Lecture Lahore — Page 23
2 3 why they have devised a new way of achieving salvation, which falls short of all the norms of reason, justice and mercy. They claim that the Messiah agreed to take upon himself all the sins of the world and to die on the cross in order to bring salvation to others, and that God allowed His own son to be killed so as to redeem the sinners. But I fail to understand how people’s hearts can be cleansed of sin by such an unmerited death and how the crucifixion of an innocent man can cause anyone’s sins to be forgiven! This method is not only contrary to justice, but also to mercy; for it is unjust to punish an innocent person in place of the guilty one, and it is cruel to kill one’s own son in such a callous manner, and that too in vain. The real cause of the current deluge of sin, as I have just men- tioned, is lack of God-realization, and as long as the cause persists it is impossible to negate the effect. What kind of logic is it to say that although the cause—which is the lack of God-realization—is still present, the effect—sin— has been eradicated! There are thousands of instances in our experience which show that unless we have full awareness about something we can neither love it, nor fear it, nor understand its worth. Man’s motivation for do- ing certain things and avoiding others is either love or fear, and these only come from awareness. Without awareness there will be no fear and no love. Dear people, the truth compels me to say that the Chris- tians do not possess anything that can lead a person to God-realization. They have already set a seal on revela- tion, their miracles have ended with the Messiah and his