"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (I John 3:2). Think of the import of this glorious statement that not yesterday, tomorrow, or sometime in the future, or after so-called death, but right now are we the sons of God. As God's ideas, we are now perfect, free, sinless, whole, beloved of our Father-Mother God. It was the recognition and understanding of this fact by Christ Jesus which enabled him to heal the sick, the sinner, and raise the dead. He did not recognize man as ever anything but the perfect idea of God. He did not see a sick, sinful, or dead man; he only saw man as he is and always will be, perfect right now. "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy." Thus does Mary Baker Eddy on pages 476 and 477 of her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," explain the efficacy of Christ Jesus' healing method. In Christian Science the sick are healed, the sinning purified, and the dying raised to useful activity by the understanding and application of the same Principle which Jesus so effectively employed centuries ago.
As part of the correlative to the above verse from I John, Mrs. Eddy writes in "the scientific statement of being" (ibid., p. 468): "Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual." Here, again, the emphasis is on the divine fact that man is now spiritual, perfect. He is not material or constituted of flesh, blood, and bones, but he is the spiritual idea of God. He is not an idea of an anthropomorphic God, but he is the idea of God who is incorporeal divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Mind, Spirit, Soul. When we thus behold man in his true likeness and relation to God, we can only manifest and demonstrate completeness and perfection now.
The word "now" is constant in its meaning. Therefore in the spiritual universe, and for all the ideas therein, man is perfect now and for all eternity. This is also true of all the good and blessings bestowed on him by the Father. As we progressively understand and demonstrate this in our present state of consciousness, we cease to worry about tomorrow or what the future may bring. The mesmeric suggestion of possible security now, but possible insecurity with regard to future conditions of health, companionship, employment, wealth, faculties, and the like, is put to rout by the realization of the unchanging perfection of spiritual man.
