For the Father loves the Son and shows to Him all things which He does. And He will show Him greater works than these in order that you may marvel. For even as the Father raises the dead, and gives life, so also the Son gives life to whomever He wills. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. The one not honouring the Son does not honour the Father who has sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, The one who hears My Word, and believes the One who has sent Me, has everlasting life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you that an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and the ones hearing will live. For even as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave also to the Son to have life in Himself. And He also gave authority to Him to execute judgment, for He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming in which all those in the tombs will hear His voice. And they will come out, the ones having done good into a resurrection of life; and the ones having practiced evil into a resurrection of judgment. (John 5:20-29)
…by “the Father” in the Word the Lord meant His Divine which was the life or soul of His Human, and not another separate from Himself. Nor indeed could He have meant any other. Thus the Divine and the Human in the Lord, according to the doctrine of the Christian world, are not two but one person, altogether like soul and body; as is declared in clear terms in the Athanasian Creed. And as God and Man in the Lord are not two but one Person, and thus are united like soul and body, it follows that the Divine which the Lord had from conception was what He called “the Father,” and the Divine Human was what He called “the Son;” consequently that they were both Himself. (Apocalypse Revealed 613{14})
It is not easy to loosen our minds from thinking naturally or literally when we come to what the Word has to say. In the literal sense it is Jesus speaking but on a higher plane or deeper sense what Jesus spoke was representative of what the Word is continually saying to all people of all generations. In speaking these words, we find in John’s Gospel the Lord framed within the very concrete limitations of human language. As the Word, He brings the Divine Good into a form we can hear with our ears, read with our eyes and so grasp with our minds. For the Divine Good as it is in itself is beyond our ability to grasp and so it presents to human consciousness in the form of truths articulated in the words of human language that we can read and study and live from if we so choose.
In its most external form, the Divine Good presents Itself as a human being in historical time and space in the person of Jesus Christ. Now whatever presents on the material plane to the physical senses is merely the effect of something higher, for this physical material world is a world of effects and it is the spiritual world that is the world of causes. This is also true of the Divine presenting in the realm of physicality or materiality. Flesh and blood human beings are how goods and truths and evils and falsities present themselves on this level of life. The person of Jesus Christ is therefore how the Divine Life represents Itself on a material level so that it can be accommodated to the senses of our finite minds in a form that we can connect with.
So the Divine doesn’t choose the material human form over other possible forms. The Divine Life assumes the human form because this is the form that perfectly corresponds to its own Divine Essence when that essence is represented to the finite limitations that our minds exist within. In other words, when the Divine Life meets the lowest level of existence it takes on a material form, and that form is one of a human person because this is how goods and truths can be organised and re-presented to us on the most external level of life. So the Divine presents itself in a representative form and we call that form truth because truth is the form of good that can be seen. Jesus says…
I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (John 14:6)
Truth is the means by which concepts or ideas as to what love is and how it operates can be re-presented to human consciousness. What we know from the doctrines of Spiritual Christianity is that truth takes on different appearances by conforming to the quality of the life of those receiving it. We get a sense of this in the teachings for Spiritual Christianity where we are told that celestial angels are in ideas incomprehensible to spiritual angels, while spiritual angels are in ideas far above the grasp of those in the natural heavens, yet these lower angels are in ideas far above our comprehension. The teachings go on to say that there are those on earth who view the Word spiritually and the ideas that they are in are beyond the comprehension of those who view it literally or naturally. So, there are those whose faith is focussed on a person in history and there are those whose focus is on the presence of God as the Word itself.
While all these differing views of the Lord exist due to the differences in the perception each has, all, if they are looking to good, have before them in the image of the Lord they carry, the Lord in His Divine Human. For wherever the Lord presents to human consciousness He is perceived in His Divine Human. So those who are followers of the teachings for Spiritual Christianity have the Lord presented to human consciousness as the Word understood in the light of these teachings. This is what is to be understood by the term Son in the Word.
So rather than thinking of the Son as a person, which is to think from the lowest level of our thought, let’s lift our vision so that we see the term in spiritual light, that is, in the light that the doctrines for a Spiritual Christianity offer us. In this light, by the Son is meant the Word which is the Divine Wisdom that reveals the Divine Love, and the Divine Love or the Divine Good that is beyond finite comprehension is what is meant by the term Father. We cannot experience the Father, the Divine Love, as it is in Itself directly but we can experience the Father or the Divine Good in the Son, the Divine Truth. Jesus, as the Word, makes this clear when He says that the Father, the Divine Love, is in Him the Divine Truth, which is to say – the Divine Love is in the Word. So it is that the Word says that…
No one comes to the Father but by me…
Natural Christianity comprehends this to mean a person, but Spiritual Christianity understands this statement to mean that if we want to connect with the Divine then the only way this can be possible is through the Word. In other words, good can only be realised through the practise of truth, and for us that truth is the Word understood in the light of the principles of Spiritual Christianity. So it is the Word that brings us to the Lord when we see that it is the Lord present in His Divine Human.
For the Father loves the Son and shows to Him all things which He does. And He will show Him greater works than these in order that you may marvel. For even as the Father raises the dead, and gives life, so also the Son gives life to whomever He wills.
Spiritually, this statement teaches us how the Divine works through the Word to instruct us concerning all that has to do with the spiritual life. Without Divine revelation to provide us with knowledge of these things, no one can be saved. So we read that…
the Father loves the Son and shows to Him all things which He does
So within the Word, the Son, are all things belonging to the Divine Love or Father. The Word holds it all. The Divine Truth reveals the Divine Love; this is why Jesus says of the Word that it speaks only of the Father.
For even as the Father raises the dead, and gives life, so also the Son gives life to whomever He wills.
To be raised from the dead from a spiritual perspective is to have our evils and falsities removed, for it is these that render us dead to spiritual life. We see from this statement that the Word teaches that the Divine power to raise a human being from spiritual death is made available through the Word. Without the Word we have no light by which we can become conscious of our evils and falsities. The Divine Good needs the Divine Truth to achieve its goal for the salvation of the human race. Therefore, we read in the next verse that…
For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. The one not honouring the Son does not honour the Father who has sent Him.
The Father (Divine Good) judges no one but all judgment belongs to the Son (the Word).
This is because the Word is the light of life and by means of the light of the Word we are able to examine our life, see our evils and seek the Lord’s help to have them removed. This is how the Son administers His judgement. Every time we examine our life, see our evils and seek to have them removed we are experiencing the operation of the Son’s judgement for it is the truths which we have from the Word that enable us to see such things – without these we are spiritually blind. When we live from the Word by applying its truths to the life of our affections, thoughts and behaviour so we honour the Son for the Son, the Word, is honoured when we live in accordance with our understanding of Divine truths. To know truths and not live from them is to dishonour them, but if we live from them, we honour them and if we honour them then we honour the Father, the Divine Good, that presents itself in and through them.
Truly, truly, I say to you, The one who hears My Word, and believes the One who has sent Me, has everlasting life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you that an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and the ones hearing will live. For even as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave also to the Son to have life in Himself.
Again, these words understood as to their spiritual meaning are speaking of the relationship between the Divine and its manifestation to human consciousness as the Word. When read naturally however, the mind becomes bogged down in ideas of persons, of a Divine person called the Father sending into the world another Divine person called the Son. But when a spiritual understanding is brought to the terms, we see that by being sent is meant the coming forth or manifestation of the Divine Good to human consciousness as Divine Truth, these being two aspects belonging to One Divine. Therefore, to hear My Word is to obey it and to believe is to acknowledge that the Word is God. If this is done as a matter of life, by applying the truths of the Word to our life, then we pass out of the death of being ruled by the natural mind and the life that it brings – and into spiritual life.
Can we see this?
The Word declares that…
… an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and the ones hearing will live…
Do we hear in these words the voice of the Word telling us that it alone is the Son of God? That we who have been dead to this truth are now brought face to face with this startling revelation? That
even as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave also to the Son (the Word) to have life in Himself?
These two terms, Father and Son are one and the same Divine. The Father is what is within the Son, Jesus Christ, and is His soul and the Son is the manifesting form or body. The Divine Love is within the Divine Truth as a soul is within its body; therefore, the Word is the body through which the Father, the Divine Love, is revealed to us. The Scripture states that the hour of this realisation is continually presenting to us all, and so as it is perpetually or continually coming, we see that it now is. The Word has life in Itself and those hearing it or obeying it will live. This is the good news, the Gospel of Spiritual Christianity.
Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming in which all those in the tombs will hear His voice. And they will come out, the ones having done good into a resurrection of life; and the ones having practiced evil into a resurrection of judgment.
Don’t think here of people who have died and who are to be raised at some time in the future. This is speaking of a spiritual reality that is active right now. It is the process by which spiritual things are separated within us from that which is of self-love, of the proprium. Truths when they are first heard enter the memory where they sit within the natural mind. But because they are merely something of the memory, they are dead and inert and so they lie there as a body lies in its tomb. The actual Greek word for tomb is revealing in this regard for the word translated tomb, literally means memory vault.
To hear His voice then is to begin to obey these truths through using them to examine our own life and practise repentance. Whenever truths are used for the purpose for which they are given, a resurrection takes place. These truths become elevated in importance and value within our mind. They are lifted out of the memory and into the life. This is what is meant by the resurrection. It has to do with the things of the Word bring raised up out of the mental tomb of mere memory knowledge and into the life. Whenever this resurrection occurs, the mind is lifted out of what is lower into what is higher and so we become conscious of what is going on within us. The Word shines a light on our inner states, and we are given to see what is needed for our movement forward towards a more heavenly life.
So we are given a new faculty for seeing that sits above the natural man, the natural mind, from which we can see those things that support what is evil and false which then opens up possibilities that we had not known before. We undergo a resurrection into the light of a new understanding where all things in our mind are subjected to the judgement and scrutiny of the Word. Those things that lead to good can now be raised to life and those things that are of self interest, can be raised to consciousness for judgement. We see then that the Word is the Life Giver, that even as the
Father has life in Himself so He gives the Son, the Word, to have life in Itself.
For if we can receive it, the Word is the Lord in His Divine Human, and It alone is the Saviour of us all.