Part 1

Undoing The Way We See Things Now

Lesson 169

By Grace I Live. By Grace I Am Released.

Grace is an aspect of the love of God which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth. It is the world’s most lofty aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received, an altar clean and holy for the gift.

2. Grace is acceptance of the love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains that those whose minds are lightened by the gift of grace cannot believe the world of fear is real.

3. Grace is not learned. The final step must go beyond all learning. Grace is not the goal this course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to waken. It is not shut tight against God’s Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from experience with which it is familiarly at home.

4. We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation of the Father and the Son as one has been already set. But we have also said the mind determines when that will be, and has determined it. And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God.^330. to hasten the experience of truth, and speed its advent into every mind which recognizes its effects on you.

5. Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His being He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say “God is,” and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There ae no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united its Source, and like the Source Itself. It merely is.

6. We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God’s has been completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness, and the holy face of Christ. The Son of God has merely disappeared into his Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all. Eternity remains a constant state.

7. This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and learned, brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time the mind itself determined to abandon all but this is near at hand.^334. We do not hasten it in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means. All learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete. He recognized all that time holds, and gave it to all minds that each one might determine, from a point where time has ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity.

8. We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that is done. For oneness must be here. Whatever time the mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state, forever as it was; forever to remain as it is now. We merely take the part assigned long since, and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation’s script in His Creator’s Name, and in the name of His Creator’s Son.

9. There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of things beyond and listen to words which explain what is to come is past already. Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and go to sleep by them?

10. Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter, for your part is still what all the rest depends on. As you play the role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God. Forgiveness is the central theme which runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it runs directed and its outcome sure.

11. And now we ask for grace, the final gift forgiveness can bestow. Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows Heaven yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little while. That interval suffices. It is here that miracles are laid, to be returned by you from holy instants you receive through grace in your experience to all who see the light that lingers on your face.

12. What is the face of Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness and brought the clear reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to bless the world? How could you finally attain to it forever, while a part of you remains outside; unknowing, unawakened, and in need of you as witness to the truth?

13. Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant and accept the gifts which grace provided you. You carry them back to yourself. And revelation stands not far behind. Its coming is ensured. We ask for grace and for experience that comes from grace. We welcome the release it offers everyone. We do not ask for the unaskable. We do not look beyond what grace can give. For this we can give in the grace that has been given us.

14. Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer, yet in the world what could be more than what we ask this day of Him Who gives the grace we ask, as it was given Him?

By grace I live. By grace I am released.

By grace I give. By grace I will release.^[1].

^{[1.] A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.}

^{Footnote 334. Matthew 4:17 (KJV): “From that time Jesus began to preach, and say, Repent: for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This paragraph seems to be another attempt to reconcile the paradox that we are trying to hasten something whose time is set already. the resolution seems to be that while our forgiveness seems to speed experiences of truth into our minds, those experiences are actually just the signs that the time of awakening the mind has already set is “near at hand.” Again, somehow both are true—we are hastening something that is already set. Again, the resolution of this may require a vantage point that is outside of linear time.}

Personal Notes:

“By grace I live. By grace I am released.”

.” I prepare my mind today with help of Holy Spirit to lay the gift of grace on the clean and holy alter of my mind, lightened by the gift of grace their will be no belief in the world of fear to be real. Oneness is the idea God is. And in His being, He encompasses all things. I take the part assigned me, recognized, and fulfilled by Holy Spirit Who wrote salvation’s script in Our Creator’s Name, and in the Name of Our Creator’s Son. I accept my role in the salvation of the world as my special function^337. with gladness. Forgiveness being the central theme which runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course directed and its outcome sure. What we ask Is given us. By grace I live. By grace I am released. By grace I give. By grace I will release. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination of The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love