The Person To Be

Please, remember that all of this discussion is for us to get the idea of the life that the Designer intended for the human being to live in its life in the flesh. In other words, it is for us to get the right idea of what kind of life we have to live so that we could be going along with the will of the Designer, the Fashioner and Sustainer of our life. The Way revealed it to human beings.

The Way is the visible image of the invisible Designer as he is the incarnation of the Spirit of the Designer to do the best good to the human being, the receiver of the good. The incarnation is the best way for the Designer to do good to the human beings as we discussed. Through it the image of the Designer is revealed to the human beings. The attributes of the incarnated Way that we have talked about in the previous portion of the series are, therefore, the core essence of the goodness of the Designer revealed to the human being.

Then why is the revelation in the way that the Way delegated for the Designer? With the verbal teaching of the Way, his whole life–that is, his birth, life, and death–that was visible by the people who were around him was the best part of the goodness of the Designer that he related to the human beings. In other words, words could be given by many ways, such as prophecy through some chosen people other than incarnation. However, the things that could not be related through only words should be related by the physical life of the incarnated Way. They are the attributes of the Way, which we will talk about in this portion.

To begin with, we have to remember why the Way had to be incarnated, suffer, and die the cruel death. The Designer had to let it happen because he had endowed the human being with the free will. The human being needed the incarnation of the Way because it had been using the gift of the free will against the will of the Designer, even from the beginning. The human being sinned as if it had been doomed to be destroyed in the sin. So the Designer had to had the the Way incarnated to deliver them from the doom of sin.

Therefore, the first attitude that a person has to attain through the Way is the acknowledging heart. He or she has to acknowledge the fact that his or her sin is the reason for the passion and death of the Way. In other words, he or she has to acknowledge that he or she has used the free will against the will of the Designer and it necessitated the passion and death of the Way. More directly speaking, he or she has to acknowledge that he or she is the sinner who made the Way suffer and die. He or she has to mourn of his or her sin.

The mourning is the beginning of the natural life, that is, the new life in the image of the Designer. It is so in the sense that one would not mourn of the sin without acknowledging the Designer, his Spirit, and the Way. Also without appreciating the Designer, the Fashioner and Sustainer of the universe, including his or her body and life, one would not mourn of the sin. The mourning of his or her sin, therefore, is the beginning and basis for the new life. It leads him or her further in the direction toward the will of the Designer and the revelation of the Way.

As the person acknowledges the Designer and is mournful of sin, he or she now listens to the Way. He or she accepts his revelation as the will of the Designer and his life as the life he or she is supposed to live. He or she does not want to make decisions any longer against the will of the Designer, so he or she becomes hunger and thirst for doing his will.

It means that the person tries to conform him or herself to the teaching of the Way. He or she makes decisions the Way would make in the situations. As he or she continues so, his or her heart is conformed to that of the Way. It goes further and further until he or she understands the Spirit of the Designer and attain the Spirit in him or her. His or her spirit is conformed to the Spirit of the Designer. He or she is like living the life that the Way would live in his or her body. He or she is exactly following the incarnated Way, who is the image of God.

This life is the one that the person is living in the image of God. This is the natural life, this writing refers to. This is the life that the Designer expected the human being to live as he endowed it with the free will. The natural life is the result of the conformation of heart to the Spirit of the Designer and the mind of the Way.

The gist of the life in the Spirit of the Designer basically is doing good to other human beings and other creatures as well as him or herself–that is, to all creatures. It is because the Designer is the best goodness and his basic attribute is to do good. This is what the Way does and revealed.

For this reason, the people who are living in the Spirit of the Designer are his delegates. They are the partakers in the mission of the Way. Metaphorically speaking, they are disciples of the Way and also the servants of the Designer. They are living in each one’s body but they are living by one spirit. This means a special relationship between them and the Designer and the Way. The relationship means, the Designer is pleased with them and regards their life perfect.

The perfect conformation was shown only by the incarnated Way. However, for human beings, perfect conformation is impossible. It is because there is no way for a person to be perfect in conforming to the Spirit. So what the Designer wants from a person is for him or her to continue to get more conformed. He regards one perfect as he or she continuously tries without giving up. If his or her sole desire is to become perfect in the Spirit, the Designer regards him or her as perfect. So, if one sets his or her goal of life to be like the incarnated Way and strives to achieve it without giving up, it is perfection for him or her. Therefore, continuously trying is an attitude of one who lives in the Spirit. This attitudes keep the person in the special relationship with the Designer and the Way

It is significant for human beings that the Designer requires them of such perfection–setting their whole heart to conformation to His Spirit. Even with the best efforts, they make mistakes due to various human weaknesses and limitations. If the Designer required full perfection from them, nobody would have been counted fitting His will. However, He takes their weaknesses and limitations into consideration. Therefore, if only one reaches the perfection, He disregards his or her weaknesses, mistakes, and former sins. It is his mercy.

Mercy of the Designer makes the room for the mediation of the Way for sinners. As He is merciful and disregards the sin of the person on a condition, the Way mediates between the Designer and the human being. So the Way revealed that the Designer is willing to disregard the sin of the person if he or she mourns his or her sin and sets his or her whole desire to conformation to the Spirit of the Designer. The mediation is all mercy of the Designer. It is perfect love. Without mercy, His goodness would be imperfect.

As the delegates of the Designer and the Way, the people who are living in the Spirit of the Designer have to be merciful to others. They were in the same situation in terms of sin, but they got the benefit of the mercy of the Designer and the Way. Now, they have to help those who do not yet mourn. It is their mercy. Without the mercy they cannot do any good to others. If they don’t, they are not living in the Spirit of the Designer. In other words, they are neither disciples of the Way nor servants of the Designer. They are not in the special relationship with the Designer and the Way. Therefore, mercifulness is the attitude indispensable to a person who lives in the Spirit of the Designer.

As the human being pursues the will of the Designer, He regards it as perfection. However, the pursuit has to be true and whole. The motive of the person has to be true and the pursuit has to be the sole goal of the person. He or she has to live according to His will with all his or her heart, mind, spirit, and strength. This is another attribute His servant and disciple of the Way has to attain.

For one to do this in pursuit of the will of the Designer, there is no way to do so other than to love Him with all his or her heart. Anyone cannot be motivated so purely and wholly by anything else than true love of Him. Obligatory feeling cannot do it, which is generated by laws or rules. Ambition for rewards cannot do it either, even though the rewards are those from the Designer. It is possible only when he or she loves the Designer with all his or her heart, mind, spirit, and strength.

It is because the pursuit of the will of the Designer is a spiritual matter. What the Designer is pleased with is the spirit of the person. It is because the spirit is the essence and the person of a person. Therefore, if the spirit is not filled and perfected with the love of the Designer, it cannot please Him. If one has anything that he or she loves more than Him, it is not possible for him or her to please Him. The incarnated Way loved Him so. It is purity of heart, an attribute a servant of the Designer and disciple of the Way has to attain.

For one, as a servant of the Designer and follower of the incarnated Way, there is an obvious thing that he or she has to do. It is mediating between people and the Designer. The mediation means to bring deviated people back to the Designer; that is, it is to bring them back to the life according to the will of the Designer. It is calling them to mediation of the Way so that they could be restored from sin. It is peacemaking between people, who are deviated from the Designer by sins, and the Designer, the Originator and Sustainer of the human life. The work was begun by the Way and his followers have to fill it up.

This is the most important mission of the servant of the Designer and disciple of the Way. It is related with the fact that the core essence of being a servant of the Designer and disciple of the Way is to do good to others as they do. The best good for a human being is to be ultimately included in the realm in which the Designer and His Spirit and the Way are dwelling, because the realm is perfectly good–there is no evil, no bad, and no sad thing; it is just full of right, good, and happy eternal things. Therefore, the best goodness for one to do to people is to help them be restored to the natural life that the Designer intended so that they may be accepted into the eternal realm. This is peacemaking and it is the mission of the servant of the Designer and disciple of the Way.

As the peacemaking is the mission, one, who lives according to the will of the Designer, has to be a peacemaker. In other words, peacemaking is to be an attribute of him or her. It is filling up the mission of the Way and also being the servant of the Designer and disciple of the Way. Being a peacemaker, therefore, is a necessary attribute of a person who is living the natural life

The Way was persecuted and finally killed. It was because he revealed the will of the Designer, which was mostly against the way most of the human beings were living. They got offended, mad, and killed Him. It was an irony: The Way was doing the best good to the human beings, but they got offended by it and hated and killed Him.

When one, a servant of the Designer and disciple of the Way, lives according to the will of the Designer, what the Way revealed, he or she is different from most of other people. He or she is holy. As he pr she lives holy, there must be those who take his or her life as a living criticism against their lives. They take offense of it and get mad at him or her and the way he or she lives. They stand against him or her as they have chances. They persecute him or her just as they did the Way. It extends sometimes to the degree of killing, and almost always to the degree of hatred and ostracizing. Furthermore, to be worse, persecutions happen even by those who say that they are doing the will of the Designer and following the Way.

A servant of the Designer and disciple of the Way is persecuted for the sake of the name of the Designer and that of the Way. The persecution is brought up only because one does the will of the Designer and lives according to the revelation of the Way. Therefore, it is inevitable to any one who lives holy as the Way did in his flesh because it is the way to follow the Way. The inevitable persecution necessitates the endurance of the servant of the Designer and disciple of the Way. Without being persecuted, it is impossible for any one to enter into the realm of the Designer. So, the endurance for the sake of the name of the Designer and that of the Way is a necessary attribute of one who lives according to the will of the Designer. For this regard, the good news is that the Spirit of the Designer dwells in the one and works to strengthen him or her to overcome persecution

The Way was obedient to the Designer to do His will. The purpose of his being was to do it and for him to do it perfectly, he had to be obedient. As we discussed earlier, however, he was from the Designer and he was with the Designer. He is an inseparable being from the Designer. Even when he was incarnated, his being remained the same in essence. Nevertheless, he subjected himself to the will of the Designer, became obedient, and all his will was to do it, even being killed by human beings. So his obedience was the foundation of his attitude, but his obedience was possible because of an attitude further than it.

It was humility. In humility, he did not insist that he was the being without which the Designer could not be and even could not do any good. In other words, without the Way, He could not be the Designer, the perfect goodness in essence, because he could not do any good because he would not have a way to do it (Goodness is not goodness if it does not do good). So, the Way is necessary for the Designer to be the Designer; he is indispensable for the being of the Designer. Nevertheless, he did not insist that he is such a being. If he did, he would not have been incarnated in the flesh of a human being, and the best good of the Designer could not have been done. But rather he was born in the form of sinners and willing to even be killed by them. What it means is that he was so humble. He emptied himself of the mind of the essence as such significant being to the Designer and became just like a human being who is merely a creature.

The Way was so to do the will of the Designer. It might have been impossible for the Designer to do the best good to the human being if he had not been so humble. Therefore a disciple of the Way, being a delegate of them, also has to have that attitude. As the Way did, he or she has to empty his or her own will and fill him or herself with the will of the Designer. Without such humility, he or she cannot be a disciple of the Way. Therefore, humility is the most foundational attitude and attribute that one has to have to be a servant of the Designer and disciple of the Way. It is because humility is being poor in spirit, that is, having a spirit which relies only on the grace and the power of the Designer, the teaching of his Spirit, and the revelation of the Way, without insisting on anything out of his or her own thought or will or desire. Without this attitude and attribute one will not be able to subject him or herself totally to the will of the Designer especially when his or her desire does not go along with His will. Therefore being humble as the Way was is to purge out any selfish desire and fill oneself with the poor spirit of the Way. This humility is the foundation and umbrella of all other attributes we have discussed in this article.

An attitude of a person is expression of the spirit of the person. No attitude can be taken by a person when he or she does not have the spirit that makes him or her have the attitude. In other words, human being cannot pretend an attitude. If one pretends loving, his or her true attitude is not love which appears but something else, for example, being deceptive. He or she may seem loving, however, it is not what he or she is doing. It is because an attitude is expression of the person’s spirit. When one has a spirit, he or she has the attitude that expresses it. A spirit cannot be hidden; human lives by his or her spirit. In this regard, the attitude is passive to the spirit and it is inseparable from the spirit. This makes this statement true: The spirit is the person. The relation between the attitude and the spirit is so direct that the person cannot express by the attitude anything else than the spirit of the person. There is no attitude that is not expression of the spirit of the person; there is no spirit that do not appear through the attitude of the person.

It is true with the attitudes, which we have talked about so far, that is, those the servant of the Designer and disciple of the Way has to have. This reveals an important thing for the current discussion, what person do we have to be. For one to have the attitudes, he or she has to have the spirit whose expression is all the attitudes. Because the attitudes passive in nature in relation with the spirit, for one to have the attitudes, he or she has to have the spirit. In other word, it is not possible for one to have the attitudes unless he or she has the spirit whose expression is them.

The spirit that makes one have the attitudes is that of the Designer, that is, the Spirit. The Spirit is also that in which the incarnated Way lived and died. The attitudes of the incarnated Way were perfect expression of the Spirit. The attitudes of the Way appeared in him all through his incarnated life, because he was living only by the Spirit. This means that the more important thing here is that he was living only by the Spirit than that he had the attitudes. The attitudes were necessary expression of the Spirit. For the exactly same reason, it is not possible for one to have the attitudes the servant of the Designer and disciple of the Way has to have, if he or she is not living by the Spirit. So it is true that, if one takes the attitudes, which we have talked about so far, it means obviously that he or she is living by the Spirit. Therefore, the thing one has to do to be a person, who the Designer intended the human being to be, is to live only by the Spirit as the incarnated Way did. A person who lives solely by the Spirit is the person who we have to be.