 Jesus is sometimes known as the perfect sacrifice and the unblemished lamb, and such titles many believe speak to his sacrificial and redemptive nature. But in order to make sense of these titles, we must comprehend the need for redemption, which comes from the presence of something called sin. And to understand sin, we must also bring consideration to the soul and the body of consciousness. The soul is a microcosm of spirit. It is an ever-present light in the human body which guides us from within through our discriminative intelligence and intuitive conscience. But all too often, our desirable habits and whims refuse to follow that higher instruction. Tempted by lower forces, that which may be commonly known as Satan, humans often choose actions that obliterate the inner light, and these actions are known as sin. The word sin originally derives from an ancient archery term which means to miss the mark. And just like in archery, wherein one can miss the mark by only a tiny bit, or by a long shot, so in the same way sin must be understood as a spectrum within which one may tarnish their body of consciousness. It can be said that there are degrees of sin, as there are lesser and greater evils in the world. If a child lied to their parents about their grades because they were ashamed, that would be a minor sin in comparison to, say, what Judas did. Now, the Creator made all humans as spiritual beings. We are souls endowed with an individualization of the ultimate divine nature, and evolving from the supreme oneness, the soul was bestowed with the instruments of a body and a mind with which to perceive and interact with the materially manifested universe. And these mental and physical instruments that we possess are held in existence by specific lawful processes of God's creative power. If human beings live in perfect harmony with the workings of the cosmic principles, they remain spiritual beings in charge of their bodies and minds. Sin is that which compromises perfect self-mastery. It has its automatic negative effect to the degree of the influence of delusion within the sin. A person's free will actions simply harmonize and strengthen the expressed essence of his soul perfection, or weaken and degrade it into enslavement to delusion and suffering. As we explored in our God Explained episode, God is sometimes understood as the laws of creation itself, and one such law that is responsible for the measure and judgment of sin is the law of cause and effect, known often in Eastern spiritual traditions as karma. God has ordained cosmic law to support the process of governing life so that man himself becomes the judge of his own actions. By good action, he compels the law to reward him, and through evil action, he invites his own suffering. In scripture, it was written that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, an insight given to propel sinful man away from doing wicked things, lest they compel even greater suffering upon themselves and others, for by evil actions, we do reap what we sow. Yet it should be understood that when a person works evil, there is no great bearded man on a cloud somewhere ready to pounce upon him and destroy him. Rather, there are principles of justice at work in the cosmos, even if that justice is not duly received in the same way that we might imagine. The cosmic laws are perfectly at work at all times regardless. When we succumb to lesser desires, we keep our consciousness concentrated on and confined in the material world. The darkness or gross portion of cosmic creation then heavily obscures the illuminating divine presence by the shadows of delusion. When ignorant souls repeatedly indulge their erroneous ways of living, these patterns become firmly entrenched in the brain as bad habits of mortal behavior and create long-standing suffering within their body of consciousness, in this life and the afterlife. During his time with Nicodemus, Jesus says, The light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever practices the truth comes into the light so that it may be clearly seen that what he has done has been accomplished in God. When Jesus says that men loved the darkness because their deeds were evil, he is saying that evil and selfish material habits keep most people away from connectedness with God. Those who make no effort to resist the temptation of evil action, taking instead the easy way of rolling down the hill of bad habits, become accustomed to the darkness of ego consciousness. Because they shut out the subtle voice of Christ's consciousness whispering within them, they shun the infinite abiding joy that comes from following the light within and practicing goodness. Material temptation promises happiness from gratification of a desire, but giving into temptation will bring misery, the annihilation of happiness. For those who follow that dark path, these habits often become so ingrained that the very thought of forsaking their wicked pleasures is rejected outright, laughing at the suggestion that self-control might be beneficial and believing they would be unhappy, even tormented if denied their indulgence. And so, if it is true that so many people today are ravaged by sinful habits and indulgences, what can anyone do about it? Well, Jesus has said to have died for our sins and nearly two billion people believe that he was the perfect sacrifice. So what does that mean? Sacrifice is a concept which relates to each of us very deeply, even if we don't realize it, because sacrifice is the act of giving up something in the present moment in order to guarantee something better in the future. A common example could be sacrificing one's time working today for a paycheck tomorrow. When one fasts, they sacrifice food in order for the body to essentially eat itself, starting with the old and gunked-up cells first and residual fat in the body, which actually brings greater health and longevity. For those who get married, the potential of being with a multitude of partners is sacrificed in order to guarantee one strong and deep relationship with another for the rest of their lives. This is why in Christianity, marriage is known as a sacrament where sacrifice, sacrament, and sacred all share the same root, a word which ultimately means make holy, and therein, make whole. We all make some kind of sacrifice each and every day, some greater or some lesser, and it is through the degree of our sacrifices that leads us to greater or lesser lives. Generally, the hardest sacrifices are the ones wherein we find the most attachment. According to the biblical tradition, though we had fallen into a dark and sinful path, God did not give up on us and created sacrifice as a means by which we might be restored to purity and perfection. Throughout the books of Moses, a great deal of instruction is given as to the different types of sacrifices called for, each of which designed to help humanity atone for their hardened hearts and minds. In all of them, when there were animals that needed to be sacrificed, they were always done with a perfect or unblemished creature. As it is written, do not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect or flaw in it, for that would be detestable to him. This is because the sacrifice of an unblemished animal represents an offering of wholeness and that which is incomplete or flawed cannot become a sufficient or equal match for that which is whole and complete. But this might also be understood in another way. When giving up anything meaningful, one does not bestow that which might already be unwanted, otherwise it would also not be a suitable sacrifice. When we give up something dear to us, something that is functional and has a clear purpose, the gravity of that act is much greater. Imagine if a shepherd has to put something to death, like the best of their livestock, they are going to take that offering far more seriously than if they were to sacrifice something that they saw as weak and useless. It is only with this context that we now can conceptualize what it might mean that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice and the unblemished lamb, as well as why his sacrifice is believed to have been necessary. He has called the unblemished lamb because he was a human being perfectly integrated with God, the Supreme Spirit, and thus reflecting the fullness of the love, truth, wisdom, and light of the Godhead. He has also considered the final sacrifice because after the death of Christ, it was believed that animal sacrifice was no longer necessary and this was because the death and resurrection of Jesus had created a pathway of transcendence within the human consciousness and changed our hearts forever. The act of non-resistance towards his own death demonstrated to humanity a depth of compassion that we had never seen before and his resurrection showed that with God anything is possible. There's one major stick in this whole thing that must be addressed. Despite everything that we've discussed, humanity today is still very sinful. In fact, considering that we entered into the dark ages only a few hundred years after the death of Christ, an era of unenlightened thinking for most of Christendom for about a thousand years, some might argue that humanity got worse after Jesus died, not better. Today, selfishness, greed, and pollution of thought and cruelty still run rampant in varying degrees across the world and this is something we should all come to terms with. In regards to Jesus dying for our sins, it would be foolish for us to presume that anyone, even Jesus, could take away sin unless the sinner himself cooperates in the removal process. If Jesus had taken away everyone's sins by dying and resurrecting, wouldn't the world be in a state of perfect paradise today? And likewise, if believing in Jesus were all that were required, then all Christians for all time would be perfected beings. We must understand that Jesus becomes an instrument of transformation for people who seek Him or redemption in some way or are touched by His Spirit. But if someone is closed off from receiving Him, they will not receive His blessing. And if someone believes in Him half-heartedly or doesn't explore to the greatest of depth the words and teachings that He brought forth, they also will only carry with them a superficial understanding of Christ consciousness. But in truth, Jesus' sacrifice was primarily to exemplify for all time the power of spiritual force over ignorance and brute force. He showed that the power of love could conquer the Roman Empire, which with all of its might could not suppress His philosophy. His reign has outlasted that of all warrior conquerors based on the divine edict, love your enemies. Further, in all spiritual disciplines across the world, masters can take upon themselves some of the burden of a disciple if that devotee makes a worthwhile spiritual effort to improve himself. But most of all, spiritual masters serve in the highest way by example and provide teachings that inspire the errant children of God to free themselves from their bad habits and spiritual negligence. Because of this, we each have to come to terms with the fact that our own effort plays a big part in the results of our purification process. As a Savior, Jesus brings salvation in two dimensions, personally and universally. Personally, He bestows qualitative or liberating blessings and grace on His contemporary disciples and on those of all succeeding generations who look to Him for salvation. But He also came to fulfill a universal understanding of the qualitative good, establishing a moral and spiritual standard for all mankind by calling sinners to repentance. He mixed with those people most in need of healing from sin to demonstrate by way of example His quantitative ministry to the masses to show the transforming power of righteousness that brings response from the forgiving heart of God. Now with all of that said, one major question that sometimes arises in this dialogue is, Will they be condemned because they don't believe in Him? It should be known that spiritually virtuous people act properly and ideally in the various situations in life, in harmony with the laws of righteousness. They move along the path towards redemption through their right actions, performed at the inter-prompting of conscience, rewarded by a silent satisfaction from their soul. Righteous people need little or no corrective discipline because their innate spiritual sense keeps them on the right path and prevents them from wandering into the temptation of ignorance. This is even why Jesus said that He came for the sinners specifically. Further, if a sinner of their own accord comes to repentance, even without hearing or knowing about Jesus, it's the same spirit that will help deliver them to a higher understanding and a better life. At the end of the day, what it's really about is understanding who and what He embodied, the Spirit of God. That spirit is omnipresent and found in all things, even if obscured by the darkness of illusion. And within each of us, were we to go within and to not stop seeking through the chaos of illusions within our own minds and hearts, we would find ourselves connected and one with the same spirit which moved through Jesus so fully. And that spirit can do absolutely anything. Hey everyone, thank you so much for watching. This episode was truly made possible by the generous contributions of our supporters through our new crowdfunding campaign. From the bottom of our hearts, we'd like to thank everyone who has contributed. However, we still need a lot of help to climb out of the hole that we find ourselves in. And for this reason, Chapter 3 may not come for some time. But if you want to see this work continue and see more of these episodes consistently published, please consider visiting the campaign page using the link in the description. Thank you and God bless.