No Power On Earth Could Have Touched Him
from The Final
Victory
Uranda
January 27, 1952
He who had moved among men before and disappeared at will prior to that time—
do you not think that, if His disciples had been holding steady,
He could have disappeared in any moment He had chosen?
On this beautiful day, which gives promise of a springtime not too far
away, let us meditate for a moment upon some of the principles that our Master
revealed in relationship to this phase of our own progress along the way. The
Master said, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do,” and that
work which the Father gave was finished before that experience that
was made necessary to our Lord by human imposition in the trial and the
crucifixion. The work the Father gave Him to do was completed before that trial
and before the crucifixion, for we have the Word from His own lips: “I have
finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” Why, then, was it necessary for
Him to experience the mockery, the indignities of that trial, and the
sufferings of the crucifixion? It was because man imposed those things upon our
Lord. They were imposed by man’s rejection of the divine pattern.
The ill things that nullify the expression of the beautiful pattern of
God’s design on earth are never God’s will. They are imposed by man’s rejection
of that which God offers. The shame and the suffering, the indignities, are never
the result of the divine pattern or of God’s will. They are the result of man’s
denial and betrayal of his responsibilities, and they are imposed by that which
man himself does. Very often those who consider themselves Christians, or who
long to move along the spiritual path, are inclined to think: “If I had lived,
if I had only had the privilege of living at that time when our Master Himself
walked on earth, I would not have been among those who were scattered so
quickly from that vast throng who were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the king.’ I would
not have been like Peter, denying, or like Judas, betraying, nor like the
others who followed afar off, for I would have appreciated my privilege and
opportunity. And, cost what it might, I would have been among those who stood
at the foot of the cross.” So many have felt that way—perhaps they would not
express it in so many words.
Yet today, in this hour and in all the hours to come, we have the same
privilege of remaining true, the same privilege of standing at the foot of the
cross, the same privilege of proving the reality of our love and our trust. The
passage of the centuries has not denied us any privilege that we might have had
then, with the one exception of seeing the physical form through which our Lord
was manifest. And He said of those who lived then, that for their sakes it was
expedient that He should go away; and if it was expedient for them, there is
nothing taken from us, because we do not have the privilege, as our minds might
think of it, of seeing Him in physical form. It is expedient for us that He so arranged the divine pattern.
So, let us examine something of what happened and see if we can gain a
deeper conviction of that which is necessary to ourselves, that we may come to
a recognition that it is not what we feel out of the subconscious heart or
mind, it is not what we feel externally, that is properly the directing force
in our lives. It is what we see and recognize and realize with the conscious
mind to be the truth of the matter, for the mind which is allowing the spirit
of God to work in it is stronger than any feeling that can come surging up from
the subconscious. It is stronger than any idea that may be buried somewhere in
the subterranean phases of the mind. It is stronger than any current of feeling
that may be imposed from the outside.
What you feel is beside the point. As long as the conscious mind
continues to yield to the impulses that come from a distorted subconscious mind
or heart, as long as it yields to the currents of feeling or action from
without, it is saying, “I am not a guardian angel. I am not fortified by the
spirit of God. I am a weak thing and I must of needs acknowledge the extent of
my weakness and say that God cannot serve me because I am subject to all of
these ill things.” He who says that betrays our Lord, as surely as Judas
betrayed Him. He denies, as surely as Peter did, and he is not even following
afar off. He is scattered into the darkness, hiding in the alleyways, lest
someone see and say, “Are you not one of those who followed Him?”
Let us see what happened at the time of our Master. He had finished
the work that God gave Him to do, but certain things were imposed upon Him. In
either case, He was going away, as far as His physical form was concerned. But
do you think He could cause His body to be changed more easily after all this
humiliating experience than otherwise? He could have ascended without the
suffering, the crucifixion and those days in the tomb. Man imposed that upon
Him and made it necessary. Sometimes people ask a question and say, “But did
not the prophets say He would have to die? Does not the Bible say there could
be no salvation except as His blood was shed, etc.?” I grant you that after
this experience was all over, certain ones developed some ideas with respect to
it. And in the pattern of prophecy in the Old Testament you will find those
things which recognized not only the possibility but the probability of the
manner in which man would function. But because it worked out the way it did,
the human interpretation has been on the basis of one idea only; and there has
been a complete failure to recognize the fact that an alternate path, the ideal
path, was foretold just as surely, as definitely, if man would have allowed it
to have meaning.
That which was of God’s design was revealed by the prophets much more
abundantly than those comparatively obscure texts that recognized the probability
of what man would do. Because man did fail, the texts that relate to that
possibility are picked out and held up as what was prophesied. And it is not so
at all, because God’s provision of the pathway did not require that Jesus
should die. It was human beings that condemned our Lord to the indignities of
the trial, so-called, and to the sufferings of the cross. God did not require
it. From God’s standpoint, it was not necessary, and I can take the book cover
to cover and show you how the pattern was revealed there. Let us examine it.
The idea of the shedding of the blood, from the standpoint of the
spear in the side and the nails in His hands and feet, is supposed to have had
some particularly efficacious result—that God, being a hardhearted something-or-other,
would not accept the salvation of a single man, woman, or child unless His own
Son should physically bleed. Anyone who stops to consider that which is
revealed of God in the Bible will recognize that that is so completely out of
character that there is no reasonable excuse for any person believing it. It is
completely out of character. The blood is the symbol of life. He had shed His
blood, in the true sense, before He ever reached the agonies of Gethsemane or
the sufferings of the cross. He had shed His life upon the earth. He had shed
the currents of His life in the revelation of Deity. He had revealed the
principles of life. He had given His life to the revelation of the things of
God, and He Himself said before any of these things took place, “I have
finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” There was a recognition that
certain things were yet to be faced because of what man had imposed upon Him,
but it was not the divine plan or purpose or necessary from the standpoint of
God, as if He were a bloodthirsty being who demanded that blood be shed. No.
That is not the character of God. It was not the plan or purpose of God. And
the only reason why our Master accepted that outworking was because man imposed
it upon Him.
Who imposed it upon Him particularly? Who among men? Herod or Pilate
or the power of the Caesars? Oh, no. Who imposed it upon Him? His disciples
were the ones who imposed that upon Him. It is true. They simply accepted the
focalization of the world in the hour of stress, rather than remaining true
to their focalization in Him. But consider if the hour of crisis had come and
all twelve of the disciples had remained steady. There are those who say Judas,
poor creature, was predestined to do it; someone had to do it in order for God’s
plan to be fulfilled. Someone on earth had to be a traitor and betray our Lord! Oh, no. God is out of character the moment anyone begins to conceive such an
idea. God never predestined anyone to be a traitor or to betray the things of
God, let alone the Son of God! Judas did not have to betray Him. It
was not necessary; it was not a part of the divine plan. It was a part of human
failure.
Consider. If it had worked out according to that which God had made
available to them, if according to God’s true plan there had been a following
through—of course the Master knew, particularly toward the last, that they were
not going to hold when the crisis came; but, even so—suppose Judas had not
betrayed Him, suppose Peter had not been of that type who would deny Him,
suppose twelve men had stood faithful and true to their Lord on earth—twelve
men, not one wavering, not one breaking in the face of the crisis—then His body
on earth, the body of these twelve men who were supposed to be the key men of
the Christ body which should fill the earth, holding steady, would have allowed
Him to carry out God’s plan. Not from the standpoint of continued work on earth
in the sense of His doing it, but His doing it through the members of His
body—the very principles He had outlined to them such a few hours before, the
principles and Laws that He had expounded to them over and over again through
the three and a half years of His ministry with them. But if that body, the
focalization of the body in twelve men, would have held the pattern, hundreds
and thousands who had received blessings at His hand, who had cried “Hosanna to
our king,” would have stood if the twelve disciples had stood. And there would
have been a body on earth.
He who had moved among men before and disappeared at will prior to
that time—do you not think that, if His disciples had been holding steady, He
could have disappeared in any moment He had chosen? Could humanity have heaped
the indignities of the cross or mockery of the trial upon Him? No. Why did He
accept that imposition? The body that He had been building through the years of
ministry died, scattered first—the scattering of the disciples. When they
broke, when they slept in Gethsemane instead of watching with Him one little
hour, when they slept, when He came to face the final pattern, of course the
Lord would not have suffered as He did—even in Gethsemane—had this pattern
been holding properly. Because already Judas had gone out to betray, His body
had started to decay and die, the body of His disciples. That body of the
disciples was scattered, brought to the point of death before His physical body as a man was brought to the point of
the crucifixion.
If that body of twelve disciples had remained steady and true, no
power on earth could have touched Him, because then the victory would have been
assured without His going through what He did. The same truths would have been
revealed in the outworking of the cycles of time, but there would have been a
body established—twelve key points, with others rallying around vibrationally.
And if they had sought to touch Him, whether He would have used spiritual power
to prevent it or whether He would have disappeared is beside the point. That
would have been for Him to choose and it is not for me to speculate upon, but
they could not have touched Him. That we know. If the body He had built, or
undertaken to build—the body of many members—had held true, His physical body
would not have had to be on the cross. But on the cross of spiritual creative
activity, the crossing between heaven and earth, there would have been a
revelation of divine power that would have carried through effectively and
saved man centuries of suffering, sorrow, misery and death. The body would have
been complete and this world would have been restored already.
It is
not until after this plan had failed to carry through that we have the
prophetic portrayal, for instance in Revelation, of that which should yet be
done. Because in Isaiah, and many other places, there is mention made: “Behold,
I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former things shall not be
remembered, nor come into mind.” That is part of the prophecy of what was
divinely ordained for the time when Jesus Christ should come on earth, that
which could have been, but man prevented it. Man spoiled the pattern of God, so
there was a divine reorganization and a reprojection of the same goal under a
new pattern. Not all was lost, it is true. Our Master had finished the work. He
had revealed Deity, established the truth on earth, set the pattern. And
somewhere there would be those who would follow through, those who would not be
so quick to betray for thirty pieces of silver or their own human desires.
I
wonder how many of you know why Judas betrayed, what the working of his mind
was. I happen to know what was going on in Judas’s mind because I was one of
those who was there at that time and watched this process working out in his
mind, and did what I could to head it off—but I did not. He had the idea that
as a political personage Jesus did not have quite as much understanding as He
should have had. He was a wonderful spiritual teacher—that Judas clearly
acknowledged. But He did not have a practical understanding, according to
Judas’s idea, a practical understanding of what was necessary. Judas thought
his own vision was clearer, his own understanding more acute. And when he went
and betrayed, he had no more idea in his mind, and conviction, that it would
lead to the crucifixion of Jesus than you have an idea that it would lead to
some disastrous result if you were self-active for five minutes, here and now.
His idea was that he would so maneuver things that he would force Jesus to use
His spiritual power. He was not acting on the basis of intent to hurt Jesus.
His idea was: “I will maneuver here, and as soon as it comes to the point of
crisis Jesus will use His spiritual power. He will see that I was right, that
it is time to take political action. It is time to use this power to establish
a kingdom here on earth.”
Judas
had not gotten it out of his head that it was not simply a kingdom like Solomon
or David had had here on earth. He still had that idea, and he thought, “I will
so maneuver undercover that it will force the issue, and Jesus will use His
great power to defeat, and He will be seen as the King of this kingdom that is
to be established.” And as soon as he recognized that his own calculations had
miscarried and that He was not going to use His power on any such basis, his
sorrow and chagrin were tremendous. He realized that his own puny mind had
misled him. He did love the Lord. He did not betray Him knowing that it would
lead to the Lord’s crucifixion. He betrayed thinking that it would force the
Lord to use His power to establish the kingdom. He thought it was a smart
political maneuver. And consequently, when he saw that his Master was allowing
Himself to be subject to it, when he saw the pattern that was unfolding, he
went out and hung himself in terrible regret. Do not imagine that Judas
betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver, knowing it would lead to His
crucifixion. His mind did not grasp that point at all.
Very often the human being thinks, “If I can just improve on the
Lord’s plan a little bit—my brilliance, my understanding is such that the
spiritual leadership, the outworking, needs to be improved on a little. And the
human mind gets busy and betrays today, as surely as it did then. If the twelve
had remained true, there were hundreds and thousands of others who would have
remained true. And God’s will being done in them would have provided a starting
point for the beginning of that great transition into the divine state here on
earth, for it was the divine intention.
The Master was still trusting at the time He spoke the words that are
recorded in Matthew 24. He still recognized that it was possible. And if you
will read Matthew 24 with any understanding of what is actually contained in
the so-called prophecies of the Old Testament, the outline of God’s will,
pattern and intent, you will see that He recognized then that it was still
possible that the complete change could be worked out within a very short
period of time. Part of that which He prophesied was fulfilled about 70 A.D.,
and the rest remains to be fulfilled. But there is not one single thing in the
record to indicate that Jesus made a guess and said, “Part of this will be
fulfilled in 30 or 35 years, and the rest will take 2,000 years. He presented
that in the recognition that it could be done in its fulness. He recognized the
possibility but He knew the plan of God. He taught it over and over again.
The manner in which most of the disciples failed to grasp what He was
talking about is emphasized in the record in the first chapter of Acts. Even
after the crucifixion, after all of this had taken place and the Master had
appeared for forty days to them at different times, “To whom also he shewed himself
alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty
days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Even after
His resurrection He was talking to them of the things of God. Then they were
assembled together and “When they therefore were come together, they asked of
him [after all that had happened and it was almost the last moment before He
should leave them, the disciples], saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore
again the kingdom to Israel?” They were still so dense, they had not yet
completely grasped what He was talking about, that they were thinking about an
earthly kingdom, that inane concept that had stuck in their minds after all the
Master had said. And there, at the last moment, some of them had the gall to
ask that inane question, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the
kingdom to Israel?” There is the secret of all this failure.
There is the secret of why our Lord was crucified. Because this idea
in the human mind was allowed to control. The logical, reasonable understanding
of the things that He had taught, which denied this old idea, was not allowed
to control. When we stop and examine it, we see there was nothing logical,
reasonable in this failure, because He had talked to them about the kingdom of
God and had still talked to them about it after the resurrection. And they
still were clinging to the old idea.
If you read the record you will find there was only one disciple who
stood at the foot of the cross in the final hour, only one. If there had not
been one, there would have been no connecting substance remaining; the Master’s
body would have been left in the tomb and the world would have been left to
degenerate and decay. That plan of our Master’s coming would have failed, as far
as humanity was concerned. Because one stayed steady, that plan and pattern
were allowed to continue to work out—because one stood firm. Only one out of
twelve, but that one has made it possible for the fulfilment since that time,
and for the fulfilment now, so that the Master’s coming and that which He did
should not be in vain.
It was because the body that He had been working to produce died,
became meaningless, responded to fear, etc., that it became necessary for the
physical body to be crucified. He had already shed the brilliance of His life
in the world, He had already shed God’s love wherever He went, He had already
revealed the patterns of truth, He had already finished the work that God gave
Him to do. And it was the failure of those eleven disciples to hold steady and
stand with Him that made necessary the crucifixion. And if those eleven had
stood, many others would have done likewise, but with nothing to look to, no
true pattern, there were only a few who held.
This pattern reveals that which is necessary in our lives here and
now. It reveals the fact that we need to so abide in His love, remain so
centered, remain so true to our divine calling, that the things that come up
from the subconscious mind—the old ideas, the old feelings—are not allowed to
control. Pressures from without are not allowed to control. But the conscious
mind, centered in God, stands steady on the basis of its recognition of the
things of God, its conviction of the rightness of God, so that logic and reason
may be made manifest by the power of God. The mind that was in Christ Jesus is
then made manifest in us.
That mind, the intelligent mind, that recognized the things of God,
did not yield to the feelings or the ideas, either at the time of the
Temptations or the agonies of Gethsemane. Do you think there were not feelings
that could have turned Him aside? What was it? It was divine intelligence—mind
that would not yield, mind that stayed true in the divine conviction, mind that
allowed logic and reason to control, regardless of feelings, regardless of
anything else. And there was the dominion.
He made the victory manifest, the victory that we are to share. But
how are we to share it? By twiddling our thumbs and waiting for someone to hand
it to us on a silver platter? By mumbling a few words of belief and then
continuing to be subject to the ill things around us? No. It is to be known
when we allow the dominion of God to be a reality in our conscious minds. When
that dominion, that control, is established there, regardless of the
subconscious mind, regardless of what is external, regardless of what we feel
or do not feel—when that divine intelligence is made manifest without wavering
and there is dominion there—then God’s guardian of the subconscious mind can
cause change in your life. Then the things of God can begin to have meaning.
But until that dominion is established because your mind—your
conscious-reasoning, logical mind—is centered in the mind that was in Christ
Jesus, you cannot share the victory. We share it by letting those Laws and
principles be revealed in ourselves.
Because He did it without a precedent, we have the privilege of having
a precedent. We have an example. And because it is done, we have something to
move to. We do not have to suffer, as He did—not one. Not one has to go through
what He did, to face the miseries, discouragement and mockery that He did. He
said, “The Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” He meant there was not a
real manifestation on earth for the kingdom of God, no starting point for the
expression of dominion. But as you yield and come into the pattern God
designed, and let His dominion be established in mind and heart and expression
of life, then the Son of man begins to have a place to lay His head. Then there
is a beginning of the reality of the kingdom—not a concept that human beings
have developed, but the reality of that kingdom as God designed it, as Jesus
taught it and revealed it. That is what we are interested in. That is why we
are here—so that that divine control in the conscious mind may be the starting
point for the victory in and through you.
Only as there is that dominion in you that is unshakable, constant and
true, can you be an instrument through which that dominion is extended out to
others. Only so can your light shine. Only so can you render true service. Only
so can you be a member of His body on earth. Only so can you share the victory.
Only so can you have a part in seeing to it that what the Master went through
on earth at the hands of men was not in vain.
As far as I am concerned, I have infinite patience for those who are
moving toward the end that what our Lord did on earth shall not be in vain, but
no patience whatsoever with those who refuse to share in that work. As far as I
am concerned, there is just one thing that is important: that what our Lord and
King did on earth shall not be in vain. And for those who share it, well and
good. For those who do not, to me they mean nothing. But it is important that
every man, woman and child on the face of the earth shall have the opportunity
of making his or her own choice. What our Lord went through on earth is not in
vain and shall not be, and one bright day we shall have the privilege of
presenting to Him not just a place to lay His head on earth but a kingdom
restored, where His will is done on earth as it is in heaven, and His kingdom
has come. Blessed are those who share in the victory of the spirit of the
living Christ.
Peace be unto you, that you may ever choose to share the victory and
let the mind that was in Christ Jesus be in you.
© emissaries of divine light
