In completing his part in the Atonement and eternally transcending all illusions, Jesus received what all those who complete their parts will receive as they reach back from Eternity into the world of illusions to help free their sisters and brothers still stuck there, namely, control of the illusions of time and space, a control that is also known as having “all Power in Heaven and Earth.” It is “all Power” because the Divine gives all Its Gifts equally. Because Jesus was the first separated human being to experience the Resurrection, or the complete and eternal transcendence of all illusions, including death, and at the same Instant the first human being (not an incarnated “god” or avatar) to fully complete their part in the Atonement, which set the Atonement into motion in time, the Holy Spirit assigned Jesus, as a human being at One with Divine Essence, to be the “leader” of the Process of Atonement for his sisters and brothers. This means that he was entrusted with the entire Plan of Atonement, including Knowledge of every human being’s part in the completed Atonement—how each one is to complete their part to reach the end of time for themself, and how all individual parts work together. How a human being is able to hold such immense Knowledge and responsibility seems unfathomable until it is remembered that Knowledge in Heaven is all-inclusive, or omniscient.
“The Holy Spirit is described throughout this Course as giving us the Answer to the separation and bringing the Plan of the Atonement to us, establishing our particular part in this Plan, and showing us exactly what our part is. Spirit has established Jesus as the leader in carrying out this Plan since he was the first to complete his own part perfectly. All Power in Heaven and Earth is therefore given him, and he will share It with you when you have completed your part. The Atonement Principle, Love, was given to the Holy Spirit long before Jesus set the Atonement in motion through the Resurrection.”
“I [Jesus] am in charge of the whole Atonement. This is only because I completed my part in It as a human being, and can now complete It [the Atonement in time] with and through other human beings.”
Jesus as leader of the Atonement and therefore one of our Helpers in awakening is a crucial core principle of the Course, and one that may easily be confused with ideas from traditional Christianity about the “divinity” of Jesus because of his Oneness with Divine Essence (Christ), so this principle is important to be extraordinarily clear about.
One of the premises of the Course discussed previously is that all human beings are divine, and all have been given, in their creation, the same creative Power as their Creator other than being able to reciprocally create their Creator or to create themselves. Jesus in the Course makes it clear that in this regard he is no different from any other human being except that he resides consciously in his Totality beyond time, space, death, or any other illusion, whereas many of his sisters and brothers still believe that they reside in the world of illusions. Jesus went first as a human being to the end of time and beyond into Eternity, and he will also be the last one out of this dream world, because he assures us that he will wait until the final human being has awakened to consider his work complete, and then Spirit will close the door forever on the dream world.
“(Jesus) will remain with all his sisters and brothers to lead them to the Divine from the hell they made . . . Some bitter idols have been made of him who would be only brother and friend to the world. Forgive him your illusions, and behold how dear a friend he would be to you. For he will set your mind at rest at last and carry it with you unto the Divine. Is he the Divine’s only Helper? No, indeed. For Divine Essence takes many forms with different names until their Oneness can be recognized. But for those who will, Jesus is the bearer of Divine Essence’s single Message of the Love of the Divine.”
As a human being Jesus is therefore simply an elder brother, rather than an incarnated god, avatar, or member of the Godhead or Divine Trinity. He is a Child of the Divine like all members of the Divine Family that we all are. Eventually we will all achieve what he has achieved as a human being and what others have also achieved, i.e., eternally awakening from all illusions, including time, space, and death, and thus fully completing their part in the Plan of Atonement. “My [Jesus’] role is only to unchain your will and set it free.”
Jesus’ assignment by the Holy Spirit as the leader of the Atonement doesn’t imply that one needs to accept him or “believe” in him in order to awaken, or that other teachers of the Divine aren’t entirely helpful in our process of awakening. “Are other teachers possible, to lead the way to those who speak in different tongues and appeal to different symbols? Certainly there are. The Divine assures that everyone has a very present Help in time of trouble, an awakener who can symbolize Itself. So do we need a many-faceted curriculum [of awakening], not because of content differences but because symbols must shift and change to suit the need.”
It appears that when the Holy Spirit assigned Jesus to be the leader of the Atonement, this meant not only that he was entrusted with knowing everyone’s part in the Atonement, individual parts which the Divine through Spirit determined when It created the Plan of Atonement in Eternity to heal the separation, but also that Jesus would be in charge of miracles, while the Holy Spirit would be in charge of revelations.
A “miracle” in the Course is when Jesus, having complete Knowledge of the Atonement and everyone’s part in It, and total control of all time and space, alters the laws of physics, lifting beyond all illusions in any given Instant all those touched by the miracle, in order, among other things, to:
- remove the blocks in our mind, heart, and will to the awareness of Love’s Presence;
- transcend the body so that healing can take place;
- restore a person to their right mind;
- raise the level of communication;
- translate denial into Truth;
- undo error, canceling out “the interference to what has truly been done in Creation”;
- bring Light into darkness;
- replace nightmares with happy dreams;
- become the means of recognizing our true Identity which we share with all our sisters and brothers, genuinely uniting us with them; and,
- allow an experience of Atonement learning, or learning toward awakening, to take place in “miraculous” time in contrast to normal time.
These are some of the things that miracles, under Jesus’ direction as the leader of the Atonement, accomplish. The fifty “principles of miracles” that are the focus of the first chapter of the Text describes many more, as does the entire Course. It is a course in miracles so that we can become skilled in being coworkers with Jesus in allowing miracles to be the normal, reflexive way we respond to our needs and those of our sisters and brothers, and to the world. Every miracle that takes place anywhere and at any time is distinctive in that it has a unique place in helping the Plan of Atonement be completed in time. Because of the unique role miracles have in bringing awakening and the end of time nearer, miracles are the core focus of the Course.
“The miracle simply shows that the past is gone, and what has truly gone has no effects.” “The miracle does not awaken you, but merely shows you who the dreamer is. It teaches you that there is a choice of dreams while you are still asleep, depending on the purpose of your dreaming. Do you wish for dreams of healing or of death? . . . In forgiving dreams is no one asked to be the victim and the sufferer. These are the gentle and happy dreams the miracle exchanges for your own.”
The Course indicates that experiences and learning that take place in the “normal” time in which we regularly live our lives is simply too slow to overcome the illusions of time, space, and death, and by themselves could never bridge the gap between the world of illusions and Reality, and so their value in Atonement is limited. Miracles by contrast allow learning toward awakening to take place in miraculous time, learning that otherwise would have taken incalculably more time had the normal laws of physics not been altered to allow the learning. Through this experience miracles draw the completed Atonement in time closer through providing to those involved in the miracle the completion of another aspect of their part in the Atonement.
“Each time you practice [the Workbook lessons], awareness [of awakening] is brought a little nearer at least. Sometimes a thousand years or more in the world’s time are saved. The minutes that you give are multiplied over and over, for the miracle makes use of time, but is not ruled by it. You are the spirit in whose mind abides the miracle in which all time stands still; the miracle in which a minute spent in using these ideas becomes a time that has no limit and therefore has no end.”
Just as the Divine honors even our miscreations, leaving it up to us to let them go, our free will is honored when we are invited by Jesus in any given situation to allow miracles to be performed through us, as this will happen only when we give our glad consent. With this willingness in mind, the Course counsels us to “begin each day by devoting it to allowing whatever miracles are asked of you that day to be performed through you.” Jesus collaborates with us to work miracles through us because the miracles are for us, for the healing of our own minds, and for the Divine Family.
The connection between Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the Course is more than just in their Knowledge of everyone’s part in the Atonement. Given this Knowledge, both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are referred to synonymously as our Teacher and our Guide. Both of them guide and teach us from the realm of the superconscious as we learn to recognize their voice, which is One.
The Oneness of Jesus with Divine Essence (Christ in ACIM) is also perfectly clear throughout the Course, though they are also distinct beings, one being a human being and the other being the Essence of the Perfect Creation. This Oneness is touched on, for instance, in a miracles principle that states that “the action aspect of miracles should be controlled by Divine Essence, because of Its complete Awareness of the whole Plan of Atonement.” This same Knowledge and function – that of complete Awareness of the whole Plan of Atonement and of controlling miracles – is one that the Course also says belongs to Jesus.