"Truth for authority, not authority for truth." These thought-provoking words appear on an autographed photograph of a state appellate court judge. They arrested the attention of a student of Christian Science one day while he was visiting in a law office. These words indicate that Truth always gives one authority to act with assurance, but Truth needs no authority to act, for it is supreme.
Realizing that God, Truth, is the basis of all law, the student perceived that if truth for authority is requisite in the practice of legal science and in the enforcement of the law of the land, in like manner, authority derived from Truth is equally essential in the practice of Christian Science and in the demonstrating of the law of God in human affairs.
In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy declares (p. 26), "Divine Truth, Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness, and death." Christ Jesus perceived man's indestructible relationship to God. He knew that man coexists with God and that he expresses God's qualities and is governed solely by His law. The Master fully comprehended the allness of God, good, and the nothingness of evil. This knowledge, or spiritual understanding, of the essential nature of the triune Principle—Life, Truth, and Love—gave Jesus the truth for demonstrating authority over evil. He said (John 8:31, 32), "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." We must persist in the cultivation of true knowledge until it becomes authority and power to us.
