To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Text Made Simple, we recommend that
you read the corresponding chapter and section in the Text of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
Read ACIM Chapter 13, Introduction (pages 236-37)
This introduction exposes the core of the ego thought system. Guilt and the subsequent demand for punishment is the basis for all the ego’s laws. Judgment could not occur if the mind did not perceive itself as separate from what it is judging. “The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God’s Son was the beginning of the separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement is its end.” (2:1) With the Atonement comes the recognition that the separation never occurred. Thus there is no justification for guilt or punishment.
When we perceive ourselves as separate, we are denying our true Self, Which is one with our Father. So when we deny our one Self, we are denying our Father. It is with this denial that we hold on to guilt. Because of the unconscious guilt we hold in our minds, the world we are projecting from our minds is a world of punishment and death. Jesus tells us, “For this world is the symbol of punishment, and all the laws that seem to govern it are the laws of death.” (2:4)
Because of the guilt we are holing onto, we believe we need to be punished for separating from our Father. Believing punishment is due, we project that punishing intent upon God and believe that He is cruel. We even think that if we are not ‘good,’ God will condemn us to hell, yet it is we who have condemned ourselves to hell by continuing to hold on to the idea that guilt is real and justified.
Paragraph three speaks directly to the mistaken belief that the crucifixion was necessary for salvation to be given the world. In our insanity we believe God shares our insane judgment that the Son of God is guilty and deserves punishment. But we are reminded, “Love does not kill to save.” (3:3)
The only way out of this insane thought system is to accept the fact that the Son of God is innocent and nothing has really happened except insane dreams of guilt and punishment in the tortured split mind. Because we believe that the separation really happened and consequently believe in guilt, we need help to recognize that what we are believing in is untrue. The Holy Spirit teaches us that God’s Son “deserves only Love because he has given only Love.” (4:4) As we learn to see as the Holy Spirit sees, we recognize that we have never sinned and have no need of salvation. This recognition is the Atonement.
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