Remember that sense consciousness is our awareness of life that is gained through the channels of the five senses. The senses are an important part of our physical being. They provide necessary information about the physical world and our relauon to it in time and space. The sensation of pain when we grab a hot pot on the stove is an important signal. In a certain way the pain is our friend; it tells us that something is wrong, which is pain’s only purpose. Our reaction to the pain causes us to remove our hands from the source of the burning heat. Vision and hearing can provide information which causes us to get out of the path of moving vehicles and objects. Observation of the outer world provides a great amount of information, but it does not reveal the meaning of life or the nature of reality. When we accept outer appearances as absolute reality, we establish awareness or consciousness based on inaccurate information and construct belief systems based on false concepts, illusion and superstition.

Jesus said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up . . . (John 3:14). This is an allusion to the story of the Israelites who cursed God as they wandered in the wilderness. Fiery serpents were sent among them which bit many people who then died as a result. After Moses prayed, the Lord told him to make a bronze serpent, set it upon a pole and everyone who would see it would live. The story is a reminder of the problems which arise when we accept the appearances of lack and limitation in our world, just as the Israelites believed that they had been brought into a land without food or water to die. To get beyond the physical experience requires a different perspecUve. Moses represents our developing spiritual awareness which begins to lead us out of limited human consciousness. The serpent in the East is a symbol of wisdom-the fiery serpents on the ground representing human wisdom and the bronze serpent on the pole higher, spiritual wisdom. In order to perceive spiritual wisdom, we need to raise our vision from sight to insight.

When Jesus alluded to this story, he used the expression “Son of man” or breh d'nasha in his language. This expression has confused many through the centuries and led to some odd interpretations of the meaning. However, in the common speech of Jesus’ people this was a well-known idiom for “human being.” Jesus’ message is that every human being must raise his consciousness from sense to spiritual. We choose how and when we accomplish this task but the eventual accomplishment is assured. We must use the power of the mind to perceive spiritual Truth no matter what our senses report, use and deepen our spiritual understanding and apply spiritual Principle in our lives.

The Unity Correspondence Course material reminds us:

The place of man’s overcoming is in his own individual consciousness, “the wilderness of his own mind,” the soul, the conscious, thinking phase of mind, and the subconscious, feeling phase of mind... Overcoming is a coming up and over into Christ consciousness, up and over all false beliefs, negative thoughts, feelings, concepts, notions, impulses, emotions, words, actions, reactions, and finally over conditions, situations, circumstances, experiences, and things.
—Series 2, Lesson 5, Annotation 19.

The “unpardonable sin” is resistance to the Spirit, consciousness of good and evil. This has reference to man’s opposition to the action of the Holy Spirit, the movement of God in and through man’s consciousness, resistance to good. As long as man is not willing to accept the leading of Spirit, as long as he refuses to accept the idea that he is a son of God, that he is the image of God, the Christ, he must suffer and atone for his transgressions. As long as man recognizes and gives power to evil, he will continue in an unforgiven state in his own consciousness and have to meet the evil which he invokes. Resistance is the only thing that can keep man from being free, and the fault is his own. No sin need remain unpardoned because of the love of God for man. His son, to whom He has given His Spirit, His mind. His forgiving love. His saving grace, another name for love. God is always ready and willing to forgive man his mistakes. It is only when man is not ready or willing to receive forgiveness from God that his sin remains unpardoned, actually only by himself, because God (Love) has already forgiven the sinner! We have the assurance of Jesus Christ, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” -Matthew 6:14.
—Series 2, Lesson 1, Annotation 18.

Overcoming is a change of mind from error to Truth. The way of overcoming is first to place one's self by faith in the realisation of Sonship, and second, to demonstrate it in every thought and act.
—Charles Fillmore, Atom-Smashing Power of Mind, page 38.