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Understanding Biblical Symbolism


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SON OF GOD, FIRST BORN

 A symbol of the Second Logos or Higher Self,-the first emanation from the Father, the Absolute, or the First Logos.

"Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth." - COL. i. 15, 16.

"Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him and he in God." - 1 JOHN iv. 15.

"And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ." - 1 JOHN v. 5, 6.

"God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life." - 1 JOHN V. 11, 12.

"Jesus" is here a symbol of the Higher Self incarnate in humanity. "Jesus," the Ideal of love and truth is identified with the indwelling Self; and the mind which seeks to conform to the Ideal has in it the eternal life of the Spirit. The Ideal (Jesus) entered the mind by Truth (water) and Life (blood), that the mind might turn entirely to God.

"The eternal Birth or generation of the Son or Divine Word. This Birth is in its first, or Cosmic sense, the welling forth of the Spirit of Life from the Divine Abyss of the unconditional Godhead. From our proper Source, that is to say, from the Father and all that which lives in Him, there shines,' says Ruysbroeck, an eternal Ray, the which is the Birth of the Son.' It is of this perpetual generation of the Word that Meister Eckhart speaks, when he says in his Christmas sermon, We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal Birth which God the Father has borne and never ceases to bear in all Eternity; whilst this birth also comes to pass in time and in human nature.' ... Here in a few words the two-fold character of this Mystic Birth is exhibited. The interest is suddenly deflected from its Cosmic to its personal aspect; and the individual is reminded that in him, no less than in the Archetypal Universe, real life must be born if real life is to be lived. Since the soul, according to mystic principles, can only perceive Reality in proportion as she is real, know God by becoming God-like, it is clear that this birth is the initial necessity." - E. UNDERHILL, Mysticism, p. 146.

“The Son of God is indeed our Lord Jesus Christ, but he is also your own true self, your higher self, your unfettered self, whose angel doth 'alway behold the face of the Father.' This is a truth which is not very easy to explain in terms of ordinary everyday experience, but once it is grasped it sheds a wonderful light upon some of the deepest problems of existence. That of you which enters into your field of consciousness at any one time is but a small portion of the real you. You are like an island in the ocean, which is really the top of a mountain that may be five miles deep, and whose base is one with all the land in the world. Christ is the ocean bed at the base of the island of your soul. . . . The fundamental fact in you, the fact without which there would not be a you, is the eternal Son of God. What is needed now in order that God's purpose may be fulfilled in you is that that eternal Son, that indestructible divine self, should arise in his strength within your soul and break the bonds that bind you to everything that you feel to be unworthy of your kinship to the Father of love and light." - R. J. CAMPBELL, Serm., The Freedom of the Son of God.

“Only in the human soul is God present in God-like fashion. The soul is therefore God's resting-place in which the temporal and the eternal are allied. Our spirit is the divine spark within us, wherein is completed the alliance of God and the soul. As God contains all things in Himself, so it is in our soul; the soul is the microcosmos in which all things are contained and are led back to God. Therefore, there is no difference between the Son of God and the soul" (Eckhart of Strasburg). - PFLEIDERER, Develop. Of Christianity, p. 152

 

See Also

ARCHETYPAL MAN
ATMAN
BIRTH OF JESUS
BIRTH CEREMONIES
BLOOD
CHRIST
COSMOS
CREATION
DISK
FIRST-BORN SON
GOD
HEAVEN AND EARTH
HIGHER AND LOWER SELF
HOKHMAH
HORBEHUDTI
IMAGE OF GOD
INCARNATION (Souls)
INCARNATION (Spirit)
JESUS (Son of God)
MACROCOSM
MICROCOSM
MONAD
SACRAMENT
TRINITY
WATER
WORLD