IS JESUS OUR REDEEMER?

This is the general idea of the people based on what theologians teach: Jesus is the redeemer or saviour of humanity.

And the faithful ask: “What do you mean by that?”

According to theologians, it means that man, from the beginning, through the work of the antichrist, fell into sin, later inherited by all men; that all mankind has been a sinner since birth, and each man has become more and more sinful; that man is a great debtor, by inheritance and by his acts, and God is the great creditor. And as the debtor is insolvent, unable to pay its debts to God, humanity is radically bankrupt before divine justice, the victim of eternal condemnation.

And theologians continue with their ignorance:

That God imperiously and tyrannically demands the payment of the debt that humanity has incurred; that God is offended by the sins of humanity and demands satisfaction; that humanity's debt is of infinite gravity!

The faithful once again ask: “How could humanity, bankrupt and insolvent, pay an infinite debt to God?”

And here the theologians come again:

It is that God, who is not only just, but also merciful, took pity on humanity and resolved to send his only-begotten son to earth to pay the debts of men. The Son of God, Jesus, who became man to be able, in the name of God, to pay the debts of humanity.

And that is what in catechism classes and theology courses are taught!

Paradoxical and strange is the way to pay the debt of humanity to God was the suffering and death of Jesus, teaching them that: “his blood cleanses us from all sins”.

And so, thanks to Jesus' death, we are saved, freed from all the debt of our sins and reconciled to God.

This is, more or less, the ideology that prevails in our theologies about sin and redemption. And after more than 2000 years, this tradition has crystallized into dogmatic truth, passively accepted by Christianity.

According to human logic, this ideology seems reasonable, when in reality is unacceptable and even monstrous, to the point that Arnold Toynbee, a famous English historian and philosopher, wrote: “If the God of our theology exists, he is the greatest monster of the Universe”.

First of all, it is absurd to assume that a finite creature can commit a sin of infinite gravity. It is unacceptable to suppose that God can be offended when the sense of offence is an attribute of the stingy ego. The idea that God is vindictive and does not want to forgive the alleged offence of poor creatures is repugnant. It is revolting to admit that God has demanded an innocent man to pay for the crime of the guilty. It is monstrous to think that God has decreed the refinement of cruelties and an atrocious death of Jesus, to pay off the debt of sinful humanity.

A new question: “So, Jesus is not our Redeemer?”

Yes, it is, but in another sense, noble, dignified and perfectly acceptable.

Again: “In what way?”

Above all, what is meant by sin and redemption?

Sin is the victory of the Luciferlike ego and the defeat of the Christlike Self, as has been symbolized since Genesis, which speaks of the hiss of the serpent defeating the breath of God. When in the first man the serpent of the ego defeated the divine breath of the Self, the man committed the first sin because Cosmic Laws demand the victory of the Self over the ego.

Sin is a voluntary reversal of eternal laws. This reversal can only occur through the illusion of the tyrannical ego. But when the truth of the Self overcomes the illusion of that ego, man's redemption arises.

Sin and redemption are attributes of human nature; man is defeated by his ego, and he is victorious by his Self, and, thanks to his free will, man is responsible both for his defeat or sin, as well as for his victory or redemption. Both Lucifer and Lógos, both the devil of perdition and the Jesus of redemption, are within man, and it is up to man to make his Christlike Self triumph over his Luciferlike ego. Lucifer and Christ are the elements of sin and redemption, and man is the author of this as well as that. There is no such thing as an offended and vindictive God who requires an innocent person to pay for the sinner's sins. The sinful ego must suffer for the reversal of divine laws in its human nature; it must voluntarily integrate into the Divine Self, and, as all integration of the ego into the Self amounts to the disintegration of the ego, man cannot redeem himself without this death of the ego – “if a grain of wheat (ego) does not die, it will be sterile; but if it dies, it will bear much fruit (Self)”.

In Jesus, there was a full victory of the Christlike Self over the human ego – “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” - his human ego never defeated his divine Self, although it tried it several times, as in the Gethsemane and Golgotha.

In him, the image and likeness of God were realized and inhabited the plenitude of Divinity. And he claims that he is, for us, the Way, the Truth and the Life. The plenitude of the perfect man dwells in him, and, as all plenitude necessarily overflows, “from his plenitude we have all received grace upon grace”.

Like any disintegration of the ego, integrating into the Self is suffering, Jesus showed in the last hours of his earthly life, that man must be willing to accept any suffering to realize the integration of his human ego into his divine Self.

Christ-redemption is a genuine self-redemption, a redemption of man by his divine Self. Without resistance, there is no evolution and without the integration of the ego into the Self, there is no victory.

The whole process of Jesus' suffering and death amounts to a great symbol and an insistent invitation for the disciple to do what he did.

Jesus is the redeemer of humanity more truly and gloriously than traditional theologies imagine. He fully redeemed his human Jesus by the power of his divine Christ – “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” - he deified and christified his human nature, showing everyone the path forward, the redemption of each person's human nature and their full self-realization.

Jesus, by his self-realization, through his voluntary and victorious suffering, shows every man that he can enter into his glory through the same path – “I have set you an example so that you should do as I have done for you”.