And this lover hails from the very source of infinite love; this interpreter is a part of Universal Unity; this evaluator is the child of the Center and Source of all absolute values of divine and eternal reality.
종교적 의미를--곧 영적 통찰력을-- 갖는 도덕적 평가는, 선과 악, 진리와 오류, 물질과 영, 인간과 신성, 시간과 영원 사이에 개인이 선택함을 암시한다. 인간의 생존은 영적 가치 분류자--곧 내주하는 해석자이자 통합자--가 선정한 그런 가치를, 인간의 의지가 얼마나 전념하여 선택하는가에 상당히 많이 달려있다. 개인의 종교 체험은 두 단계로 구성되는데:인간 정신 속에서 발견하는 단계와, 내주하는 신성한 영이 계시하는 단계다. 지나치게 고상하거나, 스스로 종교인이라고 고백하는 사람들이 불경스럽게 행동한 결과로, 한 개인 또는 심지어 한 세대의 사람들이, 자기에게 내주하시는 하나님을 발견하려는 노력을 포기하게 될 수 있으며;신성한 계시를 더 이상 받지 못하거나 그 계시를 접하지 못할 수 있다. 그러나 내주하는 사고 섭리사 현존과 영향 때문에, 영적 진행과정이 없는 그런 태도는 오래 지속될 수 없다.
196:3.17 (2095.1)
Moral evaluation with a religious meaning—spiritual insight—connotes the individual’s choice between good and evil, truth and error, material and spiritual, human and divine, time and eternity. Human survival is in great measure dependent on consecrating the human will to the choosing of those values selected by this spirit-value sorter—the indwelling interpreter and unifier. Personal religious experience consists in two phases: discovery in the human mind and revelation by the indwelling divine spirit. Through oversophistication or as a result of the irreligious conduct of professed religionists, a man, or even a generation of men, may elect to suspend their efforts to discover the God who indwells them; they may fail to progress in and attain the divine revelation. But such attitudes of spiritual nonprogression cannot long persist because of the presence and influence of the indwelling Thought Adjusters.
196:3.18 (2095.2)
This profound experience of the reality of the divine indwelling forever transcends the crude materialistic technique of the physical sciences. You cannot put spiritual joy under a microscope; you cannot weigh love in a balance; you cannot measure moral values; neither can you estimate the quality of spiritual worship.
196:3.19 (2095.3)
The Hebrews had a religion of moral sublimity; the Greeks evolved a religion of beauty; Paul and his conferees founded a religion of faith, hope, and charity. Jesus revealed and exemplified a religion of love: security in the Father’s love, with joy and satisfaction consequent upon sharing this love in the service of the human brotherhood.
196:3.20 (2095.4)
Every time man makes a reflective moral choice, he immediately experiences a new divine invasion of his soul. Moral choosing constitutes religion as the motive of inner response to outer conditions. But such a real religion is not a purely subjective experience. It signifies the whole of the subjectivity of the individual engaged in a meaningful and intelligent response to total objectivity—the universe and its Maker.
196:3.21 (2095.5)
The exquisite and transcendent experience of loving and being loved is not just a psychic illusion because it is so purely subjective. The one truly divine and objective reality that is associated with mortal beings, the Thought Adjuster, functions to human observation apparently as an exclusively subjective phenomenon. Man’s contact with the highest objective reality, God, is only through the purely subjective experience of knowing him, of worshiping him, of realizing sonship with him.
196:3.23 (2095.7)
The idealization and attempted service of truth, beauty, and goodness is not a substitute for genuine religious experience—spiritual reality. Psychology and idealism are not the equivalent of religious reality. The projections of the human intellect may indeed originate false gods—gods in man’s image—but the true God-consciousness does not have such an origin. The God-consciousness is resident in the indwelling spirit. Many of the religious systems of man come from the formulations of the human intellect, but the God-consciousness is not necessarily a part of these grotesque systems of religious slavery.
196:3.24 (2095.8)
God is not the mere invention of man’s idealism; he is the very source of all such superanimal insights and values. God is not a hypothesis formulated to unify the human concepts of truth, beauty, and goodness; he is the personality of love from whom all of these universe manifestations are derived. The truth, beauty, and goodness of man’s world are unified by the increasing spirituality of the experience of mortals ascending toward Paradise realities. The unity of truth, beauty, and goodness can only be realized in the spiritual experience of the God-knowing personality.
196:3.25 (2096.1)
Morality is the essential pre-existent soil of personal God-consciousness, the personal realization of the Adjuster’s inner presence, but such morality is not the source of religious experience and the resultant spiritual insight. The moral nature is superanimal but subspiritual. Morality is equivalent to the recognition of duty, the realization of the existence of right and wrong. The moral zone intervenes between the animal and the human types of mind as morontia functions between the material and the spiritual spheres of personality attainment.
196:3.26 (2096.2)
The evolutionary mind is able to discover law, morals, and ethics; but the bestowed spirit, the indwelling Adjuster, reveals to the evolving human mind the lawgiver, the Father-source of all that is true, beautiful, and good; and such an illuminated man has a religion and is spiritually equipped to begin the long and adventurous search for God.
196:3.27 (2096.3)
Morality is not necessarily spiritual; it may be wholly and purely human, albeit real religion enhances all moral values, makes them more meaningful. Morality without religion fails to reveal ultimate goodness, and it also fails to provide for the survival of even its own moral values. Religion provides for the enhancement, glorification, and assured survival of everything morality recognizes and approves.
196:3.28 (2096.4)
Religion stands above science, art, philosophy, ethics, and morals, but not independent of them. They are all indissolubly interrelated in human experience, personal and social. Religion is man’s supreme experience in the mortal nature, but finite language makes it forever impossible for theology ever adequately to depict real religious experience.
196:3.29 (2096.5)
Religious insight possesses the power of turning defeat into higher desires and new determinations. Love is the highest motivation which man may utilize in his universe ascent. But love, divested of truth, beauty, and goodness, is only a sentiment, a philosophic distortion, a psychic illusion, a spiritual deception. Love must always be redefined on successive levels of morontia and spirit progression.
196:3.30 (2096.6)
Art results from man’s attempt to escape from the lack of beauty in his material environment; it is a gesture toward the morontia level. Science is man’s effort to solve the apparent riddles of the material universe. Philosophy is man’s attempt at the unification of human experience. Religion is man’s supreme gesture, his magnificent reach for final reality, his determination to find God and to be like him.
196:3.32 (2096.8)
Some men’s lives are too great and noble to descend to the low level of being merely successful. The animal must adapt itself to the environment, but the religious man transcends his environment and in this way escapes the limitations of the present material world through this insight of divine love. This concept of love generates in the soul of man that superanimal effort to find truth, beauty, and goodness; and when he does find them, he is glorified in their embrace; he is consumed with the desire to live them, to do righteousness.
현대인에게 중대한 도전은, 인간 정신 속에 거하는 신성한 관찰자와 좀 더 나은 대화를 성취하는 것이다. 육신 속에서 사람의 가장 큰 모험은, 영-의식의 가장자리에 도달하려고--곧 신성한 현존과 접촉하려고-- 전심으로 노력을 기울이면서, 혼-의식이 태어나는 희미한 영역을 거쳐서, 자아-의식 테두리를 밖으로 확장시키려고, 균형-잡히도록 노력하고 건전하게 노력하는 데 있다. 그런 체험은 하나님을-인식함, 즉 하나님을 알아가는 종교 체험이라는 선재{先在}하는 진리를 강력하게 확증하는 체험이다. 그런 영-의식은, 하나님의 아들신분이 실제임을 아는 것과 대등하다. 달리 말하면, 아들신분을 확신하는 것이 신앙의 체험이다.
196:3.34 (2097.2)
The great challenge to modern man is to achieve better communication with the divine Monitor that dwells within the human mind. Man’s greatest adventure in the flesh consists in the well-balanced and sane effort to advance the borders of self-consciousness out through the dim realms of embryonic soul-consciousness in a wholehearted effort to reach the borderland of spirit-consciousness—contact with the divine presence. Such an experience constitutes God-consciousness, an experience mightily confirmative of the pre-existent truth of the religious experience of knowing God. Such spirit-consciousness is the equivalent of the knowledge of the actuality of sonship with God. Otherwise, the assurance of sonship is the experience of faith.
하나님을-인식함은, 자아를 우주와 통합하고 가장 높은 수준에서 영적 실체와 통합하는 것에 상당한다. 어떤 가치든지, 오직 그 영적 내용만 불멸한다. 참되고 아름답고 선한 것이라도, 인간의 체험에서만 불멸할지도 모른다. 사람이 생존하기를 선택하지 않으면, 사랑으로 인해 탄생되고 봉사하면서 양육된 그런 실체를, 잔존하는 섭리사가 보존한다. 그리고 이 모든 것은 우주 아버지의 일부분이다. 아버지는 살아있는 사랑이시며, 아버지의 이 생명이 그 아들들 안에 있다. 그리고 아버지의 영이 그 아들들의 아들들--곧 필사적 사람들-- 안에 있다. 모든 것이 다 설명되고 완료된 지금, 하나님에 대한 인간 개념 중에서 아버지 관념이 여전히 가장 높은 개념이다.
196:3.35 (2097.3)
And God-consciousness is equivalent to the integration of the self with the universe, and on its highest levels of spiritual reality. Only the spirit content of any value is imperishable. Even that which is true, beautiful, and good may not perish in human experience. If man does not choose to survive, then does the surviving Adjuster conserve those realities born of love and nurtured in service. And all these things are a part of the Universal Father. The Father is living love, and this life of the Father is in his Sons. And the spirit of the Father is in his Sons’ sons—mortal men. When all is said and done, the Father idea is still the highest human concept of God.