Christ Jesus recognized and demonstrated in his life the nature of the spiritual, perfect man. He constantly identified himself with God, good. He demanded perfection of his followers also, and said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
Paul was a practical follower of Christ Jesus. He healed sin, disease, lack, and death. Through his understanding of Truth he was delivered from bondage and imprisonment. He said, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 242) Mary Baker Eddy writes, "In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error,—self-will, self-justification, and self-love, —which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death." Mere human planning, outlining, determining, conceding to the demands of mortal mind, clinging to the belief of the reality of pain or pleasure in matter—these are what war against spirituality.
Human laws are generally designed to improve human conditions, but since they are based on the belief of a material selfhood, they involve restriction and limitation. Totalitarian tyranny is one of the basest perversions of human law. It is the essence of the law of sin and death, claiming despotic control over mankind. This law has many ramifications, including medical theories and diagnoses, heredity, hypnotism, various phases of propaganda and advertisement, chance and its concomitants of gambling, lottery, and luck. Mortal mind contends that coincidence may determine life or death on the highway, the battlefield, the ocean, in the air, and even in our homes. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy uses the word "coincidence" only in its relation to spiritual law. It is evident that she rejects the association of this word with accident or chance, just as she rejects all supposition of material law. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 257) she says: "The distinction between that which is and that which is not law, must be made by Mind and as Mind. Law is either a moral or an immoral force. The law of God is the law of Spirit, a moral and spiritual force of immortal and divine Mind. The so-called law of matter is an immoral force of erring mortal mind, alias the minds of mortals."
