The christ path: re-discovering “the way”

Introduction: An Invitation to Look Again

For centuries, the figure of Jesus Christ has stood at the center of a global religion. Yet, for many sincere seekers, a painful paradox has emerged. It is possible to fall deeply in love with the teachings of Christ while feeling profoundly alienated from the institution of Christianity. This essay is an exploration of that paradox. It is not a critique of any individual's faith, but a heartfelt attempt to distinguish between the universal, liberating path that Jesus demonstrated, and the religious structures that were built around his memory.

We will re-examine some of the most foundational, and perhaps most misunderstood, teachings attributed to Jesus. Our central thesis is this: Jesus did not come to be worshipped as a singular exception, but to be followed as a universal example. He laid out a perfect template for every soul to realize its own divine nature, its own direct relationship with God, and its own mastery over the limitations of this world. This is the Christ Path. It is a journey from fear to love, from separation to unity, and from the worship of an idol to the emulation of an ideal.

The Great "I AM": Who is "The Way, the Truth, and the Life"?

Perhaps no single verse has been used more to define the exclusivity of Christianity than John 14:6, where Jesus says:

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, NRSVUE)

On the surface, this seems to be a definitive statement of separation. It appears to establish Jesus, the man, as the sole gatekeeper to God. But what if Jesus was not speaking as a separate man at all? To understand this, we must first understand the most sacred name of God, a name that is not a reference word, but a statement of Being itself.

In the book of Exodus, when Moses stands before the burning bush and asks for God's name, the answer is not a title, but a declaration of pure existence:

“God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I AM has sent me to you.”’” (Exodus 3:14, NRSVUE)

God's real name is "I AM." It is the consciousness of existence itself. This is echoed in the Psalms, where we are told, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10, ESV). The path to knowing God is not through frantic searching, nor believing what others say about Him, but through the quiet recognition of the "I AM" presence that resides within our own being. He is the I AM-ness of our being. “The Life.” And necessarily, “The Way,” and “The Truth,” also.

A fully Christed one, who has overcome the ego, the source of all belief in separation, often called "the devil" in biblical traditions, no longer speaks from a separate consciousness. They speak from the consciousness of universal unity. When Jesus says, "I AM," he is speaking as God individuated, as the universal "I AM" expressing itself through him. His "I" is the same "I AM" as God's. The "way" he speaks of is not through his mortal personality, but through the attainment of this unified Christ Consciousness. This is the teaching of all Ascended Masters, like Saint Germain, who consistently refer to themselves from this place of Oneness. The only true teaching is to lead others to this same place of consciousness within themselves. To maintain that a separate Jesus could say "I AM" without speaking from the One would be to deny his Christed nature.

A Family of Gods: The Truth of the "Only Son"

The concept that Jesus is the "only son of God" has created a hierarchy that he himself never purported. It places him on a pedestal, forever separate and above us, making emulation seem impossible. But this idea makes no sense on any level if we accept the first principle of creation: that any soul created by a perfect God must also be perfect. A perfect creation is, by its very nature, an offspring. The logic is simple. If God is perfect, His creations must also be perfect.

Therefore, Jesus is our elder brother, a wayshower who demonstrated the full potential of a child of God. We are all God's children. His life was not meant to prove his exception, but to prove the rule: that every soul, as a perfect creation of God, holds the same divine potential. As A Course in Miracles states, "The children of God are holy and the miracle honors their holiness, which can be hidden but never lost.” (ACIM, T-1.I.31:3) Our holiness, our divine sonship, is an inherent truth.

Jesus came to awaken us to this shared identity. The path he laid out is not one of worshipping him, but of joining him in the recognition of our collective Sonship. He washed the feet of his disciples, a radical act of humility that demonstrated his rejection of hierarchy. He consistently exalted others, seeing the divine within them.

The Unclaimed Inheritance: "Greater Things Shall You Do"

In the same discourse where Jesus declares himself "the way," he makes another, staggering promise, one that is rarely given focus from Christian pulpits:

“Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12, NRSVUE)

Let us pause and truly consider this. He is not speaking of a future lifetime or a heavenly reward. He states that his followers, those who believe in the Christ principle within, will not only match his miraculous works but will surpass them. This is compounded by his promises that his believers will "not taste death."

If this is the promise, we must ask the difficult question: where are the Christians who are doing "greater things" than Jesus? If the religion of Christianity is truly "the way" that Jesus demonstrated, why has this inheritance gone unclaimed? Perhaps it is because the religion has been pointing us in the wrong direction. Perhaps we have been taught to worship the messenger and, in doing so, have completely missed the message. This writing attempts to correct this misunderstanding, to turn our attention away from the worship of the man and toward the emulation of the path he perfected.

The Fallacy of Substitution: "Jesus Died for Your Sins"

One of the central tenets of modern Christianity is the idea that Jesus died for our sins, a substitutionary atonement that absolves believers of their wrongdoing. This concept, however, presents a profound logical and spiritual problem. First, it is not a principle found in the direct teachings of Jesus. He taught forgiveness, not substitution. Second, it violates the divine law of cause and effect. If a person is still working through their "sin" (read: separation), their patterns of thought and behavior that cause suffering, then the sin has not been removed. A belief in an external absolution without an internal transformation is a spiritual bypass.

The true "sin" is the belief in separation from God. Jesus's life and resurrection were the ultimate demonstration that this separation is an illusion and that death itself is not real. He did not die to pay a debt; he lived to show us that there is no debt. He demonstrated mastery over the elements and over death itself to provide a perfect template for our own ascension.

Masters of the Way: A Shared Heritage of Miracles

The idea that Jesus was the "only one" to demonstrate such mastery is contradicted even within the biblical narrative itself. The Old Testament is filled with examples of masters who wielded God's intelligence, substance, and power for miraculous demonstrations. Moses parted the Red Sea, a colossal act of mastery over the elements. Elijah called down fire from heaven and ascended in a chariot of fire, demonstrating mastery over both energy and physical form. These were not lesser miracles; they were parallel demonstrations of the same divine power that Jesus later embodied so perfectly.

These figures, along with enlightened masters from other traditions, prove that the Christ Consciousness is a state of attainment available to all who dedicate themselves to "the way." The teachings of Saint Germain and other ascended masters describe this as the "middle way," the path of balancing the divine and the human, which Jesus intended to lay as a foundation before his message was obscured by the misunderstandings of his apostles, who were still students, not yet masters themselves.

All Paths Lead Home: Beyond Religious Exclusivity

The broken Christian narrative often insists on a small and righteous path, claiming to be the only way to God. This is not in line with the expansive, all-inclusive love that Christ demonstrated. God is not limited to one religion, or any religion. He is unlimited in His ability to reach His children through any avenue whatsoever.

Every sincere spiritual path is a "way to God." While all religions have their foibles and imperfections, they are all attempts to describe the indescribable and to lead the soul back to its source. The idea that "all paths lead to God" is not a dismissal of Christ's importance; it is an affirmation of the infinite, creative love of the Father. The Christ Path is one of these ways, a particularly direct and powerful one, but it does not invalidate the sincere journeys of others. To claim exclusivity is to place a human limitation on a limitless God, an act that is not in alignment with the consciousness of Christ at all.

Conclusion: The Path of Emulation

To be a follower of Christ, then, is not to join a religion, but to accept an invitation. It is an invitation to look past the dogma and see the demonstration. It is a call to stop worshipping Jesus as an exception and to start emulating him as the ultimate example. The path he showed us is one of turning inward to find the "I AM" presence, of accepting our inherent holiness as children of God, and of claiming our divine inheritance to do "greater things" in the service of Love. This is not a journey of belief, but a journey of being.

The Christ Path does not ask for your blind obedience to an institution; it asks for your courageous commitment to your own transformation. It is a path of forgiveness, of humility, and of radical love. It is the recognition that the Light of the World is not a title held by one man, but a potential that lies dormant within every soul, waiting to be awakened. To follow Christ is to accept the awesome responsibility and the infinite joy of becoming one yourself.