Theirs was a morality based on law and prescribed ritual: law brings with it a way of looking at life – as long as I am faithful to the letter of the law, I am safe. As St Paul said, “Sin took advantage of the Law to deceive me.” The true law of God is to remain in Jesus and so in unity with the Holy Spirit and the eternal Father. This is something that law-based morality cannot deliver on. Law that does not respect the twin law of love of God and neighbour results in a double-minded schizophrenia fuelled by hypocritical principle. Thus the Old Testament image of God falls very short of the true glory of God.
The friend of God, on the other hand, is someone who has transcended the gateway of law and so discovered a new consciousness. Governed by faith and love and the increasing brightness of the morning star of hope, this new mind brings with it a moral dexterity and vision only possible in souls that live the wisdom of the cross. Only people willing to act in this fashion and sustain it can move through the gateway from law-based to virtue-based consciousness animated by a spirit of sincere love. Just as the slave subordinates virtue to law, the friend of God subordinates law to the higher law of virtue freed of the destructive egocentricity of self-interest: as Jesus says, “You must love your neighbour as yourself”.
The third level of consciousness is to return to primal unity with the Holy Spirit in all ways, and so become a new person in the image of Christ. It too involves a transition in understanding. Those in the outer court see only a transcendent Father; those in the Holy Place experience the intimacy of the Son and those in the Holy of Holies are at one with the Holy Spirit and so delight in the fullness of the Trinity. To the ancient Israelites, God was the stern patriarch of Sinai; to the Church of the New Testament he is seen in the human face of Jesus; and in the Heavenly Jerusalem, God is the cosmic Christ who operates in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Law hardens the heart just as genuine love softens it. The faith of the hardened heart shares its impermeable coldness. Self-righteousness is the morality and vision of the hardened heart – the prison bars of its own false consciousness. Faith enlivened by love raises the mind to new ways of thinking. Finally, when virtue is so blended with thought, word and deed, it ceases to be, transformed as it is into the living Word of God.
In a similar fashion, in the New Testament, three symbols are used to convey baptism with the Holy Spirit: water, fire and the dove. Water is heavy and falls back to earth; fire leaps upwards away from the earth towards the sky; and the dove flies freely under its own propulsion through the sky.
Jesus was baptized with water by John the Baptist; the apostles where baptised at Pentecost with tongues of fire; and when Jesus was baptized with water, the Holy Spirit came down on him in the form of a dove. Water is a physical element; fire is a process of transformation of physical elements; and the dove is an intelligent living being. Each represents a stage in spiritual enlightenment.
Although the Ten Commandments were central to the Mosaic enlightenment, their true meaning remained veiled in a legalistic mindset. The Israelites understood the Theophany at Mount Sinai from the bottom up. In other words, they interpreted the Word of God from their lower ego-based perspective, only perceiving its outer shell. Thus they saw Ten “Commandments” or “laws” – a
The friend of God, on the other hand, is someone who has transcended the gateway of law and so discovered a new consciousness. Governed by faith and love and the increasing brightness of the morning star of hope, this new mind brings with it a moral dexterity and vision only possible in souls that live the wisdom of the cross. Only people willing to act in this fashion and sustain it can move through the gateway from law-
The third level of consciousness is to return to primal unity with the Holy Spirit in all ways, and so become a new person in the image of Christ. It too involves a transition in understanding. Those in the outer court see only a transcendent Father; those in the Holy Place experience the intimacy of the Son and those in the Holy of Holies are at one with the Holy Spirit and so delight in the fullness of the Trinity. To the ancient Israelites, God was the stern patriarch of Sinai; to the Church of the New Testament he is seen in the human face of Jesus; and in the Heavenly Jerusalem, God is the cosmic Christ who operates in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Law hardens the heart just as genuine love softens it. The faith of the hardened heart shares its impermeable coldness. Self-
In a similar fashion, in the New Testament, three symbols are used to convey baptism with the Holy Spirit: water, fire and the dove. Water is heavy and falls back to earth; fire leaps upwards away from the earth towards the sky; and the dove flies freely under its own propulsion through the sky.
Jesus was baptized with water by John the Baptist; the apostles where baptised at Pentecost with tongues of fire; and when Jesus was baptized with water, the Holy Spirit came down on him in the form of a dove. Water is a physical element; fire is a process of transformation of physical elements; and the dove is an intelligent living being. Each represents a stage in spiritual enlightenment.
Although the Ten Commandments were central to the Mosaic enlightenment, their true meaning remained veiled in a legalistic mindset. The Israelites understood the Theophany at Mount Sinai from the bottom up. In other words, they interpreted the Word of God from their lower ego-
