14. The Redeemer

The Saviour on the cross! Thousands of these crosses are erected as symbols that Christ suffered and died for the sake of humanity. They call out to the faithful from all sides: “Remember!” In lonely fields, in busy streets of great cities, in quiet rooms, in churches, at graves and at wedding celebrations, everywhere it serves as a comfort, a source of strength and as admonition. Remember! It was for the sake of your sins that the Son of God, who brought salvation to earth, suffered and died on the cross.
 
With deep shuddering the believer approaches in profound reverence and full of gratitude. With a feeling of joy he then leaves the place, aware that through the sacrificial death he has also been freed of his sins.
 
But you, earnest seeker, go ahead, step before the monuments of holy solemnity and endeavour to understand your Redeemer! Cast off the soft cloak of comfort that warms you so pleasantly and produces a feeling of cozy security which lets you doze on until your final hour on earth, when you will be torn suddenly from your half-slumber, freed from earthly constraints and suddenly come face to face with undimmed truth. Then your dream, to which you clung and with which you sank into inaction, quickly comes to an end.
 
Therefore, awake, your time on earth is precious! For the sake of your sins the Saviour came, this is inviolable and literally correct. Also, that He died for the guilt of humanity.
 
But this does not take away your sins! The Saviour’s work of redemption was to take up the battle with darkness in order to bring light to humanity, to open the way to the forgiveness of all sins. Each person must walk this path alone, according to the immutable Laws of the Creator. Christ did not come to overturn the Laws, but to fulfil them. Do not misunderstand Him who is to be your best friend! Do not ascribe an erroneous meaning to the true words!
 
When it is said rightly: For the sins of mankind all this happened, it means that the coming of Jesus became necessary only because humanity was no longer able to find its way out of the self-created darkness and to free itself from its clutches. Christ had to open up this path anew and show it to humanity. Had humanity not become so deeply entangled in its sins, that is, had it not trodden the wrong path, the coming of Jesus would not have become necessary; He would have been spared the struggle and suffering. Thus it is entirely correct that He had to come only for the sake of the sins of humanity if it was not to slide completely into the abyss, into darkness, on the wrong path.
 
But this does mean that every individual’s personal guilt will be forgiven in the twinkling of an eye as soon as they truly believe in the Words of Jesus and lives accordingly. But if they live according to the words of Jesus, their sins will indeed be forgiven. This, however, happens only gradually, as such time when the redemption is accomplished through the counteraction of good will according to the words of Jesus in the reciprocal action. Not otherwise. In contrast, for those who do not live according to the words of Jesus, forgiveness is absolutely impossible.
 
Nor does this does not mean that only members of the Christian Church can obtain forgiveness of sins.
 
Jesus proclaimed the Truth. His Words must therefore also encompass all the truths of other religions. He did not want to found a church, but to show humanity the true path, which can lead through the truths of other religions equally. That is why so many echoes of religions already existing at that time are found in His Words. Jesus did not borrow these from them, but, since He brought the Truth, everything that was already existed as truth in other religions had also to be found in His Words.
 
Even those who do not know the words of Jesus themselves, yet earnestly strive for truth and ennoblement, often already live entirely in the spirit of these Words and thus certainly move towards a pure faith and the forgiveness of their sins. Therefore, guard yourself against one-sided views. It is a devaluation of the work of the Redeemer, a degradation of the Divine Spirit.
 
Whoever earnestly strives for truth, for purity, will also not lack love. They will, even if sometimes through hard doubts and struggles, be led up spiritually from step to step and, regardless of which religion they belong to, they will already here or else only later in the Ethereal World encounter the Christ-Spirit, Who will then ultimately lead them on to the Father, in which the Word is also fulfilled: “No one comes to the Father except through me”.
 
The “last end”, however, does not begin with the last earthly hours, but at a certain stage in the development of the spiritual human being, for whom the passing over from the Gross Material into the Ethereal World only means a transformation.
 
Now to the event of the great work of Redemption itself: Humanity was wandering in spiritual darkness. It had created this darkness for itself by submitting more and more exclusively to the intellect, which it had first laboriously cultivated. In doing so, humanity also drew the boundaries of the intellect ever tighter until, like the brain, it was unconditionally bound to space and time and could no longer grasp the path to the infinite and the eternal. Thus, humans became completely earthbound, limited to space and time. Every connection with the Light, the pure, the spiritual was thereby severed. Human volition could then only be directed towards earthly matters, except for a few who, as prophets, did not have the force to penetrate and clear a free path to the Light.
 
Through this condition, all gates were opened to evil. Spiritual darkness welled up and flowed ominously over the earth. This could only bring one end: spiritual death. The most terrible thing that can befall humanity.
 
But the blame for all this misery lay with humans themselves! They had brought it upon themselves by voluntarily choosing this direction. They had wanted it and fostered it and were even proud of their achievement in their boundless delusion, without recognizing the horror of the consequences in their laboriously self-imposed narrowness of understanding. From this humanity, no path could be cleared to the Light. The voluntary constriction was already too great.
 
If rescue was to become possible at all, help had to come from the Light. Otherwise, the fall of humanity into darkness could no longer be stopped.
 
Darkness itself, through its impurity, has a greater density that brings with it spiritual heaviness. Because of this heaviness, it is only able to rise up to a certain weight limit, unless a force of attraction comes to its aid from another side. The Light, however, possesses a lightness corresponding to its purity, which makes it impossible for it to sink down to this darkness.
 
Thus, there exists an unbridgeable gulf between the two parts in which humanity stands with its earth!
 
It now lies in human hands, depending on the nature of their volition and wishes, to meet the Light or the darkness, to open the gates and to smooth the paths so that either the Light or the darkness floods the earth. They themselves thereby form the mediators through whose power of volition light or darkness gains a firm footing and can work from there more or less forcefully. The more the Light or the darkness thus gains power on earth in this way, the more it showers humanity with what it has to give, with good or evil, salvation or damnation, happiness or unhappiness, peace in Paradise or torment in hell.
 
The human pure volition had become too weak to provide the Light with a single point of support in the already overwhelming heavy, suffocating darkness on earth, a point with which it could connect in such a way that it could split the darkness in unclouded purity and thus undiminished force, freeing humanity, which could then draw strength from the Source thus struck and find the upward path to the Luminous Heights.
 
But it was not possible for the Light to lower Itself so far into the filth without a strong support being offered to It. Therefore, a mediator had to come. Only a Messenger from the Luminous Heights could, through incarnation, break through the dark wall formed by human volition and, amidst all evil, establish the coarse material footing for the Divine Light, which would stand firm in the midst of the heavy darkness. From this anchorage the pure rays of the Light were then able to cleave and disperse the dark masses, so that humanity did not completely sink into darkness and suffocate.
 
Thus, Jesus came for the sake of humanity and its sin!
 
The new connection with the Light thus created could not be cut off by the darkness, given the purity and power of the Messenger of the Light. Thus, a new path to the spiritual heights was opened for humanity. From Jesus, this earthly stronghold of the Light brought about by His Incarnation, Its Rays then penetrated the darkness through the Living Word that brought the Truth. He could transmit this Truth unadulterated, as His connection with the Light was pure due to Its Force and could not be clouded by the darkness.
 
People were now shaken out of their stupor by the miracles that were happening at the same time. Following these, they came across the Word. With the hearing of the Truth brought by Jesus and the contemplation of it, in hundreds of thousands there gradually awoke the desire to follow this Truth and to know more of it. And with that they slowly strove towards the Light. Through the desire, the darkness surrounding them was loosened, one ray of light after another penetrated victoriously as people reflected on the words and found them to be true. It became brighter and brighter around them, the darkness no longer found a firm hold on them and finally fell back, slipping away from them, thereby losing more and more ground. Thus, the Word of Truth worked in the darkness like a germinating mustard seed and like leaven in bread.
 
And this was the redeeming work of the Son of God Jesus, the Bringer of Light and Truth.
 
The darkness, which believed it already had dominion over all humanity, rebelled against this in a wild struggle to make the work of the redemption impossible. It could not approach Jesus Himself, it slipped away from His pure intuition. It was therefore only natural that it should make use of the willing tools it had at its disposal for the fight.
 
These were the people who quite rightly called themselves “intellectuals”, thus submitting to the intellect and, like it, being firmly bound to space and time, whereby they were no longer able to grasp higher, spiritual concepts that were far above space and time. It therefore became impossible for them to follow the teachings of Truth. According to their own convictions, they stood on very “realistic” ground, as so many do even today. But realistic ground actually means very limited ground. And all these people were precisely the majority of those who represented power, that is, who had civil and religious power in their hands.
 
Thus the darkness, in raging counter‑attack, whipped these people up to the crude excesses which they, with the earthly power lying in their hands, perpetrated against Jesus.
 
The darkness hoped thereby to make Jesus waver and, at the last moment, to destroy the work of the Redeemer. The fact that it was able to exercise this power on earth at all was solely the fault of humanity, which through its self‑chosen false attitude, had narrowed its capacity for understanding and thus given the darkness the upper hand.
 
This guilt alone was the sin of humanity, which brought about all other evils after it.
 
And for the sake of this sin of humanity, Jesus had to suffer! The darkness continued to lash out to the extreme: Jesus would suffer death of the cross if He stuck to His claims to be the Bringer of Truth and Light. The final decision had to be made. An escape, a complete withdrawal from everything could have saved Him from the death of the cross. But that would have meant a victory of the darkness in the last moment, because then the entire work of Jesus would have slowly come to nothing and the darkness could close in victoriously over everything again. Jesus would not have fulfilled His Mission, the work of redemption that had begun would have remained unfinished.
 
The inner struggle in Gethsemane was hard but short. Jesus did not shy away from earthly death, but remained steadfast and calmly went to His earthly death for the Truth He had brought. With His blood on the cross He put the seal on everything He had said and lived.
 
Through this act He completely overcame the darkness, which had played the last trump card with Him. Jesus was victorious. Out of love for the Father, for the Truth, out of love for humanity, for whom the path to freedom in the Light remained, because it was reinforced by this victory in the Truth of His words.
 
To have withdrawn by fleeing and thereby abandoning His work would have caused them doubts.
 
Jesus died for the sake of the sins of humanity! If it had not been for the sin of mankind, turning away from God through narrowing of the intellect, Jesus could have spared Himself His coming, as well as His way of suffering and His death on the cross. Therefore, it is quite correct to say: For the sake of our sin, Jesus came, suffered and died the death of the cross!
 
However, this does not mean that you do not have to resolve your own sins yourself!
 
You can only do it easily now because Jesus has shown you the way by delivering the Truth in His Words. Jesus’ death on the cross cannot simply wash away your own sins. If such a thing were to happen, the entire Laws of the Universe would have to be overthrown first. But that does not happen. Jesus Himself often enough refers to everything that is “written”, meaning the old. The new Gospel of Love does not intend to overthrow or reject the old Gospel of Justice, but to supplement it. It wants to be connected with it.
 
Therefore, do not forget the Justice of the great Creator of all things, which cannot be moved by a hair's breadth, which stands ironclad from the beginning of the world and until its end! It would not allow anyone to take upon himself the guilt of another in order to atone for it.
 
Jesus could, for the sake of the guilt of others, that is, because of their guilt, come, suffer, die, and appear as a fighter for the Truth, but He Himself remained untouched and pure of this guilt, and therefore He could not personally take it upon Himself.
 
The work of redemption is therefore no less, but a sacrifice that which there cannot be none greater. Jesus came from the Luminous Heights down into the filth for your sake; He fought for you, suffered and died for you, to bring you Light to the right path upwards, so that you do not lose yourself in the darkness and perish!
 
That is how your Redeemer stands before you. That was His mighty work of Love.
 
God’s Justice remained serious and strict in the Laws of the Universe; for what a man sows, that he will reap, says Jesus Himself in His Message. Not a penny can be remitted to him on the basis of Divine Justice!
 
Think of this when you stand before the monuments of holy solemnity. Give heartfelt thanks for the fact that the Redeemer, through His Word, has opened anew the path for the forgive your sins, and leave these places with the serious intention of walking this path shown to you, so that you may be forgiven. But to walk the path does not only mean to learn the Word and to believe in it, but to live this Word! To believe in it, to consider it right and not to act according to it in everything would not help you at all. On the contrary, you are worse off than those who know nothing of the Word.
 
Therefore, wake up, earth time is precious for you!