© 1999 Ann Bendall
© 1999 The Brotherhood of Man Library
The only possible gift of true value to God is our free will. (UB 1:1.2) God asks that we align our will to his. But we cannot give him our will or let him take over, which would be a delightfully simple process—if it were possible. Instead God asks that we become real to the universe by aligning our will to his, that is by striving to choose that which is godlike in each decision we make. And so—decisions, decisions, decisions and more decisions are required from us.
The most perfect example of “doing God’s will” was the crucifixion. Jesus could have avoided such an ignominious death. He could have moved to Rome with the apostles, but in his heart he “knew” that this was not what God required of him.
Short term, such an action might have solved a problem, but in the long term it did a grave disservice to many for, until such time as his life on Urantia was completed:
How significant were these three? To God and the Son of God, paramount. But to the human Jesus, an immediate painful reality of his leaving this planet was his apprehension that his apostles were still unprepared.
And so, up until the night of his arrest, he continued to pray, “if this cup may not pass, then would I drink it. Not my will but yours be done.” And, as he prayed, his strength increased to face and accept God’s will for him.
Incredibly so! In The Urantia Book there are a number of classic exemplars of the power of the individual’s will pitting itself against the universe, to the point of perpetrating sin and even perhaps iniquity:
Look at the Sanhedrin. It is inconceivable to me that intelligent and “religious” men, who knew that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, in their vested self-interest, classified him as being in league with the devil. Did they really believe so?
To them he was walking a different pathway from themselves, and so was creating hell for them in his disrupting of their power base. I suspect that God had absolutely no relevance in the decisions they made, despite the fact that they were planning to kill a person who stated that he was the Son of God. Consequently, in their decision making process, in acknowledging that Jesus had superhuman power, and by deeming themselves to being devout servants of God, they could deduce that Jesus must have been a servant of the devil.
Perhaps some thought that they were doing God’s will, but they defined this God’s will as being the retention of the status quo of their religion. And they certainly did not go through the process of exploring what would have been a “godlike” decision.
But, for me, the incredible enigma was the abject vain gloriousness of the Sanhedrin. How could they believe they could kill a person who had power over life and death. Did they truly believe they could exterminate Jesus? Tragically, Jesus referred to some of them as iniquitous.
Then there was Judas. For years he had lived with Jesus. For years Jesus had taught him his philosophy of life and his beliefs. And Jesus lived what he taught. Yet Judas deemed him to be a coward!
Judas witnessed so many of the things that Jesus did, the miracles, the caring, the compassion. How could he not understand that Jesus was what he said he was—the Son of God. When Peter had declared him to be so, Judas had risen with the others in confirmation of what Peter had said. Yes, we appreciate that Judas had more than his share of failings but for him to want to have Jesus killed, because he deemed him to have thwarted his own personal dreams! Judas placed a love for worldly honor before his love for Jesus and, in the end, he “grew to love this desire with his whole heart.” (UB 177:4.10) With this as the primary desire of his life, he considered that such worldly honor could be secured by becoming a traitor. And when he betrayed Jesus, he full well knew that Jesus would be put to death.
Yes, the power of the human will is truly amazing. It can declare as reality something that ignores truths known to it. Indeed Judas correctly assessed that Jesus was going to allow himself to be destroyed by the Jewish rulers, but he falsely deduced that this would “defeat the movement.” (UB 177:4.6) Though he “could not quite believe that the mighty works of the Master had been wrought by the power of the prince of devils,” (UB 177:4.3) he was still prepared to betray him to those who appeared to so believe.
And Judas was deemed to have sinned.
Then there were the apostles. Jesus beseeched them before his crucifixion and on practically each of his appearances after his resurrection that they should teach the gospel that he taught—and not a gospel about him. Again and again he almost begged them. But what did they do on the day of Pentecost? He had spelt out so often what he wanted from them, but they decided otherwise. Yet they loved him so dearly, they respected him so completely and still, of their own free will, they failed to honor what he asked from them.
What would Urantia be like now had the apostles adhered to Jesus’ demand to preach his gospel?
The gospel they decided to preach, with Peter initiating the decision, had instantaneous results. The apostles came to believe their own preaching with a passion that led them to being prepared to die for their beliefs. And many did so die. But from the viewpoint of Urantia’s spiritual progress, I wonder what damage they did. They rearranged a revelation by their Creator Son in human form into the evolution of the historical expectations of the Jewish people. In doing so, they made a grave error that is still with us.
I read of Lucifer, Satan, and Caligastia. I put them into a different league. They are superior beings and yet they, of their own free will, declared their own reality, and I imagine continue to believe that a grave injustice and abuse of themselves has been perpetrated. Or do they? They refuse to apologize. They turned their heads away when Jesus was crucified and yet, witness to his life down here, knowing full well that he is their creator father, they refused to see his Father, the Father whose existence they denied in going into rebellion.
How can they continue to deny the existence of God, our Universal Father, who, to higher spiritual beings must have so obviously revealed Himself as they watched Jesus living on Urantia. They would have known when Jesus refused to use his Creator Son powers, they were witnessing a demonstration of a power above his, and yet their reality, of their own free will, refused to include the existence of God and, I can only assume, has led to their discounting the contradictory evidence of this their reality. And so they are deemed iniquitous.
Adam and Eve. They were given a clear direction in relation to the number of pure line children they were to produce prior to mixing with the locals. Of their own free will they decided to go against the directives of their superiors. The disastrous results of their error were instantaneous.
So how do we dedicate our will, align our will to that of God? Simple! The book instructs us: “The will of God is the way of God, partnership with the choice of God in the face of any potential alternative.” (UB 130:2.7)
To assist us to do the will of God we are informed, “Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it.” (UB 196:1.3)
Thus if we acquire that knowledge, in any life situation in which we find ourselves, we can seek the help of Jesus’ Spirit of Truth in answering the question, “What would Jesus do.” And if done in sincerity we can be assured our response will be God-like.
The portal of eternity opens only in response to the free will choice of the free will sons of the God of free Will. (UB 5:6.12)