"EVERYONE has a right to enjoy life and to be free from sin, sickness, poverty, and strife. Such freedom is attainable only through regeneration. Many have tried to obtain this freedom through material means or through blind faith in a Supreme Being or through an attempted combination of both. But none of these methods have proved satisfactory, nor have they offered a permanent remedy. Regardless of the disappointment induced when one follows these futile efforts, a constant search for freedom continues in the hope of finding the right answer but with no particular thought of regeneration. In answering the question, "What is meant by regeneration?" Mrs. Eddy says in her book "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 73), "It is the appearing of divine law to human understanding; the spiritualization that comes from spiritual sense in contradistinction to the testimony of the so-called material senses."
The story of Nicodemus, as related in the third chapter of the Gospel of John, reveals Nicodemus' interest in the good works that Jesus had accomplished, as well as the desire to understand what unknown power had brought them about. Jesus said to him, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus was learned and highly respected, but evidently he did not recognize the need of a change in his thinking. It did not occur to him that before he could understand the mighty works of Jesus, there would first need to be a regeneration of his human consciousness.
Regeneration involves the realization that matter has no intelligence or power to heal or to do anything and that Jesus performed his works through his understanding of the ever-present, divine power of God to heal and restore to wholeness all who call upon Him in spirit and in truth. Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 16), "Here, then, is the awakening from the dream of life in matter, to the great fact that God is the only Life; that, therefore, we must entertain a higher sense of both God and man." And she continues, "This newly awakened consciousness is wholly spiritual; it emanates from Soul instead of body, and is the new birth begun in Christian Science."
