A Discussion of The Christ, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus by Judi Marshall

Often in Unity circles when wishing to celebrate a person, a group of people surround the person forming a circle.  Participants rub their palms together until warmth is felt, hands are help up facing out toward the person in the center being celebrated and a chant is said: "[Name of Person] we love you, we bless you, we appreciate you and we behold the Christ as you!”  What does it mean when it is said: “we behold the Christ as you?”

In The Revealing Word Charles Fillmore writes the “Christ abides in each person as his potential perfection.”  He goes on to describe the “Christ in you - The true light, which guides every man coming into the world, is and ever has been, in man.”  So in essence, we are saying to that person, at this moment we behold you abiding in your state of consciousness as the Christ “to the point of realization of unity with the Father and Son…[living] in the perfection of God-Mind, the thought of God, the living Christ.”   What a powerful statement of who that person is at that moment!

And yet - what about beholding the person as Jesus, or as Jesus Christ and what about Christ Jesus?  Why do we behold the Christ?  What is  the meaning of Jesus, Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus and how can we use these concepts in our daily life?

First if one needs a friend, well we have the man – the historical Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth the man who will comfort you when you’re down, the one who will sit and spend time with you as he did with Mary at Martha’s home Luke 10:38-42.   Go ahead, ask for what you need.  He will not only honor your request he will do what he can to fulfill your request by pointing the way. Matthew’s Jesus said in 7: 7-8 7“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”  This is the Jesus that brings you the comfort of knowing that you are not alone and that God is right here right now accessible to you, right by your side, as a friend would be to another beloved friend, and more than this, as a father would be to his child.

Perhaps now you are ready for more. Perhaps you have been inspired and directed to One Source and One Power from your friend Jesus learning it is possible to go direct.  You are ready for someone who reflects back your gift of Divinity, your gifts and strengths. Well then, Jesus Christ is the one to bring to mind. He is the one who realized his full potential that of the perfect idea of God Mind.   “Jesus Christ… was absolutely unique because He gives us a window through which God’s light can shine and by which we can see what we are truly meant to be.”

Finally we come to Christ Jesus the name Paul so reverently and lovingly gave to the ascended Jesus.    Christ Jesus is the one who became the Christ – that state of consciousness we described at the beginning of this article, “…The true light, which guides every man coming into the world, is and ever has been, in man.”  In Christ Jesus we have the Wayshower. John’s Jesus said in 14:12: 12Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these…”

In Unity we have a model that provides us with an evolution of consciousness as we grow and evolve. It is also a model as we move in and out of life’s circumstances.  Sometimes we need Jesus of Nazareth a friend and a father/mother.  Other times we need our mentor in Jesus Christ to show us the way.  And then there are those spiritual moments where we know we are so One with the One and Christ Jesus comes to mind. There can be moments, days, months, or years when we totally slide out of this framework altogether. What makes Unity unique is that it is possible for us to move in and out depending on what we need and where we are in our life.   And when our need is great, there is a circle of friends and loved ones waiting to surround us and celebrate us, beholding in us what we may not be able to see in ourselves.

 What does it mean when celebrating a person or a group of people and we hold our hands up and chant, “we love you, we bless you, we appreciate you and we behold the Christ as you!”  We are affirming as Paul said: “Christ in you…the hope of Glory” .


  Charles Fillmore, The Revealing Word. Unity Village: Unity Books 1997. 34.
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  Thomas W. Shepherd Glimpses of Truth (Carol City: UFBL Press, 2000). 143.
  Fillmore, Ibid. 34.
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  Col 1:15