Who is Jesus Christ?

The name “Jesus Christ” is an expression of the fact of our dual natures, both human and “divine.”  To be clear, when I speak of “spirit” or of the “divine,” I am speaking metaphorically, and am not referring to the concept of “substance dualism,” or the idea there are two self-essential realities, “material,” and “spiritual,” as the notion of substance dualism would have us believe.  The belief in “substance dualism” is not true since all is One and inseparable.  Since essence is one, then it cannot be many.  There is only one “substance,” one “essence,” and that is the Oneness of All.  Our dual natures are therefore not “separate” and “independent” realities, but are rather two sides of the same one coin, revealed in the awareness we live as mortal egos, while at the same time, aware we are the timeless, “eternal” if you will… Oneness of All, not limited to our egos.

The human side is expressed in the name “Jesus,” with the Godly “divine” nature – our awareness of All’s oneness, named “Christ.”   The true meaning of the name of Jesus Christ is the manifestation of the spirit and flesh in one whole being.  Jesus Christ is not the person, the ego Jesus of Nazareth.  Jesus Christ is the fully realized potential each of us can reach if we sacrifice all which is secure and known for knowledge of the Oneness of All.  We must put to death, to “crucify” our identification and attachment with our ego, the flesh, with all of its limitations and beliefs in order to be open to seeing things anew.  This is what it means to be “born again,” to recognize our true family and identity with the Oneness of All, Truth, “God,” if you will, not with our flesh and ego.  Jesus Christ is Truth, but it is not a person.  It is the condition of the fully realized human and divine One – the One who knows who they are as a child of God, of Truth, of Oneness, and realizing they are All, not ego.  This can be possible in all of us if we surrender our identity with the ego, to the truth of the One.  That which is of God is whole, not divided and constantly battling between one side or the other.  We have been put to sleep in the illusions of the dualistic world and its games through identification with the material world instead of seeing it for what it can be – a means to an end – a tool for God, Love, Truth’s vision of itself.  Death to ego identification is the birth of true freedom, as all else is enslavement to the illusion of separation.

While each of the four Gospels contain much truth, there is clearly an underlying agenda within much of these writings to lay claim to the notion Jesus of Nazareth is the exclusive Christ, which requires belief in him to inherit eternal life. One such scripture passage I find particularly suspect is from Mark 8:29.

“But what about you? he asked.  “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”

This was not so much a question of Jesus as it was for those who wrote the Gospels and their audiences who asked the same question.  Jesus, as an Enlightened One, would have never asked such a question, as it is irrelevant to truth, which has nothing to do with the identity of an individual.  Personal identity is a concern of ego, not truth.  The Gospel writers and their audiences’ concern to even address this question at all shows from the beginning, some of the Gospel writers and their audiences were not as much concerned with speaking and learning the truth of the message Jesus was speaking, but more with defending beliefs and ideas about “who” Jesus supposedly “was” within the framework of their Jewish faith.  The two have absolutely nothing to do with each other.  Unfortunately within modern Christianity, this has become completely distorted. Instead of the message being seen as a reflection of truth, the theology and dogma of who Jesus supposedly “is” has become “the truth,” which is a complete misunderstanding of what truth actually is.  Truth is knowing what is, which is not an idea, belief, or point of view.

Traditional Christianity states only those who are “justified” by their belief that Christ died for their sins and rose from the dead will be counted Holy and enter Heaven, while the rest will enter Hell. This reduces salvation to nothing more than a simple transaction, as if God can be bought… a “purchase” resulting from the shedding of innocent blood on behalf of the guilty.  If that were the case, then this “just” God would be remarkably unjust. This theology simply makes no sense, and contradicts itself.   Isaiah 43:10-11 speaks to a very different view of salvation.

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen… Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.  I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.” 

So, we see from this Isaiah passage, God confirms God Himself is the only salvation, and we are His witnesses, not just Jesus of Nazareth.  We are all called to be His witnesses, and salvation is not to be found through the intercession of anyone taking on God in human form, as God alone, truth alone, is our only Salvation.  Jesus himself had something to say about this in the Secret Book of James 7:2-3.

“Damn you who require an intercessor.  Damn you who stand in need of grace.  Congratulations to those who have spoken out fearlessly, and have obtained grace for themselves.”

Of course, all of this scripture was left out of the New Testament because it completely dismantles the foundation of traditional Christian theology. We all have the potential to be “Jesus Christ” if we can realize the illusions with ego identity and instead become aware of the divine Christ within us, as Jesus of Nazareth is said to have done, but to mistake Jesus of Nazareth, known as Jesus Christ to be God Himself is a misunderstanding; as God, the All, cannot be contained within any limited form no matter what it is.  Even Jesus himself clarifies the fact he is not God, in Mark 10:18.

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good – except God alone.” 

Jesus knew the truth of his identity within – being Of God, a reflection of God, but not God Himself, as a drop of water is not itself the ocean, but of the ocean, as a grain of sand is not the desert itself, but of the desert.  Jesus Christ is the perfect manifestation of the human flesh serving truth, God, because He is not deluded into identifying with the ego, but knows who He is – the Truth of His identity…Love, God… the Christ, the Oneness of All.

Jesus Christ is, has been, and always will be ever pure and without sin, as Jesus Christ is the perfect state of being in which the human being recognizes and acts in the knowledge of it’s true origin as truth, God, the Oneness of All.  Jesus Christ is conceived by the “Holy Spirit”…otherwise known as the awareness of Life’s Oneness, not the human being Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth, whether a mythical character invented by scribes, or an actual historical person, is one who realized the truth of his identity as God, Love, Truth, the Christ within.  Like Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha is also not limited to just the human being Gautama Siddhartha.  “Christ” means “the anointed One” while “Buddha” means “the Enlightened One.”  They are essentially two different cultures’ expression of the same fact through different names.  It is not the identity of the people – the names themselves which are important, but the truth to which they point.  We all can realize the “Christ,” the “Buddha” within us, but nobody ever experiences and lives in this realization all of the time.  Some live within this more than others, and from what we have of the Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth appears to have spent almost all of his time within this knowledge.  There are times I feel like John Christ, while other times I feel like John Cross.  Christ is our true identity, while our earthly last name represents our ego identity.  This understanding can help to interpret what Jesus is quoted as saying in Luke 14:26.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.”

Jesus did not mean for us to literally hate our families, but to recognize our true family, our true identity is with God, Love, Truth, the Oneness of All, and not the limited egos of our earthly, physical being.

In order to see the truth, we must be willing to do as Jesus says – to lay down our very life to find our True Life, knowledge of our True identity, as Jesus says in Luke 9:24.

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” 

We must remember when Jesus said “me,” he meant “God,” as Jesus, as a truly Enlightened One who identified with God, the Oneness of All within him, would have never referred to the necessity of following him, the actual person, as that would be egotistical.  That is why I question traditional Christianity’s interpretation of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.  It sees Jesus Christ as an ego, limited only to one person, Jesus of Nazareth – not the realization, the state of the perfect union of the human and the Divine in One Flesh available for All to realize.  When thinking on this interpretation, I am reminded of a wonderful passage from the Apostle Paul which beautifully describes the path of our spiritual journey, from 1 Corinthians 13:11.

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.”….