"For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Mrs. Eddy has placed these wonderful words of Paul as the heading to the chapter on Creation in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."
According to Webster, redemption means "release; rescue; deliverance; restoration; recovery." In his epistle to the Galatians Paul writes, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,"—the law of the carnal or mortal mind. Mrs. Eddy states in Science and Health (p. 497) that man can be saved only "through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death." In the last book in the Bible, the Revelator calls the redeemed "the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb."
The operation of the law of God, as taught and demonstrated by Moses, lifted Israel from the worship of God in matter to the worship of God in Spirit, and "illustrated the grand human capacities of being bestowed by immortal Mind" (Science and Health, p. 200). Moses began his great work by teaching Israel to be grateful to God for their blessings. To love God supremely was a duty he required of parents to teach their children, "when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." This divine statute was to be indelibly impressed upon their thought. Figuratively speaking, they were to bind this statute upon them for a sign upon their hand, and it was to be as a frontlet between their eyes.
