Christ is the state that Jesus reached by listening only to the Holy Spirit and thus bringing his will into perfect alignment with God’s. Christ is not opposite ego but is the truth that remains when the illusion of ego is undone. Christ is the one who remembers their oneness, and therefore teaches only love.
This state is available to all of Creation because it reflects only what we are in truth.
More prosaically, in A Course in Miracles, Christ is the divine, eternal and changeless spiritual Self that is the shared identity of all life – every person, every blade of grass, every drop of rain, every speck of cosmic dust. Christ is not an individual, much less a historical figure, but rather the universal, spiritual essence present within all of Creation.
On this view, Christ reflects the perfect union of God and His creations, which together represent only Innocence.
This idea of Christ departs significantly from many traditional Christian interpretations, which hold that Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified for the sins of humanity, and then rose from the dead to grant eternal life to those who believe in him.
Traditional Christianity focuses on the historical person of Jesus and his role as the savior and redeemer of humankind, and “Christ” as such is indelibly associated with the historical figure. In ACIM, what is Christ cannot be bound by space or time, much less a body.
In A Course in Miracles, we are not followers of Jesus but collaborators with him. We are changing our mind with him, the better to remember what we are in truth, all of together.
The Course’s definition and understanding of Christ – and the specific call to bring that vision into application – represents a more universal, inclusive and non-dogmatic approach to spirituality. It recognizes the inherent divinity of all people and embraces and nurtures our shared potential to be healed by Love. It calls us to become responsible for radical healing, and emphasizes that such healing is possible.
In the simplest sense of the word, Christ is happiness – a gentle, sustainable happiness, ever balanced between play and rest, always given to creating in the way that Love creates.
