Once, as related in the ninth chapter of Matthew, a case of palsy was brought to Christ Jesus. Seeing the faith of those who brought the man, he tenderly said to the suffering one, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee," and the man was healed. As one ponders this account the questions may arise: "Could such a simple statement alone heal disease? What was it that liberated this man?"
Jesus well knew that wrong concepts and materialistic conclusions or deductions concerning God and His creation, whether due to ignorance or false education, were evidence of sinful mortal sense, which needed correction. All his works and his teachings were designed to dissolve the commonly accepted materialistic thought of God and to reveal the inherent and present spiritual relationship between God and man.
Since Jesus understood so well that God is eternal Life, he knew that man's life is never in bondage to mortality, to matter, to sinful false beliefs. He beheld man immortal, pure and perfect as his Maker. Then, does it not seem reasonable and natural that when the Master spoke he was lovingly placing the one addressed in his rightful estate as truly the son of God, not merely saluting him respectfully, as demanded by courtesy or convention? Was he not saying in effect: "In thy real selfhood thou art the son of God. Thou art not mortal, sinful, sickly, but spiritual, pure, and whole, like thy creator. Rejoice in this truth. Arise in the spiritual consciousness of thy being." Would not any hopeful one quicken and respond to such a sense of truth and love?
