Paul had a clear perception of the result of understanding the Christ. He said (Phil. 4:13), "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Paul placed no limitations on the power of the Christ, and he also realized that it was not human will nor intellectual proficiency but the spirit of Truth and Love which made his healing and preaching ministry a success. We read in the book of Acts that Philip preached Christ and that the people who listened were healed. Whoever really understands the Christ, heals. It is the Christ, not material doctrines or theories, which is the Saviour from sin, sickness, and death.
The Christ makes practical in human experience the spiritual facts of existence. If Jesus' teachings had lacked this practical element, few would have paid any attention to them, and his words would have been lost in the dust of the centuries. Instead, his words have withstood all the attacks of evil and remain available for all who will accept them.
The Christ is God's perfect idea, revealing the ideal man of His creating. It is the full reflection of Truth and Love which comes to mankind to establish the reign of harmony in human consciousness by destroying discord-producing mortal beliefs. Christ reveals Love as God; it brings to light the essence of His creation and the substance of His law. Christ illustrates that man is inseparable from God and is governed by Him.
Jesus proved the Christ to be ever present. In every situation he scientifically accepted only the presence of God's spiritual, perfect man in place of the mortal opposite. The Master's true witnessing of the Christ, Truth, silenced material sense and thus purified the sinner and healed the maimed, the blind, the sick, and the dumb. His refusal to accept the opposite of Christ as real protected him from the antagonism and hatred of mortal mind expressed by the Pharisees. Jesus demonstrated the Christ as the only way to permanent health, holiness, and happiness. Everyone must, either here or hereafter, accept this way of Truth and Love.
How can we, in our state of human existence, follow the Master? First, of course, we must become acquainted with Christ, Truth. A thorough search of the Scriptures and of the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, combined with a willingness to give up false beliefs, will open the door to the unfoldment of Christ to human consciousness.
As we progress in our understanding of the truth and begin to lose sight of mortal selfhood and sin, we find the spiritual identity of each of us in the Christ. The Christ expresses the fullness of God's nature. We must recognize that our purpose, as well as the only real reason for our existence, is to express God's nature. We must prove that the Christ is present in consciousness by living it.
The only way to gain the Christ-consciousness is through spiritualization of thought. In the Beatitudes, Jesus briefly outlined some of the qualities of thought requisite for this attainment. We must forsake our belief in material nature, in false systems, laws, and theories, and strive to be pure, humble, merciful, and obedient. Doing this, we shall demonstrate the Godlike man, which Jesus revealed. If we would succeed, we must allow the influence of the Christ to control every phase of our thinking and acting.
Referring to the spiritual idea which is leavening human thought, Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 166): "This spiritual idea, or Christ, entered into the minutiae of the life of the personal Jesus. It made him an honest man, a good carpenter, and a good man, before it could make him the glorified." Is there, then, a person today exempt from entertaining the Christ? We too must allow the Christ to make us honest, good people and good workers at our daily tasks, in order to experience God's glory manifested in perfect health and happy lives. We awaken to our true status as the glorified image of the Father to the degree that we reflect the divine qualities.
Christ, Truth, uncovers and destroys the errors of human thought and replaces them with spiritual ideas, which are always good. The activity of the Christ is continuous. When a false belief is eliminated by Truth, the spiritual idea which replaces it remains established, leaving no room for the return of that belief. Christ reveals the spiritual intelligence of God, Mind, which enables the righteous to reject every suggestion of the carnal mind and to abide safely under the protection of Truth and Love.
Matter's claim that it is able to satisfy mankind, Christ exposes as false. God bestows upon His reflection, man, all good. Therefore man does not lack anything, for he exists in Spirit, at the standpoint of completeness and perfection. Yet, to mortal consciousness, individuals may seem at times to lack even the most simple human requirements such as food and clothing. How can the understanding of Christ help here? On page 442 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes, "Christ, Truth, gives temporary food and clothing until the material, transformed with the ideal, disappears, and man is clothed and fed spiritually." Thus the spiritual fact of God's care for the real man is made practical in human experience through Christ, Truth.
Christian Science exchanges the belief in lack, or the absence of Love, for the spiritual understanding of the ever-presence of Love. As a result of this understanding, the human need is met in a tangible way. Jesus' many healings proved this true. When the multitudes needed to be fed, clothed, or healed, Jesus did not give them mere theoretical platitudes. It is recorded in the eighth chapter of Luke that when he healed the insane man who wore no clothes, the people "found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind."
Truly to recognize Christ, we must see not only ourselves, but also our neighbor as in reality the image and likeness of divine Love. To accept anything less limits our understanding and ability to demonstrate the Christ. When we replace the mortal beliefs of sin, sickness, lack, and sorrow with the spiritual understanding of health, purity, substance, and joy, we heal through the Christ.
As we daily live our understanding of Christ, we begin to emerge from the shadows of belief in the sins and sufferings of the flesh to find ourselves the redeemed of the Lord, upright, whole, and free. Mrs. Eddy makes this fact plain in the following statement from Science and Health (p. 76): "The sinless joy,—the perfect harmony and immortality of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness without a single bodily pleasure or pain,— constitutes the only veritable, indestructible man, whose being is spiritual. This state of existence is scientific and intact,—a perfection discernible only by those who have the final understanding of Christ in divine Science."
