Today we will continue with the theme 

   of happiness. This is a key idea 

   in understanding what salvation means. 

   You still believe it asks for suffering 

   as penance for your "sins." This is not so. 

   Yet you must think it so while you believe 

   that sin is real, and that God's Son can sin.| 

   If sin is real then punishment is just, 

   and cannot be escaped. Salvation thus 

   cannot be purchased but through suffering.

   If sin is real then happiness must be 

   illusion, for they cannot both be true. 

   The sinful warrant only death and pain, 

   and it is this they ask for, for they know 

   it waits for them and it will seek them out 

   and find them somewhere, sometime, in some form 

   which evens the account they owe to God. 

   They would escape Him in their fear. And yet 

   He will pursue, and they can not escape.|

   If sin is real salvation must be pain. 

   Pain is the cost of sin, and suffering 

   can never be escaped if sin is real. 

   Salvation must be feared, for it will kill, 

   but slowly, taking everything away 

   before it grants the welcome boon of death. 

   To victims who are little more than bones 

   before salvation is appeased. Its wrath 

   is boundless, merciless, but wholly just.|

   Who would seek out such savage punishment? 

   Who would not flee salvation, and attempt 

   in every way he can to drown the Voice 

   Which offers it to him? Why would he try 

   to listen, and accept Its offering? 

   If sin is real Its offering is death, 

   and meted out in cruel form to match 

   the vicious wishes in which sin is born. 

   If sin is real salvation has become 

   your bitter enemy, the curse of God 

   upon you who have crucified His Son.|

   You need the practice periods today. 

   The exercises teach sin is not real, 

   and all that you believe must come from sin 

   will never happen, for it has no cause. 

   Accept atonement with an open mind 

   which cherishes no lingering belief 

   that you have made a devil of God's Son.

   There is no sin. We practice with this thought 

   as often as we can today, because 

   it is the basis for today's idea.| 

   God's Will for you is perfect happiness 

   because there is no sin, and suffering 

   is causeless. Joy is just, and pain is but 

   the sign you have misunderstood yourself.

   Fear not the Will of God. But turn to It 

   in confidence that It will set you free 

   from all the consequences sin has wrought 

   in feverish imaginations. Say:

    "God's Will for me is perfect happiness. 

     There is no sin; it has no consequence."

   So should you start your practice periods, 

   and then attempt again to find the joy 

   these thoughts will introduce into your mind.| 

   Give these five minutes gladly, to remove 

   the heavy load you laid upon yourself 

   in the insane belief that sin is real.

   Today escape from madness. You are set 

   on freedom's road, and now today's idea 

   brings wings to speed you on, and hope to go 

   still faster to the waiting goal of peace. 

   There is no sin. Remember this today, 

   and tell yourself as often as you can:

    "God's Will for me is perfect happiness. 

     This is the truth because there is no sin."

Quotes in this article are from Foundation for Inner Peace edition; To locate the same quotes in the 'Original Edition', use this link:  http://www.jcim.net/acim_us/Acim.php    
Sarah's Commentary:

Jesus explains to us in this lesson that if sin were indeed real, then punishment would be called for and our salvation would require that we suffer for what we have done. I watched an Easter parade somewhere in South America where they were walking without shirts on and beating each other on the back, drawing blood as part of their penance, believing that by this act of Atonement, they were demonstrating their love for Jesus and their willingness to suffer on behalf of what they believe he went through.  Yet here Jesus says "who would seek out such savage punishment?" (4.1) Would we want to ever turn to a God who smiled approvingly on such self sacrifice? Why do we insist on accepting self-flagellation that we undertake when we crucify ourselves? No we don't draw blood in physically beating on ourselves, but we do believe that we must atone for what we have done wrong. We judge ourselves harshly for our perceived 'sins' and we crucify ourselves and others. And the ego seems to smile approvingly on such self- punishment.

It is a belief that we hold that Atonement can only come by satisfying God's need for vengeance. But this is not the God we learn about in this course. This is the god of the ego. When we listen to the voice of the ego it tells us that we deserve punishment for what we have done in leaving God and stealing His treasure just like the Prodigal Son was said to have done. We have established our own individuality on God's demise. Thus we believe that Oneness has been destroyed at God's expense. The ego has convinced us that we have sinned and now we are guilty and all who walk this world, believe this. Sin and guilt always call for punishment. And thus through punishment we think we are atoning for sin and thus making it all good with God. Our salvation from this perspective must be purchased. We have to pay a dear price in suffering, pain and ultimately death. "The sinful warrant only death and pain, and it is this they ask for.   For they know it waits for them, and it will seek them out and find them somewhere, sometime, in some form that evens the account they owe to God." (2.4-5)

To see this clearly we need to look at our lives. Can you see how our lives are centered on so many experiences of pain and suffering including as much avoidance of pain and suffering as possible? That is the case for all of us. It is our fear of God's punishment that made up the world. We made up this world and the self that we identify with in order to hide from God and avoid His punishment. Thus the world of separation is where we hide from His love because we fear that in the experience of His love we will be annihilated. Now we punish ourselves, seeing ourselves as limited and lacking instead, hoping that in the end we will have atoned for our sin. Jesus says that God does not want this for us. He wants us to release our fears and our self attacks by looking at them with him and recognizing that we have been mistaken and done nothing to deserve punishment.

It is important to understand the metaphysics of the course because otherwise our ego insanity will never get exposed. Without this teaching, our lives here as bodies and personalities, seemingly living in the world,  appear to be very real and solid to us.  We do our best to live with the pain and suffering and celebrate our periods of respite. In the end we hope that we have been good enough and that God will punish all those bad people out there but not us, since we have adequately punished ourselves.  We make efforts to be as good as we can be, atoning all the time for our mistakes. Regardless of how much we try, we can't evade the end, which is death. So the ego story that we will be safe in the body and in the world is entirely bogus. Why would we not run from God if death is our salvation and the assumed bringer of peace at last? How could we love a God who wills our death, especially if it is a redeeming death full of pain and suffering? Isn't that what we are afraid of? Aren't we afraid that we have to suffer to atone for what we have done wrong? We are called to look at this part of ourselves that believes in the value of suffering.

"If sin is real, salvation must be pain." (3.1) Jesus says that "it is essential that error be not confused with sin, and it is this distinction that makes salvation possible. For error can be corrected, and the wrong made right. But sin, were it possible, would be irreversible. Sin calls for punishment as error for correction, and the belief that punishment is correction is clearly insane."  (T.19.II.1.6) Sin says that I have done something terrible, and now God is justified in punishing me, so I can make up to Him by my suffering.

If you are wondering if this is true for you, some of the ways that it is expressed in our daily lives is the feeling that this is too good to last, or if we are too happy, we become afraid that the  other shoe will drop.  My friend, Chuck Spezzano, who developed "Psychology of Vision" based on the course, used to say in his sessions "how good can you stand it?" Often we don't allow the good into our lives. We sabotage ourselves. We stop ourselves from feeling "too happy."  Or we may feel guilty if we are happy and someone in our lives is suffering. We feel obligated to join them in their misery and we call this empathy.

True empathy does not mean joining with someone in their suffering. To do so is the ego's version of empathy. The Holy Spirit would teach us that suffering is not understandable and asks us not to try to join in pain. We don't lighten it by sharing the delusion of suffering. "The ego always empathizes to weaken and to weaken is always to attack."  To empathize from a place of strength is to "merely sit quietly by and let the Holy Spirit relate through you." (T.16.I.2.7) In other words we really don't know how to help or heal anyone. The only healer is the Holy Spirit. When we get out of the way, He shines through us and we will always be doing the loving thing under His guidance and not our own. When we see someone suffer, we are seeing wrongly. We are then called to heal our own misperception of who they are as a body. We are called to look beyond appearances.

We think that happiness cannot be a constant state. We believe in suffering. When I worked in juvenile detention I saw young people mutilate their bodies. They would tell me that pain was the only thing that made them feel like they were alive. They were so cut off from any kind of joy so they were actively choosing pain in order to feel something...anything. And in many ways we do the same thing. We mess it up if it gets too good because we get scared. And we all have some form of this self inflicted pain because we believe we deserve punishment. And death is just further proof of God's vengeance on us for what we have done. "An angry father pursues his guilty son. Kill or be killed, for here alone is choice. Beyond this there is none for what was done cannot be done without. The stain of blood can never be removed and anyone who bears this stain on him must meet with death." (M.17.7)

But aren't we afraid if there is no sin that "people will get away with murder?"  We are afraid that without guilt people will do whatever they want with no consequences. There will be no control. We have a strong investment in sin and punishment. There is no question that within the illusion, controls are necessary. There are consequences for breaking the law. But this course is not about behavior. It is about healing our mistaken notions of God. It is to heal our fear of God, which is the final obstacle to peace. Jesus assures us constantly that God is only love. He is our refuge. Why would we be attracted to salvation if it required pain and suffering from us? Jesus keeps reminding us that "God's will for me is perfect happiness."  He does not want pain for us. We will know that that is the case when we accept our innocence. It has always been there. We have not changed ourselves with our ideas of sin. "Accept Atonement with an open mind, which cherishes no lingering belief that you have made a devil of God's Son." (5.3) Let go of the idea of sin and guilt, and recognize that mistakes can all be corrected. All of our misperceptions of who we are are mistaken notions that we can now bring to the truth.

We are being asked today to look at how much we cherish sin in ourselves and others. Whether we blame ourselves or others it is the same because if we blame our brothers it is just our self blame, our guilt, projected out. Forgiveness corrects our belief that sickness and suffering are the answer to buying our innocence. Jesus clearly wants us to question this deeply held belief. Today we recognize that as we forgive others, it is our road back to forgiveness of God. We recognize that seeking happiness at the expense of our brother only brings more guilt. Healing requires that we see our interests as the same as our brothers'.  We share the same need for healing our minds. When we see the sameness, it is a reflection of the oneness of Heaven.

Today in our meditation practice we go deep into the mind where we connect with the joy and happiness that are constant in us. The ego does not need to be punished and attacked in order to subdue it. Simply be willing to look at it. To resist it just strengthens the ego and makes it real.   But when we connect to joy and peace the ego has no defense against it. And we do that by looking at our thoughts and bringing our false beliefs to the light of truth.

Knowing that God only wants happiness for me strengthens my willingness to continue on this path. I find that my determination grows each time I apply this practice of forgiveness. When we have hurt or attacked someone, we don't have to go through a long period of remorse. Yes, we may deeply regret our actions but instead of crucifying ourselves, we can recognize our mistake and bring our misperceptions to the Holy Spirit. That is what God wills for us. That is the choice that we can make. "There is no sin; it has no consequence." (6.7) Jesus did not die for our sins. He only demonstrated that he could not die and neither can we.

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