“The journey to the cross should be the last “useless journey.” Do not dwell upon it, but dismiss it as accomplished. If you can accept it as your own last useless journey, you are also free to join my resurrection. Until you do so your life is indeed wasted. It merely re-enacts the separation, the loss of power, the futile attempts of the ego at reparation, and finally the crucifixion of the body, or death. Such repetitions are endless until they are voluntarily given up. Do not make the pathetic error of “clinging to the old rugged cross.” The only message of the crucifixion is that you can overcome the cross. Until then you are free to crucify yourself as often as you choose. This is not the gospel I intended to offer you. We have another journey to undertake, and if you will read these lessons carefully they will help prepare you to undertake it.” (T-4.in.3:1-11)

Jesus is saying it was my last useless journey to the cross and if you can accept it as your own it can be yours too. What is a useless journey?

“Do not embark on useless journeys, because they are indeed in vain. The ego may desire them, but spirit cannot embark on them because it is forever unwilling to depart from its Foundation.” (T-4.in.2:5-6)

They are journeys we take with the ego in which we re-enact the separation, the loss of power, the futile attempts of the ego at reparation, and finally the crucifixion of the body, or death. With his participation in the last useless journey, the seemingly separated mind in which illusions still persisted (even if just a scrap) formerly known as Jesus, overcame the ego thought system we had made and a new way of journeying was born. The comparison of the two journeys…

“As long as you believe the Son of God is guilty you will walk along this carpet, believing that it leads to death. And the journey will seem long and cruel and senseless, for so it is.

The journey the Son of God has set himself is useless indeed, but the journey on which his Father sets him is one of release and joy.” (T-13.I.3:6–4:2)

He thus completed his assignment as a man and made possible a new type of journey. If we want to look at this phenomenon in a biblical context…There is a difference in old testament faith and new testament faith. In the old testament people had faith in their faith in God which they have to work for. Advanced new testament Christians have faith in the finished works of Jesus which means that the healing has already happened, the provisions have already been made and they have been saved, are new men in Christ. They just cannot see it yet. They rest in that faith. The “devil” tempts them to move off of their faith in the unseen, which is really their faith in Jesus’ faith.

We, as Course students, have faith that Jesus over came the ego, or the idea of separation and so can we. We have faith that there is a better way. We have faith that if we follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance, He will lead us home to God. We have faith in the unseen world. We have faith in a forgiven world, a forgiven body, a forgiven self and forgiven brothers, all there but yet unseen. Our job is to remove the blocks to our awareness of the unseen.

“I have said before that I am in charge of the Atonement. This is only because I completed my part in it as a man, and can now complete it through others.” (T-4.VI.6:5-6)

What was his part? He overcame the last shred of the ego thought system and self-reliance and became identified with Christ and remembered his complete God-reliance.

“So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God.” (C-5.2:2)

In the Bible Jesus was reported as saying before the crucifixion, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”This last scrap of fear and doubt was part of the ego thought system of separation, part of the self we made. And such was part of his last temptation to make the ego’s stories real. The line that follows that in the Bible is, “Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him.”

And such is our journey. The ego tempts us to make the dream of separation real and we do. We place our mind back at the disposal of the tyrant we made. Then we change our minds and place it back at the disposal of true Authority. Back and forth we go until finally we learn the final lesson, never to be tempted again to make the unreal real and the unreal disappears forever into the nothingness from which it came. But we must engage in the back and forth because this is the process in which all of our miscreations are undone or chosen against. We have to stand in the fear, as Jesus did, fortified by the Holy Spirit and see the false without accepting it as true.

“Jesus remains a Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true.” (C-5.2:5)

And we must let the Holy Spirit use our form and not the ego.

“And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusions.” (C-5.2:6)

This process is one in which we learn to give up every scrap of doubt and fear and have it removed from our minds. It is the journey of salvation.

“Whenever you are tempted to undertake a useless journey that would lead away from light, remember what you really want, and say:

The Holy Spirit leads me unto Christ, and where else would I go? What need have I but to awake in Him?

Then follow Him in joy, with faith that He will lead you safely through all dangers to your peace of mind this world may set before you.” (T-13.VII.14:1–15:1)

We will be tempted to make useless journeys. We will make real. Then we will change our minds and return to the Holy Spirit’s journey of salvation. We walk together faithfully on our journey with our Comforter, our Guide and our Therapist. We trust in Him. He knows the way. We do not. And when we observe a brother straying from the path we will ask the Holy Spirit what to say or do or think. We will offer the Holy Spirit’s correction if He so instructs. For what is a miracle but a Holy Spirit correction and is that not our job as miracle workers?

“As you share my unwillingness to accept error in yourself and others, you must join the great crusade to correct it; listen to my voice, learn to undo error and act to correct it. The power to work miracles belongs to you. I will provide the opportunities to do them, but you must be ready and willing. Doing them will bring conviction in the ability, because conviction comes through accomplishment. The ability is the potential, the achievement is its expression, and the Atonement, which is the natural profession of the children of God, is the purpose.” (T-1.III.1:6-10)