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Mysteries of John
Chapter 3
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[Mysteries of John]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
John: Chapter 3
Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a
ruler of the Jews: 2 the same came unto him by night, and
said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come
from God; for no one can do these signs that thou doest,
except God be with him.
THIS 3d chapter of John opens with a narrative of
Nicodemus, "a ruler of the Jews," his visit to Jesus "by
night" (meaning the darkness of intellectual
understanding), and his confession: "Thou art a teacher
from God; for no one can do these signs that thou doest,
except God be with him."
Jesus told him that he must be "born anew," "of water and
the Spirit." Here is a recognition by the Master of the
operation of the divine law of evolution.
All "inheritance" of ideas and beliefs has a mental basis.
We "inherit" some states of mind from our ancestors. An
"inherited" or transmitted religion is a dark state, if
there is no real understanding in it. This is the Nicodemus
mentality. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a ruler of the
Jews. He represents the Pharisaical side of our mentality
that observes the external forms of religion without
understanding their real meaning. We accept our parents'
religious affiliations without giving any thought to their
origin. There was a time when it was considered unfilial
and an evidence of disobedience for the children to join
any other church than that to which their parents belonged.
The Jews
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were especially rigid in their adherence to their
traditional religion, and they proudly referred to their
fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were taught of God.
This conservative religious thought preserves the church as
an institution and restrains the individual from becoming
religiously erratic. Nicodemus was a friend of Jesus', but
his defense of the Master was put in the form of a
question, reminding the Sanhedrin of the Jewish law that
every man must be heard or given a chance to defend himself
before being condemned. The "ruler of the Jews" did not
press his championship of his friend before the Sanhedrin,
and the assistance that he gave at the tomb of Jesus was
safe enough, once the prosecutors and executioners had
finished their work and turned their attention elsewhere.
Nicodemus was not acquainted with the power of Spirit and
really had no understanding of regeneration, although he
was a "teacher of Israel" (Israel representing thoughts
that pertain to the religious department of the mind).
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the
kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man
be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his
mother's womb, and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born of water and
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That
which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto
thee, Ye must be born anew. 8 The wind bloweth where it
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will, and thou, hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not
whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one
that is born of the Spirit.
The Pharisees refused to be baptized by John. They did not
consider that they needed the repentance that he demanded.
They thought they were good enough to take the high places
in the kingdom of God because of their popularly accepted
religious supremacy. Many people refuse to deny their
shortcomings. They hold that they are perfect in Divine
Mind and that it is superfluous to deny that which has no
existence. But they are still subject to the appetites and
passions of mortality, and will continue to be until they
are "born anew."
The new birth is an uncertainty to the intellectual
Christian, hence there has gradually evolved a popular
belief that after death the souls of those who have
accepted the church creed and have been counted Christians
will undergo a change. But in His instructions to Nicodemus
Jesus makes no mention of a resurrection after death as
having any part in the new birth. He cites the ever present
though unseen wind as an illustration of those who are born
of Spirit. The new birth is a change that comes here and
now. It has to do with the present man, that he may be
conscious of the "Son of man," who is the real I AM in each
individual. "And no one hath ascended into heaven, but that
descended out of heaven, even the Son of man, who is in
heaven."
This chapter of John contains some of the vital truths
taught in Christianity: the evolution of man from natural
to spiritual consciousness, and the incarnation
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of Jesus Christ as the divine pattern for all men who are
seeking the way of life.
Christianity teaches the complete law of evolution as
compared with the partial exposition of the law made by
Darwin and associates. Christianity describes God as Spirit
creating by a process comparable to the mental processes
with which we are all familiar. "God said," and thus God
created that which was to appear, God planned man and the
universe, and through His word projected them into creation
as ideal principles and immanent energies acting behind and
within all visibility. But we should remember that Spirit
could not emerge from the formless into the formed without
creating relations, which necessitated laws operating
through man and all things as essential factors in an
orderly universe. Thus even God becomes subject to His laws
or commandments. God the universal Spirit first appears as
spiritual man. The next step in evolution is the appearance
of the idea of spiritual man in the natural or Adam man.
This man was primitively identified with an infinite
capacity for expansion. When he recognizes his identity as
being that of his source, Spirit, he expands in divine
order and brings forth only good. When he deserts his
spiritual anchorage and gives attention to external
experiences and sensations, he falls into a world in which
a diversity of results obtain that he calls good and evil.
Thus man eats "of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil." In these few words is summed up the fall of
man from an Edenic state, where he had the constant
inspiration of creative Mind, to a consciousness
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of matter and the desperate struggle of personality for
existence.
The natural man must evolve into the spiritual. "And as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of man be lifted up."
We are told here that "the light is come into the world,
and men loved the darkness rather than the light." World
chaos results from the lack of spiritual light. We may plan
peace and achieve it, but if this peace is not based on
divine law, evolving love, and that law incorporated into
the pact of peace as well as into the minds of those who
sign that pact, we shall have no permanent peace.
9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these
things be?
There is but one real man, the ideal or spiritual man that
God created. Jesus was explaining to Nicodemus the
evolution of this spiritual man from his ideal to his
manifest state. Man is fundamentally spiritual and so
remains throughout his various manifestations. He comes out
of heaven, manifests himself as a personality in the earth,
and returns to heaven. The first Adam was in Paradise, and
after his fall enough of his spiritual nature remained to
keep him alive. Without this animating Spirit the whole
human family would have perished with the fall of Adam.
Faith in Spirit and the ultimate dominance of the good in
man will finally restore him to the heaven from which he
descended.
The new birth is simply the realization by man of
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his spiritual identity, with the fullness of power and
glory that follows.
10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou the teacher
of Israel, and understandest not these things? 11 Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, We speak that which we know, and
bear witness of that which we have seen; and ye receive not
our witness. 12 If I told you earthly things and ye believe
not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13
And no one hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended
out of heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven. 14
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of man be lifted up; 15 that whosoever
believeth may in him have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not
perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God sent not the Son
into the world to judge the world; but that the world
should be saved through him.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth on him [His own divine self]
should not perish, but have eternal life." Not only are we
to believe in our own divinity, but we are to accept the
example of that divinity expressed through Jesus Christ.
To believe in Jesus is to believe that in the regenerate
state we are to be, like Him, "joint-heirs with Christ."
This belief must then lead us to a desire and an effort to
attain our inheritance, because then we know that there is
no other thing in the universe worth striving for. Every
person in his real, true self desires to be just as great
and just as good as it is possible for him to be. The open
door to the
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attainment of this objective is to believe in one's own
divinity and then to raise oneself to its level by
following the example of Jesus.
This text reveals the heart of the glad tidings of Jesus
Christ to mankind. In love God gave His only-begotten Son,
the fullness of the perfect-man idea in Divine Mind, the
Christ, to be the true, spiritual self of every individual.
By following Jesus' example of recognizing and
acknowledging the Christ in our every thought, word, and
deed, thus unifying ourselves with His completeness, the
outer will become as the inner; we shall be like Christ; we
shall know Him as He is. He who truly believes "cometh not
into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life."
18 He that believeth on him is not judged: he that
believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not
believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19
And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the
world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light;
for their works were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil
hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his
works should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth the truth
cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest,
that they have been wrought in God.
Salvation from the results of error thought begins at once
when we have faith in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to
save us from the judgment. He comes to us in Spirit to do
away with the effects of transgression of the law. When we
perceive the way of righteousness and Truth and follow it,
there comes
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to us a new light, an understanding of the law, and we
enter the kingdom of God here and now. "Even the Son of
man, who is in heaven."
22 After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the
land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and
baptized. 23 And John also was baptizing in AEnon near to
Salim, because there was much water there: and they came,
and were baptized. 24 For John was not yet cast into
prison. 25 There arose therefore a questioning on the part
of John's disciples with a Jew about purifying. 26 And they
came unto John, and said to him, Rabbi, he that was with
thee beyond the Jordan, to whom thou hast borne witness,
behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. 27
John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except
it have been given him from heaven. 28 Ye yourselves bear
me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but, that I
am sent before him. 29 He that hath the bride is the
bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, that standeth
and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the
bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is made full. 30
He must increase, but I must decrease.
31 He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of
the earth is of the earth, and of the earth he speaketh: he
that cometh from heaven is above all. 32 What he hath seen
and heard, of that he beareth witness; and no man receiveth
his witness. 33 He that hath received his witness hath set
his seal to this, that God is true. 34 For he whom God hath
sent speaketh the words of God: for he giveth not the
Spirit by measure. 35 The Father loveth the Son, and hath
given all things into his hand. 36 He that believeth on the
Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
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Jesus represents the Christ. Judea represents praise. John
the Baptist and Jesus represent co-operation between the
intellect and the Spirit.
Metaphysically interpreted, John the Baptist represents the
intellectual concept of Truth and his baptizing means a
mental cleansing. The name Salim means "peace." "Near
Salim" signifies the illumined consciousness of spiritual
life and peace in the individual. The water refers to a
natural rising in consciousness of the cleansing power of
the thought and word of purification and life. The Jew
symbolizes an inquiring thought. John candidly explained
that he had said before that Jesus was the Christ, the
Saviour, and that he, John, must decrease while the Christ
must increase. However John declared that he truly believed
Jesus to be the Saviour and that all who believed should
receive eternal life. But John must decrease, and yet by
his own admission those who believe are to have everlasting
life.
Metaphysically interpreted, John the Baptist (representing
the illumined intellect) decreases on the sense plane in
proportion as the intellect is lifted up in Spirit and is
in truth swallowed up in spiritual consciousness. The
faculty decreases on one plane only to be reborn on a
higher one. The illumined intellect wholly co-operates with
Spirit, so there is a merging and blending of these powers
until the mere intellect ceases to be mere intellect and is
swallowed up in Spirit. This is the ideal unfoldment. There
are those who are so bound in their own beliefs, who are so
set on the letter of the law, that they think
intellectuality is the highest unfoldment. They
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have not yet attained the ability to perceive or receive
the things of Spirit. Those in the John the Baptist process
of unfoldment willingly cooperate with the Christ every
step of the way. The truth is that we are all under the law
of infinite expansion, and the development of the race must
go forward. Therefore, it is said that "the Son of man must
be lifted up."
An example of how the intellect serves may be readily
illustrated by the use of the x in algebra. The x stands
for the unknown quantity. When the problem is worked out
the x is erased. Thus the intellect is the tool of Spirit
just as the x is a tool used in the mathematical operation.
In the John the Baptist consciousness we obey and conform
our thinking to the requirements of the spiritual instead
of the natural. Spirit life is something that has enduring
qualities. It is superior to the life that goes and comes
through death and rebirth.
When the redeemed intellect is fully merged with the Christ
light, then the indwelling Spirit of truth is free to
perform many so-called miracles. It bridges over
difficulties and cements the forces of the soul into one
perfect instrument of God for achieving the glory of God.
When one reaches this plane spiritual unfoldment goes
forward by leaps and bounds.
In order to fulfill the divine law of his being man must
realize that he is the Son of God in manifestation, that he
came from above and is above all; also that in his
evolution he leaves the earthly consciousness and ascends
into the spiritual under a law of mind. "He that cometh
from above is above all: he
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that is of the earth is of the earth, and of the earth he
speaketh." For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of
God. "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things
into his hand."
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[Mysteries of John]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
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