What relationship existed between Jesus and the Christ .....

Orthodox Christian ecclesiastics tell us that Jesus of Nazareth and the Christ were one; that the true name of this remarkable person was Jesus Christ. They tell us that this man of Galilee was the very eternal God clothed in flesh of man that men might see his glory. Of course this doctrine is wholly at variance with the teachings of Jesus himself and of his apostles. The Aquarian Masters in council have formulated an answer to this question that so well covers all the information required that we give it in full: "Jesus was an ideal Jew, born in Bethlehem of Judea. His mother a beautiful Jewish girl named Mary. As a child Jesus differed but little from other children only that in past lives he had overcome carnal propensites to such an extent that he could be tempted like others and not yield. Paul was right when to the Hebrews he said: `He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.'-- Hebrews 4: 15. "Jesus suffered as other men suffer, and was made perfect through suffering; for this is the only way to perfection. His life was an example of attainment by the way of crosses and cruel treatment. Paul was right again when he said: `It became him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons into glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.'- -Hebrews 2: 10. "In many respects Jesus was a remarkable child, for by ages of strenuous preparation he was qualified to be an avatar, a saviour of the world, and from childhood he was endowed with superior wisdom and was conscious of the fact that he was competent to lead the race into the higher ways of spiritual living. But he was conscious also of the fact that he must attain the mastery by trials, buffetings, temptations and sufferings. And all his life was spent in attaining. After his death, burial and resurrection he appeared in materialised form before the Silent Brothers in the temple of Heliopolis, in Egypt, and said: "`My human life was wholly given to bring my will to tune with the deific will; when this was done my earth-tasks all were done. "`You know that all my life was one great drama for the sons of men; a pattern for the sons of men. I lived to show the possibilities of man. "`What I have done all men can do, and what I am all men shall be.'"--Aquarian Gospel 178: 43, 46. "Jesus was the name of the man and it was the only appropriate name for this kind of a man. The word means Saviour, and Jesus was in more senses than one a saviour. The word Christ means "the anointed one," and then it is an official title. It means, The Master of Love. When we say "Jesus the Christ" we refer to the man and to his office; just as we do when we say Edward, the King, or Lincoln, the president. Edward was not always King, and Lincoln was not always President, and Jesus was not always Christ. Jesus won his Christship by a strenuous life, and in the Aquarian Gospel, chapter 55, we have a record of the events of his christing, or receiving the degree Christ. Here is where he was coronated by the highest earth authorities as the Christ-King; properly speaking, `The Master of Love'; and after this was done he entered at once upon his Judean and Galilean ministry. "We recognise the facts that Jesus was man and that Christ was God, so that in very truth Jesus the Christ was the God-man of the ages." The Nazarene's Testimony. Jesus himself made the matter clear. Once when he was speaking to a congregation in Bethany the people called him King and he stood forth and said: "`I am not sent to sit upon a throne to rule as Caesar rules; and you may tell the ruler of the Jews that I am not a claimant for his throne. "`Men call me Christ, and God has recognised the name; but Christ is not a man. The Christ is universal Love, and Love is King. "`This Jesus is but man who has been fitted by temptations overcome, by trials multiform, to be the temple through which the Christ can manifest to men. "`Then hear, you men of Israel, hear! Look not upon the flesh; it is not king. Look to the Christ within who shall be formed in every one of you, as he is formed in me. "`When you have purified your hearts by faith, the king will enter in and you will see his face.'"--Aquarian Gospel 68: 10-14.