Lesson 169

By grace I live. By grace I am released.

p1. Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the
state prevailing in the unity of truth. 2 It
is the world’s most lofty aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely.
3 It is past learning, yet the goal of learning,
for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance.
4 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.

p2. Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming
hate and fear. 2 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 lighted by the gift of grace
can not believe the world of fear is real.

p3. Grace is not learned. 2 The final
step must go beyond all learning. 3 Grace is
not the goal this course aspires to attain. 4
Yet we prepare for grace in that an open mind can hear the Call to waken.
5 It is not shut tight against God’s Voice.
6 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.

p4. We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the
revelation of the Father and the Son as One has been already set. 2
But we have also said the mind determines when that time will be, and has
determined it. 3 And yet we urge you to bear
witness to the Word of God to hasten the experience of truth, and speed
its advent into every mind that recognizes truth’s effects on you.

p5. Oneness is simply the idea God is. 2
And in His Being, He encompasses all things. 3
No mind holds anything but Him. 4 We say “God
is,” and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless.
5 There are no lips to speak them, and no part
of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something
not itself. 6 It has united with its Source.
7 And like its Source Itself, it merely is.

p6. We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. 2
It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God’s has
been completely given and received completely. 3
It returns the mind into the endless present, where the past and future
cannot be conceived. 4 It lies beyond salvation;
past all thought of time, forgiveness and the holy face of Christ. 5
The Son of God has merely disappeared into his Father, as his Father has
in him. 6 The world has never been at all. 7
Eternity remains a constant state.

p7. This is beyond experience we try to hasten. 2
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 now at hand. 3 We do not hasten it,
in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness
means.

p8. All learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete.
2 He recognized all that time holds, and gave
it to all minds that each one might determine, from a point where time was
ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity. 3
We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that is
done.

p9. For oneness must be here. 2 Whatever
time the mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must
be a constant state, forever as it always was; forever to remain as it is
now. 3 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.

p10. There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world
can understand. 2 When revelation of your oneness
comes, it will be known and fully understood. 3
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. 4
Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the hours still,
and rise and work and go to sleep by them?

p11. Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part.
2 The ending must remain obscure to you until
your part is done. 3 It does not matter. 4
For your part is still what all the rest depends on. 5
As you take the role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each
uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God.

p12. Forgiveness is the central theme that runs throughout salvation,
holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it runs directed
and its outcome sure. 2 And now we ask for grace,
the final gift salvation can bestow. 3 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.

p13. The interval suffices. 2 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 in your face. 3 What is the face of
Christ but his who went a moment into timelessness, and brought a clear
reflection of the unity he felt an instant back to bless the world? 4
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?

p14. Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant,
and accept the gifts that grace provided you. 2
You carry them back to yourself. 3 And revelation
stands not far behind. 4 Its coming is ensured.
5 We ask for grace, and for experience that
comes from grace. 6 We welcome the release it
offers everyone. 7 We do not ask for the unaskable.
8 We do not look beyond what grace can give.
9 For this we can give in the grace that has
been given us.

p15. Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer. 2
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?

In the Course of a Year::A Course in Miracles Lessons online

Lesson 169

By grace I live. By grace I am released.

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