IV. Theosophy and Christianity

This shows us that Christ lifts up his followers to a completely new concept of guilt and atonement, a concept that has nothing to do with what goes on in the physical world, a concept that cannot be valid in the reality revealed by the eyes. Christ wanted to overcome the old concept of sin among his followers, the concept that is attached to physical inheritance and physical reality. And was it not such a concept of guilt, attached to the physical reality, that underlay the old sacrifices? Did not the sinners go to the altar and offer their sacrifices of atonement, did they not perform a purely physical act in order to cast off their sins? The old sacrifices were physical realities. But Christ taught that guilt and atonement cannot be sought in physical reality. Therefore, even the highest, even the spirit of God, the living Word, can fall prey to reality to the point of death, to which Christ fell prey without being guilty. No external sacrifice can be reconciled with the concept of guilt and atonement. The Lamb of God was the most innocent; it can die the sacrificial death.