The Love of Christmas

This Sunday, we will consider Unity’s metaphysical approach to advent as it pertains to the love of God reflected in the Christmas story.

In order to understand the deeper significance of this story, we need to first recognize and claim it as our own. Our story begins with the conception of the idea that there is that within us that holds the same spiritual potential that Jesus the Christ so powerfully demonstrated. The Christ Consciousness that he so fully embodied is the same Divine Principle at work within each of us.

Let’s clarify the metaphysical meaning of Christ, according to Unity Co-Founder Charles Fillmore:

Christ is the divine man/woman. Jesus is the name that represents an individual expression of the Christ idea. Christ existed long before Jesus.

Christ abides in each person as his/her potential perfection. Jesus Christ, the embodiment of all divine ideas, exists eternally in the Mind of God as the only begotten Son of God... and is the living Principle working in humanity, (Fillmore, C. 1959, The Revealing Word).

Let’s also consider this expanded understanding of the Christ as our own potential perfection along with the foundational scripture of the Christian faith that has traditionally  taught this as a reference to Jesus Christ as the only begotten son of God.

“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him shall not die but shall have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Could it be that the only begotten son/daughter refers not just to the Divine Nature of Jesus, but to that same Divine Nature within us all? And, as we believe in that within us that is of God, we discover the eternal within ourselves.

Eric Butterworth offers the following:

“God's only begotten ... means that the value of you, the Christ of you, is of God --which is begotten only of God.

God has given you this relationship that can never be broken --this oneness, this wholeness that can never be changed! Call it the Christ in you; the Divine in you; call it the God potential in you. Call it what you will, but it is that of you which is the reality of you, and all else is simply the degrees of appearance that people see and that you see in yourself.”
(Audio source-www.truthunity.net/unity-and-christianity/eternally-begotten-of-the-father)

This is the depth of the love in made known through the Christmas story.

The ‘only begotten’ is that within us all that is only of God. There is no denying that Jesus is the person who fully and completely demonstrated this perfection by way of fully claiming his oneness with God. He claimed and expressed that of himself that was ‘begotten only of God’ above all else.

Thus, perfectly fulfilling his role in demonstrating The Christ. But he never claimed to be unique in doing this and often taught that all who believed (in the Christ within themselves) could do and be all that he had.

"Christ in you--The true light, which guides every {person} coming into the world, is, and ever has been, in humanity.
This is "Christ in you, the hope of glory," (Fillmore, C. 1959, The Revealing Word).


Consider for yourself:

· How does this expand your understanding of the Christmas story as your story?

· How do you see love reflected in this story?