Centuries ago John the Baptist was sent by God to bear witness to the coming of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, and to prepare the thought of the people to receive him. As John was baptizing beyond Jordan, he saw Jesus coming toward him and said (John 1:29), "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." And St. John the Revelator also spoke of Jesus as the Lamb of God. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy defines "Lamb of God" as follows (p. 590): "The spiritual idea of Love; self-immolation; innocence and purity; sacrifice."
Habakkuk writes of God (1:13), "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." Is it not reasonable then to assume that man made in the divine likeness, the image of Spirit, as the Bible declares, can be conscious only of innocence and purity? But the human senses, contrariwise, testify to a mortal man, born of the flesh, who is accused of accumulating evil qualities and conditions— fear, hate, selfishness, lust, dishonesty, impurity, disease, death. The accusation is without foundation, for it is not conceivable that God, who knows no evil, could create an image so unlike Himself.
Our Leader says in Science and Health (p. 356): "God is as incapable of producing sin, sickness, and death as He is of experiencing these errors. How then is it possible for Him to create man subject to this triad of errors,—man who is made in the divine likeness?" Then we must conclude that the material sense is erroneous because it is opposed to spiritual sense. It must therefore be put off, and human thought must be regenerated through the activity of the Christ, Truth. Material sense is the guilty one, the accused and the accuser.
