IN the second chapter of Luke is a meaningful account of great beauty. Here we read that Simeon, a devout man, recognized the infant Jesus as the Messiah when Mary presented him in the temple according to the custom of Jewish law. Taking the child in his arms, the aged Simeon blessed God and prophesied full salvation for all people, for he had seen "a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." In that tender prophecy is the acknowledgment of Christ's universal splendor.
Christian Science reveals Christ as the spiritual idea of God, the expression of infinite divine Mind. Because the spiritual idea appeared to mankind as the human Jesus, Christ is often used as a synonym for Jesus. But Christian Science explains it as the Master's title and the term "Christ Jesus" as the indication of his Messiahship.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, explains Christ as having other meanings. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1901 she says (p. 8), "The Christ was Jesus' spiritual selfhood; therefore Christ existed prior to Jesus, who said, 'Before Abraham was, I am.'" When Christ Jesus spoke these words, he was identifying his true selfhood as the Son of God—the incorporeal, immortal offspring of the Father—and not as the material personality born of Mary. Christ, the spiritual man, God's Son, embodies the sinless nature and power of divinity and includes by reflection the universe of Spirit.
