Jesus came to bring light to a troubled world: but the Christ, or Messiah. which he so perfectly embodied and illustrated, has always been here. Speaking of the Christ, his spiritual selfhood, Jesus said (John 8:58), "Before Abraham was, I am." The Old Testament records that the spiritually-minded, who caught glimpses of the Christ, the true idea of God, and of God's unchanging, eternal laws, proved the power of God to heal, to protect, and to supply human needs.
The authority for Jesus' example came from God. The Master said (John 5: 36), "The works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me." Jesus' theology and healing cannot be separated; and Christianity includes both. He discerned the spiritual law indicated in the Old Testament healings as the basis of his own wonderful works, which gave proof of his doctrine.
Mrs. Eddy writes on page 138 of Science and Health: "Jesus established in the Christian era the precedent for all Christianity, theology, and healing. Christians are under as direct orders now, as they were then, to be Christlike, to possess the Christ-spirit, to follow the Christexample, and to heal the sick as well as the sinning."
