One of the erroneous beliefs of presentday theology is that Jesus atoned for the sins of the world to appease the wrath of God and that through this one act of atonement all men are saved. Many sects emphasize that the shedding of the blood on the cross by Jesus is the all-important and sufficient fact of atonement. Christian Science teaches that this fallacious doctrine is man made, for Jesus demonstrated throughout his entire career that atonement and salvation are individual and can come only through spiritualization of thought.
To acknowledge the fact of one infinite God, Spirit, and His perfect idea, spiritual man, is to nullify any necessity for the shedding of blood as a means of salvation. Man, God's idea, is complete and perfect, forever at one with, or inseparable from, Spirit and therefore never needs to be saved. It is human consciousness which needs to be redeemed, and Jesus showed the way. The significance of Jesus' shedding of blood is sacrifice. Sacrifice, however, does not mean giving up one's true selfhood, or individuality. It means giving up the material, mortal, undesirable sense of selfhood, whereby one finds his spiritual individuality and identity as the son of God.
In his prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, Jesus said, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." The need of each individual is to know God as Spirit and his true selfhood as the divine idea of Spirit. This is the process of the new birth whereby, step by step, the individual human consciousness lays off the old man, the false mortal concept, and puts on the new man, the true concept, until it awakes in God's likeness. This is the way of salvation, the atonement, or at-one-ment, to be demonstrated by each individual. We cannot work out the salvation of our relatives, of friends, or of others. Our individual demonstration of this way of salvation, however, can be a radiant example to others, showing them that they too can find freedom from earth's woes.
