Throughout the centuries Christians in general have been content to interpret the words of John, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil," as applicable alone to Christ Jesus. It has been, apparently, quite forgotten that the Nazarene taught that his followers were likewise the "sons of God." No phase of his teaching did Jesus emphasize more than the fact of man's sonship with God. "Your Father," "Our Father," were words frequently on his lips; and he undertook to impress upon all his hearers that God is the Father of all, the universal cause and creator of a perfect universe. Moreover, he demonstrated the possibilities of the recognition of that sonship in a manner that has held the attention of mankind ever since, and that has engendered among men an intense desire to emulate him in all his ways.
Under the marginal heading, "Jesus as mediator," Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 316), "The real man being linked by Science to his Maker, mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to God, and to recognize the divine sonship." In these unmistakable words our Leader has told us how we may find our true relationship with God, and establish the fact of man's sonship with Him. Who can doubt the importance of recognizing this relationship? And who can fail to appreciate both its possibilities and its obligations? To be the son of God! Untold millions, looking with longing eyes upon the words and works of the Master, have been awed by their majesty, unaware, apparently, that a due recognition of man's true relation with the mighty God makes possible the repetition by them of these very works.
Paul clearly recognized man's son-ship with God and was sustained thereby through extreme hardships, enduring trials that might have overcome one less aware of God as his strength and constant support. "We are the children of God," he wrote to the Christians in Rome: "and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." If "joint-heirs with Christ," then are we not capable of doing the very works which Jesus did? Great is man's blessedness because of his divine origin; great also is the demand to work the works of the Father. One may well inquire, What is demanded of me, when recognizing man as the son of God? The great Exemplar answered that pertinent question long ago; and his example before men today, as twenty centuries ago, presents the necessity to perform the same works, to follow in his footsteps, in all respects to do likewise.
Christ Jesus left a record of his three years' ministry filled with works of love, of compassion, and of power in demonstration of the presence and availability of God to destroy the works of the devil,—sin, sickness, and death,—in short, every phase and form of discord to which men have conceived themselves to be subject. And we are to do likewise. Christ Jesus is no Exemplar to those unwilling to follow his precedent. Christian Scientists are enlisted to follow his example in letter and spirit. Being witnesses of the beneficence of the Christ-healing, they are imbued with the desire to gain an understanding which will enable them to do likewise. Therefore they are constantly turning away from the evidences of the personal senses, from their indulgence and gratification, toward the light of spiritual attainment. Thus are they overcoming the claims of evil, expressed as sin and disease, as discordant and unhappy existence, and are finding in their place the kingdom of heaven to be a present fact and possibility, attainable here and now.
This is somewhat of the result of recognizing man's sonship with God. That we have not already demonstrated all that Jesus did should be no cause for discouragement. Because of the conditions of his birth he possessed a degree of spirituality which enabled him to meet and master the most virulent forms of error; and he found the way out for all humanity. At the beginning of his career he recognized the fatherhood of God; and he has showed the way for all to enter into the same state of spiritual blessedness which he himself possessed and demonstrated.
In The Christian Science Journal for April, 1889, in an article entitled "Christian Science and its Revelator," occurs this illuminating sentence: "Christian Science proves that equality with Jesus is the spiritual estate that he showed us the way to enter into." Then to be "joint-heirs with Christ" means to partake of the same spiritual quality, to share with him the divine power incident to the state of sonship, to assume the privileges, and to share the obligations and rewards, of that exalted condition. Does not the recognition of man's equality with the spiritual Jesus entail the same obligation to destroy evil that fell upon him? How wonderful the opportunity! What possibilities and what responsibilities are revealed to the thoughtful observer of humanity's distresses in the knowledge that he has available the same means whereby Jesus destroyed the misery and sufferings of mankind! This understanding of a necessity arouses a sense of obligation to do one's part as the beneficiary of the healing Christ, to bring the same blessedness to others.
In the gospel of John we read how the resurrected Jesus, appearing to the faithful Mary, instructed her to go to his brethren and say, "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." He had no doubt as to man's relation to God. In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy has clearly set forth what this divine sonship is, and how it comes to each individual who learns to know God through the revelation of divine Science. In this article, on page 182, she says, "When the Word is made flesh,—that is, rendered practical,—this eternal Truth will be understood; and sickness, sin, and death will yield to it, even as they did more than eighteen centuries ago." Let us ask ourselves: Are we fulfilling the prophecies of our dear Leader in destroying the manifestations of evil, of discord of every type, in our own lives and those of others? Nothing less than this fulfills our duty to God, to Christ Jesus, and to the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. In no other way can we prove our sonship with God.
