"He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." I John 5:18; What a reassuring statement this is of the integrity of being! All that proceeds from God keepeth itself, remains what in its nature it is. It cannot be other than what it is, than what God makes it and constitutes it to be. Man and the universe, as the emanation of God, unchanging good, stay unchanged in their flawless perfection because their origin and continuity stay safely within the Mind that is God, their only source and condition.
Intact spiritual being is man's true being now, and "that wicked one toucheth him not" because there is no outside or alternative to the allness of God and His idea, man. The "wicked one" only claims to touch its own misconception of man, which likewise remains what it is, namely, the figment of a supposed mind that is not God. Neither the false mind nor its subjective conditions, which comprise mortality, are part of the real creation that is begotten of God, and they cannot touch it. That which is begotten of God remains its perfect self because God keeps it this way.
We experience the intactness of true being insofar as we maintain and practice our unity with our divine source. This intactness can never be the experience of that which makes the mistake of believing itself to be mortal and separate from God. Mosaic law and much of conventional theology have included in their teaching a good God and a wayward people who could stray and then be punished for doing so. The law of Christ demonstrates the impossibility of divine Principle and its idea, man, becoming separated. In this understanding, the frustration of merely human endeavor to be right can give place to the unlabored acknowledgment of the goodness and perfection that already and inevitably exist.
