What real person Christ Jesus was. Although the Bible tells us little of Jesus' human personality, still the impression he has left on mankind is without equal. There is something about the Master—his spiritual authority, his holy capacity for love—that comes shining down the centuries in a way which indicates a specific identity that is his very own.
When we think of the billions of people who have lived since Jesus' time, we realize what an extraordinary person Jesus must have been. Of course, there have been other people whose names still linger with us—people whose names are linked with great ideas, courageous deeds. And there have been people whose names still bring a shudder of revulsion. But Jesus was different. Not only was Jesus totally devoid of wickedness but he was also infinitely more than a very good man. Jesus embodied Christ, the Messiah or Son of God. The Christ was Jesus' true, God-given identity, and his God-established purpose was to bear witness to the Christ, the ideal man, for humanity's sake.
The fact that Christ reveals our true selfhood does not, however, take away from Jesus' unique place in history. As Mrs. Eddy says: "There is but one Jesus Christ on record. Christ is incorporeal. Neither the you nor the I in the flesh can be or is Christ."The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 260. How important it is to understand the incorporeality of Christ, for not only Jesus' true identity but also our own genuine identity proceeds from God, incorporeal Spirit. The very reason Jesus' individuality remains so real to us today is that he did embody the eternal substance of the Christ. And how conscious Jesus was that his identity and purpose came directly from God. He often spoke of being "sent" to do God's work as, for example, in the Gospel of John, where he says, "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me."John 6:38.
