GOD and man in His image and likeness are eternally at one, coexistent, inseparable, yet distinct as Father-Mother and child, Mind and idea, cause and effect. Their individuality and function are eternally distinct; therefore man never loses his identity, his immortal individuality. Mary Baker Eddy states (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 267): "God is one. The allness of Deity is His oneness. Generically man is one, and specifically man means all men."
The oneness, yet distinctness, of God and man was indicated by Christ Jesus when he said (John 10:30), "I and my Father are one"; and when he told his disciples (John 14:28), "My Father is greater than I."
True identity is proper identification with spiritual reality. The identity of everything real is what it is in divine Mind, what Deity knows it to be. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 477): "Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love. Soul is the substance, Life, and intelligence of man, which is individualized, but not in matter."
