About the author
Safi Mohan MR is an Assistant Professor in Law, Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram. He is also the secretary of CK Chandrappan Centre for Social Justice and the founder of Law and Justice Research Foundation.
“I dedicate this article to St. Augustine of Hippo (354 to 430 AD), a Christian Philosopher and Theologian. His life and teachings, a deep inspiration for all generations”.
I could not exist unless you were in me. You made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” St. Augustine. Confessions.
Why did He come into this world?
Christ Jesus, the son of God, came into the world to save His people from their sins. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
Adam, the first man, who carried with him his mortality- the evidence of his sin, the evidence that God resists the proud. Mortality is nothing but the death of the soul and the death of the body. The death of the soul results when God abandons it, the death of the body when the soul departs. Adam was disobedient, a man who was not free from temptations as a result of his first sin which in turn was the reason for his fall from the city of God into the city of man. Adam, a small particle of God’s creation, was in his new world, the world of sin. Adam, a man created by God in his image and likeness, faced the irony of not being in the city of God. Every men, after Adam, inherited the sin and therefore death has passed to all mankind through the sin of the first man. The men who were in the city of Adam hated Jesus Christ.
Why has the world begun to stray from the teachings of Christ?
Indeed the soul that rules men has died. The lives they carry are the lives of the bodies of the ungodly. It is not the life of their souls but of their bodies, a life which souls can confer even when those souls are dead. The light came into the world but men loved the darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light. John (3;19)
When will the soul derives life from God?
Soul derives life from God, when its life is good, for its life cannot be good except when God is active in it to produce what is good.
From where does the body derive its life?
The body derives life from the soul when the soul is alive in the body, whether the soul derives its life from God or not therefore the death of the whole man, comes when the soul abandoned by God, leaves the body, for then the soul no longer derives life from God, nor does the body receive life from the soul.
The Journey from Adam’s city to Christ’s City.
Law was given through Moses. Grace and Truth came through Christ Jesus. He came into the world to save His people from their sins- the people who are living in the city of Adam with a sinful life. He came to enlighten, those who believe in Him, shall follow Him and those who follow Him will become His disciple.
Is following Him a simple task?
He said, if any one would come after me, let him deny himself and follow me.
In order to follow Him, the follower has to fulfill the following conditions.
- Let him deny himself
- Develop an ability to take cross
- Develop an ability to follow Him.
Why One denies himself?
Unless one denies himself he is still in the same world that hated Christ Jesus. Mankind which lives in this world are sons of Adam- an abandoned soul, who misused his free will and was corrupted at the root, the reason for his fall from the city of God in to the city of man. Therefore everyone are in that city of man, a city abandoned by God, a city that misused its free will, a city centered on corruption from its beginning. This denial of self is simply a preparation to deny Adam and his nature. Without denying that sinful nature, how is it possible to follow Christ and to receive His spirit and grace. He is the life, the eternal life, free from all form of sins. It is written, he was in the world, and the world was made through Him and the world did not know Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh not of the will of Man, but of God, Christ Jesus.(John 1:10).
Why Followers Take Cross?
The Cross is a burden of once sin, the sin that inherited from Adam. Then His followers have to share the burden with Christ, it is because He has already taken our sins and made our burden Holy- the Holy Cross, the burden of our sins. The cross, a burden, and a gift of son of a man ,Adam to son of God, Christ Jesus. Therefore share the burden with the grace and spirit of Him, who made the Cross Holy. It was written The King on a Cross (John 19:17) and His followers are the Kings of the King.
A True Disciple.
A true disciple is a believer, who believes in Him. A true disciple is a follower, who takes his cross. A true disciple unconditionally loves Christ Jesus and keeps His commandments. It is a relationship fundamentally created by a promise, Christ promise of a Kingdom of God, the true city of God, the Christ City. In that city the Master and His disciples are not two but one, He who redeems the world with His righteousness, truth, unconditional love, peace and forgiveness.
Application of this spiritual philosophy in a democratic State.
Christ Jesus was a democrat and socialist. All modern Constitutions of all nations are created in the name of their people. For example, the Preamble of Indian Constitution says “We the People of India” solemnly resolve to constitute Indian into a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. Therefore, the constitutional institutions have to ensure justice, liberty, equality and fraternity to all. In many aspects, law and religion are not separate. the spiritual aspects of religion and democracy are one. If the kingdom of God is filled with righteousness, truth, peace, compassion, love and forgiveness then as a parallel, modern democracies stand on justice, truth, peace, compassion, love and forgiveness as well. Therefore, it is fundamentally created through a promise that we respect each other by accepting equality, freedom, life, liberty, dignity, privacy and reputation of our fellow human beings, then only we could imagine a promised land, promised, by Christ Jesus and the founding fathers of our Constitution.
