MAN_AS_GOD
Vicarious Suffering
Vicarious suffering is the profound truth that God Himself became man, sinking into humanity and becoming the 'I AM' within each individual. All human…
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I AMGodManSufferingGod became manShared sufferingRefining processIndividualizationDivine purpose
The Book Of Job
Now, what do I mean by vicarious suffering (mentioned earlier)? It is the most difficult concept in the world for man to grasp. Every time I have used it with someone who at the moment suffered, I invariably got the same reply. Someone said to me recently in San Francisco: “I am suffering. You said God suffers for me? Well, maybe he is suffering somewhere in eternity but I am in pain, I am suffering.” I said: “What is his name?” “God” “No, that is not his name. His name is ‘I AM.’ Who is suffering?” “Well, I am. “ “Good, that’s God.” “No God here, I am suffering.” It’s the most impossible thing to get over to man, that man who seems to be alive, is alive only by reason of the fact that God became him – that God became man, that man become God. He sunk himself in man, that man could say: “I am,” for that is God’s name, and that all things are done by God to God, to individualize you, me, all of us. When in his eyes the work is done, after unnumbered ages of pain – it takes pain like putting gold in the raw state of ore into the furnace and bringing out molten gold, pure gold, nothing but pure gold. It takes heat, it takes fire. These are the furnaces of experience, and we are put into the world of experiences and brought out as pure gold. When we are brought out, in his presence we are just like him.
Vicarious suffering is the profound truth that God Himself became man, sinking into humanity and becoming the 'I AM' within each individual. All human suffering is therefore God's own experience, serving as a refining process—like ore in a furnace—to transform man into pure, individualized gold, ultimately making him like God.