Jesus said (John 8:58), "Before Abraham was, I am;" and (Matt. 28:20), "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Yet the Bible records the birth of Jesus many centuries after Abraham's time and his disappearance from human view in what is known as the ascension nearly two thousand years ago. It is obvious, then, that in these statements Jesus could not have been referring to his corporeal selfhood. Christian Science reveals that he was, rather, speaking of the impersonal, eternal Christ, Truth, the divine idea of God. which ever has existed and ever will exist, for the Christ dwells forever with God. Jesus was the human herald of the Christ. He taught and demonstrated the true idea of man as spiritual, the reflection of God.
This Christ-idea reveals the spiritual individuality, identity, or selfhood of man, the image and likeness of God. Through it mankind become acquainted with man's eternal unity and sonship with God, and his God-given spiritual dominion over error or evil. The Christ-idea is unseen, unknown, and unknowable to the mortal or physical senses. It can be discerned, comprehended, and demonstrated only through purified, spiritualized consciousness, through the attainment of that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus."
An earnest study of the Scriptures enables us to trace the progressive appearing through the centuries of the Christ-idea and of the true nature and character of God. the divine Principle of this idea, to human consciousness. Abraham obeyed the voice of God, which told him to leave his home and kindred in search of "a city which hath foundations." Did his experiences not teach him that spiritual understanding is the only foundation upon which true consciousness can be built; that the "builder and maker" of this city is indeed God? To Moses at the burning bush, God was revealed as the I AM THAT I AM, or divine Principle, the one infinite intelligence or Mind governing all. Proportionately as God was understood and obeyed, were the children of Israel freed not only from physical bondage and slavery to Pharaoh, but from self-imposed mental bondage to fear, ignorance, superstition, sin, disease, and death.
