14. What is Salvation? - Part II

Chapter Six

(Continued from Part I…)

Love is All

On the first day of the week, at early dawn, [the women] went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body.¹

With the eyes of my soul, I saw Jesus hanging on the cross, his chin against his chest, his body limp. I saw his blood pour out of his flesh and soak into the soil. I saw the triumphant procession of Love march beneath the Earth and vanquish the darkness of that region. I saw Love expand outwards, illuminating the land below our feet with an all-encompassing whiteness. And I saw this same Love—brilliant and white—enter again into the body of Jesus that had been lying lifeless in a cave.

Looking into that dark tomb, I watched Jesus gasp for air as Love filled his body. He rose to his feet. All I could see was a blinding whiteness coming from his resurrected body. Unable to hold back the expansive white light, the stone gave way from the opening of the tomb, and Love burst forth.

I watched the miracle of Easter morning like a passive spectator until, suddenly, the resurrected Jesus turned toward me. As the figure of blinding light approached me, I held my breath, not daring to move. Then he did what I least expected: he stretched out his arms of light and embraced me.

As he held me in that sanctuary of Love, I breathed out and lay my forehead upon his shoulder. I felt Love enter my flesh, as water fills an empty cup. When he loosened his embrace and stepped back, he kept his hands upon my shoulders and stared into my eyes. I did not hear him speak, but he said to me, Love is all that matters. Love is all that is needed.

Completion and Resurrection

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.²

The Sunday evening after Jesus’s death, his disciples were gathered in a closed room when Jesus suddenly appeared among them. The company was terrified, thinking that they saw a “spirit” or ghost.

And [Jesus] said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And while [the disciples] still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, [Jesus] said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.³

The resurrected Jesus still had “flesh and bones,” the ability to consume physical food, and the wounds from his recent crucifixion.⁴ His body had the appearance of the same physical body that was slain only days before. And yet, Jesus’s resurrected body was different from physical matter as we experience it.

When the first man received Life in the Garden of Eden, he was given a foundation upon which he needed to build. His physical body was incomplete, and it was only by eating freely of the fruit of the Tree of Life—by weaving Light and Love into his foundation of Life—that his body would be made complete, and he would live forever. However, he never finished the work, and his physical body perished. After that time, men and women were born with incomplete physical bodies that were increasingly burdened by the shadows of the previous generations. The longing to be made complete remained, but the hope of accomplishing this task grew dimmer.

Jesus’s physical body began as a miracle. Within the womb of a young virgin, God breathed Life and for the second time made a man with an immaculate physical foundation. At his baptism, God transformed Jesus’s untarnished Life into Light for the cleansing of all Creation.⁵ During the transfiguration, God perfected Jesus’s body with Love. Then, in order for Jesus to fully accomplish the work God had given him to do, he had to love us “to the end.”⁶ Upon the cross, Jesus performed the greatest act of love the world has ever known, for he gave his body for the sake of all Creation. When that happened, the Life that comprised his physical body became complete, just as God intended for all mankind since the beginning.

According to Jesus, Life that is made complete by the fulness of God’s Word is “eternal life.” He once said, “This is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God.”⁷ The resurrected Jesus knew God, meaning that every seed of Life in his body and soul was permanently woven with the perfection of Light and Love. His physical body was elevated to a state of completion and thereby made eternal through oneness with the everlasting Father.

Jesus not only revealed eternal Life to us,⁸ he made eternal Life possible for us as well. Because of his blood, we have returned to the Garden of Eden where the Tree of Life is now rooted within each of our chests. By works of faith, we eat freely of the Tree’s sacred fruit, and the Word of God flows within us. As the Word abounds in our flesh through faith, a miracle unfolds: Light becomes woven into Life, and Love becomes woven into Light, thereby empowering us to be born of God. If we remain faithful, our physical bodies will be “filled with all the fulness of God”⁹ and will shine like the resurrected body of Jesus.

Salvation is the process of our completion, whereby the Life that composes our bodies and souls is becoming eternal through God abiding within us.

The Salvation of Earth and Heaven

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.¹⁰

When Jesus willingly laid down his perfected Life for the sake of everything within the sphere of Heaven, he became a complete man, just as God intended for every man and woman who has ever walked on Earth. I have seen souls that come close to the brilliance and size of the resurrected Jesus, but none is exactly the same.¹¹ The miraculous progression of Jesus’s life sets him apart from all others. Through Divine intervention at his conception, baptism, and transfiguration, Jesus became God’s “only”¹² complete Son.

The main difference between Jesus and us is that though we may achieve perfection in Love, the Life within us will not be made eternal until “the fulness of time,” when “things in heaven and things on Earth” are united in God.¹³ Unlike Jesus, we will not be complete until all Creation is complete with us.

God intervened in the life of Jesus so that “the world might be saved through him,”¹⁴ meaning that through the access to God that Jesus made possible those who are willing can facilitate the completion of Creation. Salvation is not for mankind alone. Salvation is for the whole world.

Creation is still fundamentally incomplete. Everything in the physical world was created as an expression of Life. By design, everything needs to grow toward completion. As the image of God on Earth, this is our work to fulfill. The doorway connecting the spiritual and the physical, the Creator and the Creation, lies within our chests. Through faithful labor we “keep and cultivate” the Garden, gradually saving everything on Earth by sowing the seeds of God’s Word. In this way, we build the “new Earth”: by Light and Love flowing through us, the Life of Earth will one day be made eternal, “having the glory of God.”¹⁵

Furthermore, the “new Heaven” is ours to build as well. God placed Heaven within the monstrous waters, knowing full well that the Deep would relentlessly seek to swallow the sphere and all it contained.¹⁶ God is no fool. This precarious placement was full of purpose. On the day that Earth is complete, transfigured like the resurrected body of Jesus, the sphere of Heaven will shine with the sparkling whiteness of God. As the morning sun scatters the shadows of night, Love will strike the Deep and “the sea will be no more.” Heaven will be born again and everything—truly everything—will become unbounded Love. On that day of all days, when the first Heaven and first Earth pass away, Love will reign.¹⁷ Such is the full theological meaning of “salvation.” In the beginning, God spoke the Word so that, in the end, all there will be is the Word.¹⁸

We have been given the power to become sons and daughters of God, conquering the Deep forever and expanding the glory of our Creator beyond the limits of comprehension. That is why we are here. Therefore, as the kings and queens of God’s Creation, let us breathe in freedom with our lungs, open wide the doorway in our hearts, and cast forth Light and Love without ceasing. For if we are faithful to the end, the work of Creation will be fulfilled and all things will be born anew after the likeness of God.

1. Luke 24:1–3

2. John 3:16–17

3. Luke 24:38–43

4. John 20:20–27

5. 1 John 4:10

6. John 13:1

7. John 17:3

8. 1 John 1:2

9. Ephesians 3:19

10. Revelation 21:1

11. Some examples from across Christendom include Charles Wesley, Seraphim of Sarov, Archbishop William Temple, and Padre Pio.

12. John 3:16

13. Ephesians 1:9–10

14. John 3:17

15. Revelation 21:11

16. Revelation 12:1–17

17. Matthew 24:35

18. 1 Corinthians 15:28