René Gfeller, as the author of the following pages is called today, has over his 20 years experienced virtually all imaginable facets of pain and suffering, but also happiness and success. Born in Switzerland on 6 August 1954, it did not take long for him to become acquainted with the dark side of life. In spite of these adverse circumstances, he managed to work his way up, becoming a successful entrepreneur and millionaire.
When God recruited him 20 years ago, appropriating him through Jesus’ righteousness, he had spent the last five years in a Swiss prison cell, where he remains incarcerated to this day – even after serving his sentence. It is in these desolate surroundings that God prepared and anointed him for his task. After being given the name “Jesreël” by God, he is now an experienced and pragmatic servant of the Lord, who lives by the laws, but – having experienced the grace of God himself – criticises legalism all the same.
Jesreël has himself experienced the catastrophic results of a false understanding of morality. Since birth, we humans are dominated by our own egoism; it is absolutely necessary for us, born of God and living in the heritage of the justice of His Messiah Jesus of Nazareth, to let go of this egoism. Only then will we be granted the capacity to love each other, to refrain from judging our fellow humans, and above all to forgive the sinners for their trespasses, following Jesus’ forceful commandment.
We all love God, as He is revealed to us in the Holy Trinity. And we attempt to share God’s love with our fellow humans. It is not enough to love our friends and brothers and sisters in the Lord; rather, we should also love our unpleasant contemporaries, and above all our enemies. Often, God blesses us through our enemies. The dead act on their instincts – and humans who are not yet saved through their belief in Jesus of Nazareth are dead. Therefore, it is easier for God to work through them than through us; a sad reality!
Love is not a feeling, but rather our intention to see the good in our fellow humans, to take a leap of faith in trusting them. However, love also means that we refrain from projecting expec-tations onto the person opposite us. This not only shields us from disenchantments, it also helps us avoid manipulating other people – whether consciously or not. Love can never be an obligation, it is the desire to share differences and commonalities with each other, to help each other and allow ourselves to be helped in turn. It is vital that we approach another person without reservations, without attempting to change him or her. If we identify a need for change, we will ask God to take care of this, leaving it to His actions, and not glorify ourselves for this.
The perception of good and evil was not created by God. We, as humans, have plucked this forbidden fruit, and this is why we live in the world as it is now – far from paradise on earth. Each of us was born into this world for this reason alone. All the problems that we carry around with us each and every day are a result of this perception. We are constantly forced to con-front products, events, and situations that strain our capacity to identify good from evil, right from wrong, positive from negative. Every human has experienced how these assessments can deceive us, often due to emotions that tempt us to assume the worst. An entire industrial sector, with billion-dollar turnovers, as well as political institutions feed almost exclusively off of the activation and manipulation of our emotions.
The proverb “Fear is a bad advisor” is more relevant now than it has ever been. However, we still allow our emotions to dominate our thinking, behaviour, and life at large. Emotions are properly interpreted as warning signals, not as guidance. God has gifted us with reasoning, and we should put this to prudent use when alarmed by our emotions.
We are also often obstructed by experiences, especially when assessing people. A common problem of mankind is the tendency to prefer shortcuts, categorising our fellow humans, which in turn leads to prejudice, instead of approaching them neutrally and engaging with them. Fear is not only a bad advisor, but above all the belief in bad, negative, and evil.
This vicious circle leads to the insight that we humans are incapable of carrying the responsibil-ity for the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Each time we pass judgment on another human being, we pass judgment on ourselves, as we have yet to realise this insight. Differently put: We have not yet returned the fruit we stole from Him to God. Therefore, we need to finally let go of our urge to judge or even condemn our fellow humans!
In what might be the most famous Christian prayer, the Our Father, there is only one obligating condition: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us! Differently put, if we do not forgive our fellow humans for their faults and bask in our self-pity and anger, we do not have any entitlement to the Kingdom of God. Forgiving means nothing other than let-ting go, and letting go in turn means nothing other than repudiating the guilt of the former trespasser.
Let us also consider that, even though we humans have free will, we can solely manage this will; God alone has the power to act. Each of us has acted in a wrong way, in spite of our desire to do the right thing. Additionally, we should be aware that we only live through grace, and not through self-righteousness. And we too are culprits, for we all carry with us the blame for the death of God’s Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth!
Every person makes mistakes. A minor flaw can lead to great catastrophes. To judge people for this, and subsequently blame and punish them, only reduces them to their mistakes. Humans are not their actions.
Jesus taught us to be grateful for each injustice we face, not to avenge it, bless the culprit, and allow God the opportunity to turn this curse into a blessing for us. In practical terms, this means that we forgive everyone who did us wrong, regardless of the gravity of this wrongdoing, by blessing the culprit and subsequently redeeming them from their guilt before God and ourselves. This clears the path for God to compensate us for the injustice we faced.
In what might be the most famous Christian prayer, the Our Father, there is only one obligating condition: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us! Differently put, if we do not forgive our fellow humans for their faults and bask in our self-pity and anger, we do not have any entitlement to the Kingdom of God. Forgiving means nothing other than letting go, and letting go in turn means nothing other than repudiating the guilt of the former trespasser.
Let us also consider that, even though we humans have free will, we can solely manage this will; God alone has the power to act. Each of us has acted in a wrong way, in spite of our desire to do the right thing. Additionally, we should be aware that we only live through grace, and not through self-righteousness. And we too are culprits, for we all carry with us the blame for the death of God’s Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth!
We should finally realise that we can neither give something to nor take away something from God. He is the creator of the universe and transcends space and time. It will neither please nor insult God if we live in a morally upright or immoral fashion. We alone bear the consequences of our actions in this material world. If these work out positively for us, it is not God who re-wards us for them; if these work out negatively for us, it is not God who punishes us for them. We are not entitled to impose our own moral conceptions on others or admonish our fellow humans. Jesus has fulfilled the entire Divine Law for us, and as such, we are set free from this Law by believing in Jesus and his righteousness. We should use our time to help out of love and to let ourselves be helped, to approach those whom we have judged before, and to interact with those whose guilt we have yet to forgive.
