Who The Way Is

The way was with the Designer eternally in the past and will be. They cannot be separated by their nature: The way is how the Designer does good to other creatures that it is indispensable for the Designer; the way cannot and has no reason to exist without the Designer. Therefore, the way is the essential being to the Designer. In other words, the way is the Designer. As the Designer and his Spirit belong to and fill the good spiritual realm, so does the way (for this reason, let’s call it the Way and personalize it as we do the other two).

Even with his substantial equality with the Designer and his Spirit, the Way, according to his nature and to the purpose of the Designer, he has some attitudes. We will discuss the attitudes this week. First one is out of his purpose of being–to be the path of the goodness of the Designer to the receiver. That is, his mind is set on the things of the Designer. In other words, his whole heart is filled with his love of and loyalty to the Designer.

Therefore, all that he does, whatever it may be, is what the Designer wills. What he does is to fulfill the will of the Designer; he does nothing on his own. He is perfect in obedience to the Designer. For example, he speaks what the Designer says; he accomplishes what the Designer wants. He loves the Designer so he keeps all the commandments of him. He keeps his will even in the situation he has to sacrifice himself.

The Way is one of the heads of the Designer, with the Designer proper and his Spirit. He is also a being as he is. He is also all in all as the Designer is because he is not inseparable from the Designer. Therefore he has the same dignity, whatever it may be, with that of the Designer. However, his purpose of being is to fulfill the will of the Designer through revelation and mediating between the creatures and the Designer, he has one other attribute, which is regarding the dignity, as well as perfect obedience.

He empties the dignity as he needs to fulfill the will of the Designer. He is not arrogant at all. He even does not desire to be seen equal with the Designer to human beings. He is not authoritative at all; rather he is gentle, kind, and merciful. If he appears in the human form, nobody recognizes him, unless he himself reveals it, because he appears so lowly even among human beings. He does not insist his dignity to any human being; rather he serves even the most evil man for his goodness.

It is because he is loyal to the Designer. All he wants is to fulfill the will of the Designer which is to do good to the creatures, especially to the human beings. If it needs to fulfill it, he is ready to die to save evil men. In his spirit, there is nothing but the will of the Designer to the creatures, which is love. For this reason, the Designer loves him.

As the Way works for the human beings, he assimilates himself with them to empathize with them in what they basically experience in their lives. It is not that he could understand only through that way but that he loves them so much. By doing this he fits the way through whom the goodness of the Designer comes toward the human beings. If he does not do his goodness in this ultimate way, neither would the Designer be the best goodness nor would the Way be the way for it.

Through the assimilation, the Way suffers everything that the human being suffers in its life. From the danger and pain of birth, through hardships of life and temptations of the evil, to the fear of death, there is nothing he does not go through that the human being does. Nevertheless, as he go through those things of the human being, he does not lose the goodness at any bit. Even though he goes through evil temptations, he is not corrupted with evil at any rate; rather through the procedure, he overcomes the evil by good.

The assimilation of the Way is out of his love toward human beings. This is the origin of his compassion. Out of the compassion, he feels what they feel in their pains and agonies of life. This compassion is what his heart is full of as he does good to human beings. There cannot be deeper and more genuine love than his compassion. A medical doctor was so glad when she was found in leprosy because now she could go back to the leprosies’ village to serve them living in the village. When she was not one, they rejected her, which made her sad and disappointed. She had the compassion the Way shows to us; she is a follower of the Way.

The ultimate way for the Way to assimilate himself with human beings is for him to be born–incarnation, live as one of them, and die in the flesh. It is because much portion of sufferings and hardships are directly and indirectly related with the fact that the human being has the body. Not only that, the flesh brings up so much portion of the needs and desires that it is the main path of temptations. Since the flesh is the weakest thing of the human being, for the Way to assimilate himself with human beings, he has to live a whole life as a human, from conception through birth to death.

Living as a full human, without taking advantage of any superiority to the human being, is humility of the Way. In other words, he humbled himself to be born as a human. He could avoid such a thing. If he did, however, he could not do the best good for human beings because he could not empathize them in everything of earthly life. Therefore, the humility for the Way, one of the heads of the Designer, to be born as a full human is the manifestation of the fullest love of the Designer toward the human being. It is true as the incarnation necessarily assumes life and death as a full human. It is the sacrifice of the Designer himself, despite his dignity and power, out of his love toward human beings.

Living as a full human is also necessary for the Way to testify that the life he lived on earth is possible to every human being. As he lived the life as a full human, anyone cannot have any excuse if he or she does not live the life that the Way lived. This works in both ways: one, the judgment is made–anyone who does not follow the example of the Way will be judged to be deviated from the Designer; the other, the example of life is established. His life as a full human, however, works more significantly for the latter for people who are living on earth. In other words, his life is the example and living lesson to all human beings since his death. That is, he taught us through his incarnation everything we need for us not to deviate from the Designer.

The saddest thing to talk about is what stubbornness and foolishness of the human being necessarily brought about to the Way. Humans’ stubbornness and foolishness, as they met the perfect obedience of the Way, their not being willing to change themselves according to the truth and the grace the Way conveys, necessarily persecuted and killed him. It is ironical but it was as if it had been set like that. It is necessarily to happen as the result of the deviation of human beings from the will of the Designer. The deviation–let’s call it sin–blinds their eyes and hearts that they cannot see and appreciate the truth and his grace but makes them feel insulted by and mad at him and the Designer. In their anger and spiritual blindness, they persecute him and finally kill him.

The passion and death of the Way works in both ways. In the negative way, it works as the fulfillment of the wickedness of human beings. They killed the person who came into the world and lived among them in the flesh only for their best good. There could be no worse wickedness than that and no worse stubbornness and foolishness. On the other hand, in the positive way, it works as the fulfillment of the will of the Designer, which is what the Way loves to do. He worked out on his mission to the extent of the death, which is by the most cruel and relentless killing. By the death, he exemplified the absolute willingness and obedience to the will of the Designer.

Obedience is the most important and foundational attribute of the Way in the relationship with the Designer. It is also related with the foundational purpose of his being, which is to do the will of the Designer. He obeys the Designer to the extent of death, even by the most cruel and relentless murder. It is to do the will of the Designer needless to say. In other words, it is to do good to the human being according to the will of the Designer. It is impossible and even unthinkable, if the Designer and he do not love the human being; no being would not do such a thing to keep a rule or a law; only as it is out of the free will, motivated by genuine love, it is possible, as the mother would risk any danger for her baby. Therefore, his perfect obedience is the other face of his love of the Designer and the human being.