7. The Grandeur of Genuine Character Achievement
7. The Grandeur of Genuine Character Achievement
Quotes, Questions, Comments
The great mistake of the Hebrew religion was its failure to associate the goodness of God with the factual truths of science and the appealing beauty of art. As civilization progressed, and since religion continued to pursue the same unwise course of overemphasizing the goodness of God to the relative exclusion of truth and neglect of beauty, there developed an increasing tendency for certain types of men to turn away from the abstract and dissociated concept of isolated goodness. The overstressed and isolated morality of modern religion, which fails to hold the devotion and loyalty of many twentieth-century men, would rehabilitate itself if, in addition to its moral mandates, it would give equal consideration to the truths of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience, and to the beauties of the physical creation, the charm of intellectual art, and the grandeur of genuine character achievement.
2:7.10 (43.3) The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. Such a new and righteous vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul. Truth, beauty, and goodness are divine realities, and as man ascends the scale of spiritual living, these supreme qualities of the Eternal become increasingly co-ordinated and unified in God, who is love.
2:7.11 (43.4) All truth — material, philosophic, or spiritual — is both beautiful and good. All real beauty — material art or spiritual symmetry — is both true and good.All genuine goodness — whether personal morality, social equity, or divine ministry — is equally true and beautiful.Health, sanity, and happiness are integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness as they are blended in human experience. Such levels of efficient living come about through the unification of energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems.
2:7.12 (43.5) Truth is coherent, beauty attractive, goodness stabilizing. And when these values of that which is real are co-ordinated in personality experience, the result is a high order of love conditioned by wisdom and qualified by loyalty. The real purpose of all universe education is to effect the better co-ordination of the isolated child of the worlds with the larger realities of his expanding experience. Reality is finite on the human level, infinite and eternal on the higher and divine levels. (2:7.9-12/43.2-5)
The grandeur of genuine character achievement demonstrates the truth that the true creature child grows up to be like the Creator Parent.
1:0.3 (21.3) God-knowing creatures have only one supreme ambition, just one consuming desire, and that is to become, as they are in their spheres, like him as he is in his Paradise perfection of personality and in his universal sphere of righteous supremacy. From the Universal Father who inhabits eternity there has gone forth the supreme mandate, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.”
Questions. What does it mean in this quote that our supreme desire is to become like God “as we are in our spheres”? Is there a sense in which the command to be perfect has a present tense significance? After all the command does not say “Become like God” but “Be like God.” To be sure, in the primary meaning of the word, we know that perfection awaits our attainment of Paradise. But is there a secondary meaning of the term perfection? What could that be? Why does the Divine Counselor—who is the counsel of God—place this philosophy of living construction project at the end of the paper on the nature of God? Can this be the meaning of “the grandeur of genuine character achievement? And does such character integrate the virtues developed in the six previous phases of this philosophy of living? Notice that Living in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness emphasizes, in the biographical profiles of each chapter, the qualities and strengths—the virtues—which are integrated in a noble character.
How in the world can we possibly achieve this? (Please smile.) Jesus has shown us the way. Study the growth of the human Jesus from his early childhood to his later adult life (up to his baptism). See, for example, the questions on Paper 123: https://sites.google.com/site/ubquestionsandstudies/questions-on-the-papers-and-studies-on-study/questions-on-part-iv
100:7.1 (1101.5) Although the average mortal of Urantia cannot hope to attain the high perfection of character which Jesus of Nazareth acquired while sojourning in the flesh, it is altogether possible for every mortal believer to develop a strong and unified personality along the perfected lines of the Jesus personality. The unique feature of the Master’s personality was not so much its perfection as its symmetry, its exquisite and balanced unification.
140:10.1 (1584.4) That evening while teaching in the house, for it had begun to rain, Jesus talked at great length, trying to show the twelve what they must be, not what they must do. They knew only a religion that imposed the doing of certain things as the means of attaining righteousness — salvation. But Jesus would reiterate, “In the kingdom you must be righteous in order to do the work.” Many times did he repeat, “Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” All the while was the Master explaining to his bewildered apostles that the salvation which he had come to bring to the world was to be had only by believing, by simple and sincere faith. Said Jesus: “John preached a baptism of repentance, sorrow for the old way of living. You are to proclaim the baptism of fellowship with God. Preach repentance to those who stand in need of such teaching, but to those already seeking sincere entrance to the kingdom, open the doors wide and bid them enter into the joyous fellowship of the sons of God.” But it was a difficult task to persuade these Galilean fishermen that, in the kingdom, being righteous, by faith, must precede doing righteousness in the daily life of the mortals of earth.
140:10.9 (1585.7) John asked Jesus, “Master, what is the kingdom of heaven?” And Jesus answered: “The kingdom of heaven consists in these three essentials: first, recognition of the fact of the sovereignty of God; second, belief in the truth of sonship with God; and third, faith in the effectiveness of the supreme human desire to do the will of God — to be like God. And this is the good news of the gospel: that by faith every mortal may have all these essentials of salvation.”
Notice the present tense: to be like God. And note that this is equivalent to doing the will of God—something we can learn to do—and be graced to do—in this life.
150:5.1 (1682.3) One evening at Shunem, after John’s apostles had returned to Hebron, and after Jesus’ apostles had been sent out two and two, when the Master was engaged in teaching a group of twelve of the younger evangelists who were laboring under the direction of Jacob, together with the twelve women, Rachel asked Jesus this question: “Master, what shall we answer when women ask us, What shall I do to be saved?” When Jesus heard this question, he answered:
150:5.2 (1682.4) “When men and women ask what shall we do to be saved, you shall answer, Believe this gospel of the kingdom; accept divine forgiveness. By faith recognize the indwelling spirit of God, whose acceptance makes you a son of God. Have you not read in the Scriptures where it says, ‘In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.’ Also where the Father says, ‘My righteousness is near; my salvation has gone forth, and my arms shall enfold my people.’ ‘My soul shall be joyful in the love of my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and has covered me with the robe of his righteousness.’ [Isaiah 45:24, 51:5, and 61:10] Have you not also read of the Father that his name ‘shall be called the Lord our righteousness.’ [Jeremiah 23:6 and 33:16] ‘Take away the filthy rags of self-righteousness and clothe my son with the robe of divine righteousness and eternal salvation.’ [Isa: 64:6] It is forever true, ‘the just shall live by faith.’ [Habbakuk 2:4] Entrance into the Father’s kingdom is wholly free, but progress — growth in grace — is essential to continuance therein.
150:5.3 (1682.5) “Salvation is the gift of the Father and is revealed by his Sons. Acceptance by faith on your part makes you a partaker of the divine nature, a son or a daughter of God. By faith you are justified; by faith are you saved; and by this same faith are you eternally advanced in the way of progressive and divine perfection. By faith was Abraham justified and made aware of salvation by the teachings of Melchizedek. All down through the ages has this same faith saved the sons of men, but now has a Son come forth from the Father to make salvation more real and acceptable.”
150:5.4 (1683.1) When Jesus had left off speaking, there was great rejoicing among those who had heard these gracious words, and they all went on in the days that followed proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom with new power and with renewed energy and enthusiasm. And the women rejoiced all the more to know they were included in these plans for the establishment of the kingdom on earth.
150:5.5 (1683.2) In summing up his final statement, Jesus said: “You cannot buy salvation; you cannot earn righteousness. Salvation is the gift of God, and righteousness is the natural fruit of the spirit-born life of sonship in the kingdom. You are not to be saved because you live a righteous life; rather is it that you live a righteous life because you have already been saved, have recognized sonship as the gift of God and service in the kingdom as the supreme delight of life on earth. When men believe this gospel, which is a revelation of the goodness of God, they will be led to voluntary repentance of all known sin. Realization of sonship is incompatible with the desire to sin. Kingdom believers hunger for righteousness and thirst for divine perfection.”
Thus we see a righteousness that is a gift of God, received by faith. But since perfection is a continuous quest, we also hunger for righteousness and thirst for divine perfection.
(Note: most people who exhibit spiritual hunger would not describe themselves as seeking salvation. They might think in terms of transformation. The concept of salvation becomes meaningful when think of the pet evil (163:2/1802) or of the obstacles that block us from making spiritual progress, such as material fetters, intellectual bondage, or spiritual blindness—101:6/1112.)
Next, behold the beautiful wholenessof righteousness, which is not simply a divine gift but also involves that we mustlearn.
155:1.4 (1726.1) “In all that you do, become not one-sided and overspecialized. The Pharisees who seek our destruction verily think they are doing God’s service. They have become so narrowed by tradition that they are blinded by prejudice and hardened by fear. Consider the Greeks, who have a science without religion, while the Jews have a religion without science. And when men become thus misled into accepting a narrow and confused disintegration of truth, their only hope of salvation is to become truth-co-ordinated — converted.
155:1.5 (1726.2) “Let me emphatically state this eternal truth: If you, by truth co-ordination, learn to exemplify in your lives this beautiful wholeness of righteousness, your fellow men will then seek after you that they may gain what you have so acquired. The measure wherewith truth seekers are drawn to you represents the measure of your truth endowment, your righteousness. The extent to which you have to go with your message to the people is, in a way, the measure of your failure to live the whole or righteous life, the truth-co-ordinated life.”
We learn to coordinate the truths of science and the truths of religion in our lives, and thus learn to exemplify the beautiful wholeness of righteousness.
Questions. Is not the beautiful wholeness of righteousness the equivalent of the grandeur of genuine character achievement? And is not that achievement the sense in which we can be perfect in our sphere? And are not the seven phases of the new philosophy of living a guide to the fullness of this beautiful wholeness?
Love and Growth
The Foreword describes divinity, which is “the characteristic, unifying, and co-ordinating quality of Deity” as “creature comprehensible as truth, beauty, and goodness; correlated in personality as love, mercy, and ministry; and disclosed on impersonal levels as justice, power, and sovereignty.” LTBG portrays truth, beauty, and goodness as the path to love.
Question. How can we grow? One obvious answer does not work.
140:8.27 (1583.1) The three apostles were shocked this afternoon when they realized that their Master’s religion made no provision for spiritual self-examination. All religions before and after the times of Jesus, even Christianity, carefully provide for conscientious self-examination. But not so with the religion of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus’ philosophy of life is without religious introspection. The carpenter’s son never taught character building; he taught character growth, declaring that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. But Jesus said nothing which would proscribe self-analysis as a prevention of conceited egotism.
So, again? What can we do to contribute to our own growth?
110:6.3 (1209.3) The psychic circles are not exclusively intellectual, neither are they wholly morontial; they have to do with personality status, mind attainment, soul growth, and Adjuster attunement. The successful traversal of these levels demands the harmonious functioning of the entire personality, not merely of some one phase thereof. The growth of the parts does not equal the true maturation of the whole; the parts really grow in proportion to the expansion of the entire self — the whole self — material, intellectual, and spiritual.
Question. How can promote holistic growth in our work with each the seven phases of the new philosophy of living?
There are answers that pertain specifically to each of the seven phases. But there is also an answer in terms of love.
If the great circuit of love is from the Father, through sons to brothers, and thence to the Supreme, there is also a first circuit of love.
1:0.2 (21.2) The myriads of planetary systems were all made to be eventually inhabited by many different types of intelligent creatures, beings who could know God, receive the divine affection, and love him in return.
Questions. How do we activate our God-knowingness? (Try searching The Urantia Book for “God-knowing” and see the high levels of living associated with this concept.)
What obstacles hinder our capacity to open ourselves to receive God’s love? And what is your experience of receiving the divine affection and loving him return?
Question. How does love relate to truth, beauty, and goodness? Again, there are many responses answers to the thoughts included here.
“Love is the ancestor of all spiritual goodness, the essence of the true and the beautiful” (192:2.1/2047.5)
156:5.11 (1739.6) You are destined to live a narrow and mean life if you learn to love only those who love you. Human love may indeed be reciprocal, but divine love is outgoing in all its satisfaction-seeking. The less of love in any creature’s nature, the greater the love need, and the more does divine love seek to satisfy such need. Love is never self-seeking, and it cannot be self-bestowed. Divine love cannot be self-contained; it must be unselfishly bestowed.
In other words, we cannot love ourselves—at least not divinely. We can respect ourselves profoundly, care for ourselves, enjoy self-gratification, enjoy being ourselves, accept the facts of our present condition, harmonize the different parts of ourselves, delight in our uniqueness, and enjoy self-gratification. LTBG 204-06.
“In the true meaning of the word, love connotes mutual regard of whole personalities, whether human or divine or human and divine.” (112.2.7/1228.2)
If we cannot love ourselves, then it may be less helpful to ask how to love the neighbor as ourselves . . . than to learn the lessons of the sequence six levels of interpretation that Jesus gives in teaching the rule of life, the golden rule. We begin with the level of the flesh, move on through the levels of the feelings, the mind, the level of brotherly love, and then, before attaining the spiritual level of Fatherly love, to love one another as Jesus loved us, we go through the moral level:
147:4.8 (1651.2) “5. The moral level. And then when you attain true philosophic levels of interpretation, when you have real insight into the rightness and wrongness of things, when you perceive the eternal fitness of human relationships, you will begin to view such a problem of interpretation as you would imagine a high-minded, idealistic, wise, and impartial third person would so view and interpret such an injunction as applied to your personal problems of adjustment to your life situations.
Many readers do not take this sequence seriously. They identify with level six and neglect the very significant implications of level five. It is very easy to regard someone as being very loving when we see them on vacation at a conference interacting with other Urantia Book readers.
100:4.3 (1097.7) The great problem of religious living consists in the task of unifying the soul powers of the personality by the dominance of LOVE. Health, mental efficiency, and happiness arise from the unification of physical systems, mind systems, and spirit systems. Of health and sanity man understands much, but of happiness he has truly realized very little. The highest happiness is indissolubly linked with spiritual progress. Spiritual growth yields lasting joy, peace which passes all understanding.
Questions. What are the powers of the soul? And how do we unify them by love?
(And is it not clear that the author of this paper is commenting on the end of Paper 2?)
Here is a short list of the powers of the soul.
133:6.5 (1478.4) “The soul is the self-reflective, truth-discerning, and spirit-perceiving part of man which forever elevates the human being above the level of the animal world. Self-consciousness, in and of itself, is not the soul. Moral self-consciousness is true human self-realization and constitutes the foundation of the human soul, and the soul is that part of man which represents the potential survival value of human experience. Moral choice and spiritual attainment, the ability to know God and the urge to be like him, are the characteristics of the soul.
It is fascinating to study the references in The Urantia Book on the soul. From such a study we can get a much larger list of soul powers. I look forward to publishing my findings one day in a separate document. But for now, I will simply say that when we are in that flow of spiritual discovery, the exercise of spiritual power, the dynamism of spiritual teamwork in a worthy project, or in other ways in the zone, it is possible for our activities to be motivated by something other than love. But we can come to notice that fact, and to re-motivate ourselves.
146:2.9 (1639.4) “Let your supreme delight be in the character of God, and he shall surely give you the sincere desires of your heart.”
Best wishes for a happy experience of growing into the grandeur of genuine character achievement, the foundation for a soul unified by love!