The Unity of Opposites: Transformation into an Immortal

Below is an exert from an essay, “Forward,” by Andrew Harvey, the series editor of the text, The Gospel of Thomas : Annotated and Explained written by Stevan Davies (Skylight Paths Publishing, 2009). I find this essay to be one of  the most profound piece of writing in the English language. This short essay, 12-pages long, is only matched by the immortal essayist, Jonathan Swift, of The Modest Proposal fame (written in 1729). In the cited passage, we have Harvey writing about the transformational effects of implementing the “unity of opposites” which Jesus spoke about in Saying 22:

Fourth and finally, we see in saying 22 the final cryptic sentences of the saying: “When you make an eye to replace an eye, and a hand to replace a hand, and a foot to replace a foot, and an image to replace an image, then you will enter the Kingdom.” What these lines describe is nothing less than the physical transformation that mystic union makes possible, the bringing up of original matter into the living truth of Light. The ultimate sign of Christ is the victory of the Resurrection, which is the marriage of matter and spirit to create a wholly new and eternal substance. The mystics who follow Christ into union come to know and taste the glory of the Resurrected Body in their own bodies. The powers available to the human being willing to undertake the full rigor of the Jesus-transformation are limitless. What could not be done to transform this world by a group of seekers who allow their whole beings—psychological, spiritual, and physical---to become increasingly transfigured by the living light?

This passage can be found on page xxiii of the foreword of the text cited above. Here Harvey is clear about the possible physical transformation of the “glory of the Resurrected Body”: Physical immortality. This immortality can be considered in the context of the Kingdom of God. In other words, paradise lost will be restored when humankind returns to the consciousness of God which is embodied in Jesus. There is no promises of a “pie in the sky” here; instead, the seeker of immortality must be fully committed to the Jesus Way and no other. As the collective consciousness of this dark world turns to the light, we will indeed return of the innocence of childhood: God’s Kingdom on earth will reign forever as we are one with God!