Christ Jesus said, "I and my Father are one." Christian Science reveals this oneness of God and man to consist in the fact that man is God's expression, hence is inseparable from Him. Man, then, is perfect, even as God, whom he expresses, is perfect. This is the truth regarding man, the truth to which Jesus referred when he said "to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." But from what does man need to be made free, when he is forever manifesting perfection? While the real man of God's creation is free, mankind is in bondage to the beliefs of materiality; and it is from this bondage that men need to be set free. The neophyte then may ask if knowing the truth of the real man's perfection is all that is required to dispel the belief of life in matter, with its attendant sins and ills.
The teachings of Christ Jesus and Christian Science reveal that to be redeemed from mortality one must not only know the truth of the real man's perfection, but must strive to manifest that perfection by overcoming what claims to be a sinning, mortal selfhood. Is this not a logical and reasonable demand? Would it not be as inconsistent to expect to experience the complete perfection of the real man merely by declaring man to be perfect while still manifesting discord and evil, as it would to declare oneself to be an expert musician without having made the effort to become such by practicing music correctly? Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 253, 254), "The divine demand, 'Be ye therefore perfect,' is scientific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are indispensable;" and she adds: "The human self must be evangelized. This task God demands us to accept lovingly to-day, and to abandon so fast as practical the material, and to work out the spiritual which determines the outward and actual." She also makes known the process of this evangelization when she says (ibid., p. 4), "The longing to be better and holier, expressed in daily watchfulness and in striving to assimilate more of the divine character, will mould and fashion us anew, until we awake in His likeness."
The student of Christian Science soon learns that while he may earnestly desire to know and manifest the perfection of real being, he finds it not so easy to cease believing in and manifesting the errors of a mortal selfhood; yet this must be done if he is to prove his true being as God's likeness. Our Leader emphasizes this fact in her statement (ibid., pp. 322, 323): "It is easier to desire Truth than to rid one's self of error. Mortals may seek the understanding of Christian Science, but they will not be able to glean from Christian Science the facts of being without striving for them. This strife consists in the endeavor to forsake error of every kind and to possess no other consciousness but good."
