Q: I am in a slight spiritual/religious quandary about the topic mentioned in Ephesians 1:7: “In Christ we are set free by the blood of his death,” etc. I feel this is such an easy way out versus cleaning up my act and ridding all past karmic sludge via lifetimes of evolving through higher and higher spiritual levels, I hope!
Anyway, it seems like one philosophy says we must all evolve and thus purify ourselves and this Bible quote says Christ’s blood via His death forgives our sins??? Please help me understand.
First, it must always be kept in mind that the New Testament has been heavily edited to make it conform to the theology of the fourth century state religion which called itself Christianity.
But, let’s look at the King James Version which is still the most accurate, though it has outdated language: “In whom [Christ] we have redemption through his blood….”
The word translated “redemption” is apolutrosis, which means deliverance and liberation–to be set free. This is the very meaning of the Sanskrit word moksha, usually translated “liberation.” So the ideal is the same.
Jesus of Nazareth, having lived with the masters of India and attained liberation through perfect union with the universal Christ–Ishwara, the personal aspect of God (also called “the Son of God)–was thereby a Christ.
Inner meaning of blood
Jesus said: “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (John 6:53, 56). The “flesh” of Jesus Christ is his outer life of perfect holiness, and his “blood” is his inner, Christ Consciousness. It is this alone that liberates anyone–as Jesus himself was liberated through Christ. The word aima, translated “blood” not only means the physical blood of a living creature, but the seat or center of life itself. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11).
It is the Christ Life that redeems us and procures for us the forgiveness of sins that is mentioned next in the verse from Ephesians. And guess what? The word here translated “forgiveness” is aphesis which like apolutrosis also means release, deliverance and liberty: moksha.
A final point: It is not in the present-day New Testament that we find the truth about Jesus, his nature and his teachings, but the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Levi Dowling.
Further Reading:
- The Yoga of the Sacraments
- The Gnosis of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes
- The Esoteric Christian Creed