In the Bible we read (Gen. 1:27), "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." It is evident, then, that man is the offspring of Spirit and not a creation of matter. This man of God's creating is our true selfhood, and it is impossible to recognize him through the material senses.
Christian Science teaches that man's individuality is the expression of God; that it does not include error of any description, and therefore is free from the claims of sickness and sin. Students of Christian Science are perceiving ever more clearly the truth of the Apostle John's statement (I John 3:2), "Beloved, now are we the sons of God," which means that at this instant, and not at some future date, man is God's son. The understanding of man's relationship to God is most important, for it is the basis of all harmony, health, holiness, and right activity. Spiritual man is the reflection of God, the only Mind, and expresses His nature and attributes.
Increasing numbers of people are finding that the material aspect of creation is a myth and that belief in it leads to frustration, inharmony, and the distressing questionings and fears of the so-called carnal mind which are so prevalent today. In their hour of need they have turned unreservedly to Christian Science, which reveals God's eternal law of good. Through sincerely seeking the truth of God and His government, they have gained an understanding of man's oneness, or unity, with his Father-Mother, God. Thus they have found that good alone is real and substantial and is the heritage of the man of God's creating.
Spiritual man, the individualized idea of Mind, God, is dependent upon Mind alone for support and sustenance. God, Principle, is responsible for him, and therefore he is subject to spiritual law only. Because he is the everlasting expression of God, perfection is always his.
We must be humble enough to acknowledge that because divine Mind, God, is the originator of all right activity and all the good we express is evidence of Mind manifesting itself in our individuality, the carnal mind's claims are never true. The five physical senses cannot report man's progress or lack of it. The identification of our true selfhood as God's expression enables us to claim our divine sonship, that divine relationship which has, in reality, always existed between Mind and its idea, man. As our consciousness is permeated with the great truth of man's inseparability from God, divine Love, the erroneous beliefs of the carnal mind will disappear and the Christ-idea, our true selfhood, will be increasingly manifested.
In "Miscellaneous Writings" our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, says (p. 182), "Through divine Science man gains the power to become the son of God, to recognize his perfect and eternal estate." This power to recognize our "perfect and eternal estate" as God's son comes as we let go of a personal sense of selfhood and refuse to accept the carnal mind's claim of mortal relationships. God is the one universal Father-Mother.
As the truth is seen that the only family consists of God and His eternal family of ideas and that God governs all, fear regarding human relationships will cease. Christ Jesus knew God as the creator of all, as forever expressing Himself through man. His understanding of Father included the great truth that Mind is evidenced by its idea and that it can be expressed in no other way. On one memorable occasion, when Christ Jesus was told by the multitude which sat about him that his mother and his brothers were seeking him, he asked (Mark 3:33), "Who is my mother, or my brethren?" Then, looking round at the multitude, he said: "Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother."
Jesus knew that they who do the will of God are demonstrating their divine relationship to Him. The true selfhood of all men is spiritual, and expresses God. Through the larger conception of true family one is able to see this. Mrs. Eddy states in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 295): "God creates and governs the universe, including man. The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them." Because man, Mind's individual spiritual idea, knows all of God's ideas, he therefore possesses the true understanding of his brother man. The identity of each idea is known by the Father and is forever distinctive and necessary for the complete expression of Mind.
To the extent that the Christian Scientist identifies the true selfhood of himself and that of all others as the perfect, eternal, spiritual idea of God, Mind, he identifies himself as a son of God and claims his divine relationship. Everyone can awaken from the dream of material existence by acknowledging his real selfhood to be God's everlasting expression. Man is not in matter; he lives, moves, and has his being in God, Spirit. This knowledge sets us free to know the real relationship of one idea to another. It enables us to understand the spiritual nature of God's family and man's oneness with his Father-Mother. As the glorious, unalterable nature of the true selfhood of all men is realized, we perceive that the eternal Father-Mother God sustains and maintains His children as one united, inseparable, harmonious family.
It is well to remember that the acknowledgment of our true relationship does not mean that we are to be lax in fulfilling the obligations of human relationship. Christian Science teaches the necessity of loving our neighbor as ourselves in accordance with the teachings of the Master. As our thoughts about relationship become spiritualized, we shall give out that love in the home and elsewhere and do those kindnesses which bring true harmony. Indeed, the correct understanding of the spiritual relationship which exists between God and man helps us to fulfill our human duties and to express in daily living some measure of the tenderness and unselfishness which are the expression of divine Love, the Father-Mother God.
We must lift our thoughts higher than materiality with its limitations, fears, and discords and accept the truth that man images forth the beauty and affluence of Soul. Then, through spiritual sense, we shall perceive our divine sonship. Mrs. Eddy gives us this statement of loving assurance in Science and Health (p. 316): "The real man being linked by Science to his Maker, mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to God, and to recognize the divine sonship."
