The Gospel in Brief

Chapter Eleven THE FAREWELL CONVERSATION

Individual life is a delusion of the flesh, it is evil. The true life is a common life for all people.

BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL

Feeling ready for death, Jesus prepares to turn himself in. Peter stops him and asks where he is going. Jesus answers, “I am going to where you cannot go. I am ready for death and you are still not ready for it.” Peter says, “No, I am ready now to give my life for you.” Jesus answers, “A man cannot promise himself for anything.”

And he says to all the students, “I know that death awaits me, but I believe in the life of the father and so I am not scared. Do not be upset about my death either, but believe in the true God and in the father of life and my death will not seem so terrible to you. If I am united with the father of life, then I cannot be deprived of life. True, I do not tell you what kind and where and when my life will be after death, but I am showing you the path to true life. It is as simple as unifying yourself with the father, the source of all life. After me, your mentor will be your knowledge of truth. By fulfilling my teaching, you will always feel that you are in the truth, that the father is within you and you are in the father. And knowing that the father of life is within you, you will experience a peace which no one will be able to take from you. Therefore, if you know the truth and live it, then neither my death nor your own can trouble you.

“People imagine themselves to be separate beings, each with their own particular will for life; but that is just a delusion. The one true life is the one that recognizes the source of life as the father’s will. My teaching reveals this unity of life and imagines life not as separate branches, but as one single tree, upon which all of the different branches grow. Whoever wants to live according to their own will, like a branch torn off, will die. If you live within the father’s will, then you will have all that you wish, because life is given to people for their well-being. If you fulfill my commandments you will be blessed. The commandment that expresses all of my teaching is simply that all people should love one another. Love consists of sacrificing your mortal life for others—there is no other definition for love. And when you fulfill my commandment to love, you will be doing so as free people, not as slaves. You did not accept my teaching accidentally, you accepted it because it is the one true teaching under which all people are free.

“The world’s teaching is founded on doing evil to people; my teaching is to love one another. Therefore the world will hate you just as much as it has hated me. The world does not understand my teaching and therefore it will persecute you and do evil to you, assuming that in doing so it is serving God. Do not be amazed by this, just understand that this is the way it must be. The world, not understanding the true God, must drive you out and you must continue to affirm the truth.

“You will be distressed that they kill me, but they are killing me because I am affirming the truth. My death is necessary for the affirmation of truth, it will affirm you and you will understand what is a lie and what is truth. You will understand the lie behind people’s belief in mortal life and lack of belief in the life of the spirit. You will understand that the truth is in union with the father and that through this the spirit can conquer the flesh. When I am no longer present in this mortal life, my spirit will be with you. But you, as all people, will not always feel the power of the spirit within you. Sometimes you will grow weak and lose the power of the spirit, you will fall into temptation, sometimes you will awaken into true life anew. You will find yourself in times of enslavement to the flesh, but this will only be temporary. You will suffer a bit and then be born again by the spirit, like a woman suffers in the torments of childbirth but then feels joy in the birth of a person into the world. You will experience the same when your spirits are lifted after having been enslaved to the flesh. You will then feel such a blessing that you will no longer have anything else to desire. Remember that the spirit lives within you and that the one true God is the knowledge of the father’s will, as I have revealed it.”

Addressing himself to the spirit father, Jesus says, “I have done what you commanded me to do, I have revealed to people that you are the source of all. And they have understood me. I have taught them that they all emanate from one source of endless life and that therefore they are all one, that just as the father is within me and I am in the father, they are one with me and with the father. I also revealed to them that since you sent them lovingly into the world, they ought to live by love in the world.”

And Peter said to Jesus, “Where are you going?” Jesus answered, “You will not have the strength to go where I am now going. Only much later will you be going to this same place.”

And Peter said, “Why do you think that I do not have the strength to go where you are going now? I will give my life for you.”

And Jesus said, “You say that you will give your life for me, but you would deny me three times even before the cocks crow.”

Jesus said to the students, “Do not be troubled and do not be timid, but believe in the true God of life and in my teaching. The life of the father is not the one that exists on earth; it is a different life. If there were only this life here, then I would say to you that when I die, I will be going into the bosom of Abraham and preparing a place for you there. And I will come and take you and we will be blessed together in the bosom of Abraham. But instead I am only pointing out the path toward life.”

Thomas said, “But we do not know where you are going so therefore we cannot know the path. We need to know, what will there be after death?”

Jesus said, “I cannot show you what will be there; my teaching is the path, the truth and the life. And it is impossible to unite with the father of life any other way than through my teaching. If you fulfill my teaching, then you will come to know the father.”

Philip said, “But who is the father?”

And Jesus said, “The father is what gives life. I fulfill the father’s will, and therefore you can understand what the father’s will is by learning from my life. I live by the father and the father lives within me. And all that I say and do, it is all according to the father’s will. My teaching is that I am within the father and the father is within me. If you do not understand the teaching itself, then you can observe me and my actions and through this you can understand what the father is.

“You must understand that whoever follows my teaching can accomplish the same as I can and even more because I am going to die, but he will still be living. Whoever lives according to my teaching will have all that he desires, because then the son will be the same as the father. Whatever you desire, according to my teaching, will be given to you in full. But for that to happen, you must love my teaching.

“My teaching will provide you an advocate in my place, and a comforter. This comforter will be your conscience of truth, which people of the world do not understand. But you will know it within yourself. You will never be alone if the spirit of my teaching is with you. I will die and the people of the world will not see me, but you will see me because my teaching survives and you will live by it. And then if my teaching is within you, you will come to understand that I am within the father and that the father is within me. Whoever fulfills my teaching will feel the father within himself, and my spirit will live.”

Judas, the one not called Iscariot, said to him, “But why can’t everyone live by the spirit of truth?”

And in answer, Jesus said, “Only the one who fulfills my teaching can be loved by the father and my spirit can take up residence only in one such as him. Whoever does not fulfill my teaching cannot be loved by my father because my teaching is not my own, but my father’s. And that is all that I can say to you right now. But my spirit, the spirit of truth, which will take up residence within you after I am gone, will reveal to you everything, and you will recall and understand much of what I have just told you.

“And so, you can always be at peace in your spirit, and not with the worldly peace that the people of the world seek, but with the peace of the spirit, in whose presence you will no longer fear anything. From this, if you fulfill my teaching, then you have no reason to be distressed by my death. Like the spirit of truth, I will come to you and together with the father’s conscience will take up residence in your heart. If you fulfill my teaching, then you will rejoice because in my place the father will be in your hearts, and that is better for you.

“My teaching is the tree of life. The father is he who cultivates the tree. He cleans and grooms those branches that bear fruit so that even more will grow on them. Hold to my teaching of life and life will grow within you. And just as the branch does not live of itself, but takes life from the tree, likewise you will take life from my teaching. My teaching is the tree; you are the branches. Whoever lives by my teaching of life will bear much fruit. And so, apart from my teaching there is no life.

“Whoever does not live by my teaching will shrivel and perish, and all the dry branches will be pruned and incinerated. If you live by my teaching and fulfill it, then you will have all that you desire. The will of the father is that you live the true life and receive what you desire. Just as the father gave goodness to me, likewise, I give goodness to you. Hold on to this goodness.

“I am living because the father loves me and I love the father; you must live by that same love. If you will live by this love, you will be blessed. My commandment is that you love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than to sacrifice your life for the love that you have toward those close to you, as I have done.

“You are equal with me if you do what I have taught you. I do not consider you to be slaves, to whom orders are given, but to be equals because I have made plain to you everything that I have come to understand from the father. You are not choosing my teaching of your own will, but because I have directed you toward the one truth, the truth that allows you all to live and have everything you desire. The entire teaching is nothing more than loving one another.

“If the world hates you, do not be amazed: it hates my teaching. If you were one with the world, then it would love you. But I have separated you from the world, and for that, it will hate you. If they drove me out, then they will drive you out. They will do this all because they do not know the true God. I have explained it to them, but they did not even want to listen to me. They did not understand my teaching because they did not understand the father. They saw my life and my life showed them their mistakes. And for that they hated me even more. The spirit of truth which will come to you will confirm this. And then you will confirm this.

“I tell you this in advance so that you won’t be deceived when the persecutions fall upon you. They will turn you into outcasts. Everyone will think that by killing you they are pleasing God. They cannot avoid doing any of this because they do not understand either my teaching or the true God. I tell you all of this in advance so that you won’t be amazed when this all happens.

“And so, I will go off now to that spirit which sent me. You understand now that you cannot ask me where I am going. Earlier you were distressed that I would not tell you where exactly, to what place I was going. But I tell you truly that it is good for you that I am going. If I do not die, then the spirit of truth will not appear to you, but if I die, then it will take up residence within you. It will take up residence in you and it will become clear to you what is a lie, what is truth, and what the resolution is.

“The lie is when people do not believe in the life of the spirit. The truth is that I am one with the father. And the resolution is that the power of mortal life has been destroyed. I would still tell you much more, but it is difficult for you to understand. When the spirit of truth takes up residence in you, it will show you all truth, because it will not tell you what is new or what you want to hear, but what comes from God. It will show you the way in all situations of life. It will also be from the father, just as I am from the father. Therefore it will say the same things that I say. But when I, the spirit of truth, am within you, you will not always see me. Sometimes you will, but other times you will not hear me.”

And the students said to each other, “What does that mean?”

He said, “Sometimes you will see me, other times you will not see me.”

“What does it mean when he says, ‘Sometimes you will, sometimes you will not’?”

Jesus said to them, “You do not understand what it means that sometimes you will but other times you won’t see me. You understand, as it always happens in the world, that some people are sad and grieving while others are rejoicing. You will be sad, and your sadness will turn into joy. A woman, when she gives birth, grieves when in labor, but when it ends, she doesn’t remember the grief because of her joy at having brought a person into the world. Likewise, you will be sad but suddenly you will see me, the spirit of truth will enter into you and your sadness will turn into joy. And then you will no longer ask anything of me, because at that point you will have everything that you desire. At that point, everything that a man could desire in the spirit will be given to him by the father.

“Earlier, you did not ask anything from the spirit, but in the future, you may ask anything that you want from the spirit and it will come to you, so that your blessedness will be complete. Now I, as a man, cannot say this clearly to you with words, but when I live within you as the spirit of truth, I will clearly make known to you all things concerning the father. Then, everything that you ask the father in the name of the spirit will be given to you, and not by me. Your father will give it to you because he loves you for accepting my teaching. You have understood that knowledge from the father comes into the world and returns to the father from the world.”

Then the students said to Jesus, “Now we have all understood and we have nothing left to ask. We believe that you come from God.”

And Jesus said, “I have said all of this to you, so that you would have surety and peace in my teaching. Whatever misfortunes you may have in the world, do not fear anything because my teaching will overcome the world.”

After this, Jesus lifted his eyes toward heaven and said, “My father! You gave your son freedom in life, so that he could receive true life. Life is knowing the true God, the knowledge that I have revealed. I revealed you to the people of the earth. I did the deed that you commanded me to do. I manifested your existence to the people of the earth. They were yours before as well, but according to your will I revealed the truth to them. And they came to know you.

“They have understood that all they have, even their life, comes only from you. And I taught them, not from myself, that both they and I issue from you. I plead to you for those that have acknowledged you. They have understood that all that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine.

“I am now no longer in the world, but am returning to you; but they are in the world and therefore I ask you, father, to keep your knowledge within them. I am not asking that you take them out of the world, but that you save them from evil. I ask you to confirm them in your truth. Your knowledge is truth.

“My father! I desire for them to be the same as I am, for them to understand in the same way that I do, that true life began before the creation of the world. That they will all be one, as you, father, are within me and I within you, and that they will be within us as one. I am within them, and you are within me, so that we all can be united as one and so that people understand that they were not born of themselves, but that you sent them into the world lovingly, just as you sent me.

“Righteous father! The world did not come to know you on its own, but I came to know you, and they came to know you through me. And I explained to them what you are. You are what causes the same love to appear within them as the love you gave me. You gave them life, so, accordingly, you loved them. I taught them that they must remember this and love you, so that the love you gave them will return from them to you.”