1. The centrality of open-mindedness, perhaps the last of the attributes the teacher of God acquires, is easily understood when its relation to forgiveness is recognized. ²Open-mindedness comes with lack of judgment. ³As judgment shuts the mind against God’s Teacher, so open-mindedness invites Him to come in. ⁴As condemnation judges the Son of God as evil, so open-mindedness permits him to be judged by the Voice for God on His behalf. ⁵As the projection of guilt upon him would send him to hell, so open-mindedness lets Christ’s image be extended to him. ⁶Only the open-minded can be at peace, for they alone see reason for it.

2. How do the open-minded forgive? ²They have let go all things that would prevent forgiveness. ³They have in truth abandoned the world, and let it be restored to them in newness and in joy so glorious they could never have conceived of such a change. ⁴Nothing is now as it was formerly. ⁵Nothing but sparkles now which seemed so dull and lifeless before. ⁶And above all are all things welcoming, for threat is gone. ⁷No clouds remain to hide the face of Christ. ⁸Now is the goal achieved. ⁹Forgiveness is the final goal of the curriculum. ¹⁰It paves the way for what goes far beyond all learning. ¹¹The curriculum makes no effort to exceed its legitimate goal. ¹²Forgiveness is its single aim, at which all learning ultimately converges. ¹³It is indeed enough.

3. You may have noticed that the list of attributes of God’s teachers does not include things that are the Son of God’s inheritance. ²Terms like love, sinlessness, perfection, knowledge and eternal truth do not appear in this context. ³They would be most inappropriate here. ⁴What God has given is so far beyond our curriculum that learning but disappears in its presence. ⁵Yet while its presence is obscured, the focus properly belongs on the curriculum. ⁶It is the function of God’s teachers to bring true learning to the world. ⁷Properly speaking it is unlearning that they bring, for that is “true learning” in the world. ⁸It is given to the teachers of God to bring the glad tidings of complete forgiveness to the world. ⁹Blessed indeed are they, for they are the bringers of salvation.