THROUGH THE GATES OF GOOD/PART 7
6. Salvation
This Day
"This
day is salvation come to this house."
Jesus
to Zacchaeus
"Behold,
the Kingdom of God is within you."
Jesus
I
have tried to show, in the five foregoing chapters, that the Teaching of Jesus
is based entirely on the perfection of conduct, and can be summed up in the one
word Goodness. Jesus manifested this Goodness in his life, and his Teaching is
vitally powerful because it is rooted in his life, his conduct. His command,
"Follow me," is literal and actual, not in the sense of a slavish
imitation of the external details of his life, but in scaling (as he scaled)
the heights of Goodness and Pity and Love by the conquest of self. The glory of
his Teaching is embodied in his precepts, as the splendor of his life is
wrapped up in them, and he who adopts those precepts as the guides of his life
will so perfect his conduct by purifying the inward springs of thought and action
as to become a spiritualized and sinless being, fulfilling the whole duty of
life and the purpose of existence. Herein also is contained complete salvation,
namely, freedom from sin.
The
word salvation is only mentioned by Jesus twice, and only one of these
utterances (that to Zacchaeus) can be said to have any vital significance for
us; yet in that one brief statement we are fully enlightened as to its meaning
by virtue of its pointed application to the altered conduct of Zacchaeus. This
man, we infer, had hitherto been hard, exacting, and grasping, but though he
had not yet seen in person the new Teacher, his message had reached his ears,
and he had opened his heart to the Good News that man can and should repent,
and abandon selfish and sinful practices for good and sinless conduct. And this
he had done, and, having proved its blessedness, no wonder that when Jesus came
to his house he "received him joyfully," and told him how he had
abandoned wrong-doing for right-doing; evil for good; the selfish for the
unselfish life. Jesus did not inquire into the "religious views" of
Zacchaeus, did not impose upon him any change of view or opinion; did not
demand that he believe anything about Jesus as being the Messiah, the Son of
God, etc. Zacchaeus had changed his conduct; had completely turned round in his
attitude toward others; had abandoned greed for generosity, extortion for
charity, honesty for dishonesty, selfishness for unselfishness, evil for good,
— and this was sufficient, as Jesus declared in the words, "This day is
salvation come to this house."
The
only salvation recognized and taught by Jesus is salvation from sin, and the
effects of sin, here and now; and this must be old selfishness, the old life of
self, in any or every shape, only by doing this, and turning to the new life of
gentleness, and purity, and humility, and unselfish love, can a man be said to
be saved from sin; and then he is saved indeed, for, no more practicing it, it
can trouble him no more. Herein also is Heaven, not a speculative heaven beyond
the tomb, but a real, abiding, and ever present Heaven in the heart; a Heaven
from which all the hellish desires and moods and sufferings are banished, where
Love rules, and from which Peace is never absent.
Good
newsindeed is that message of Jesus which reveals to man his divine
possibilities; which says in substance to sin-stricken humanity, "Take up
thy bed and walk;" which tells man that he need no longer remain the
creature of darkness and ignorance and sin if he will but believe in Goodness,
and will watch and strive and conquer until he has actualized in his life the
Goodness that is sinless. And in thus believing and overcoming, man not only
has the guide of that Perfect Rule which Jesus has embodied in his precepts, he
has also the inward Guide, the Spirit of Truth in his own heart, "The
Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," which, as he
follows it, will infallibly witness to the divine origin of those precepts.
He
who will humbly pass through the Gate of Good, resolving that every element of
his nature that is not pure and true and lovable shall be abandoned, that every
violation of the Divine precepts shall be abolished, to him, faithful, humble,
true, will be revealed the sublime Vision of the Perfect One, and, day by day
purifying his heart and perfecting his conduct in accordance with his vision,
he will sooner or later rise above all the subtleties of his lower nature, will
wash away every ignominious stain from his soul, and realize the perfect goodness
of the eternal Christ.
END
OF THIS BOOK.
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