Earnest students of the Bible often notice the emphasis Christ Jesus put on healing sin. For example, when he healed a man of palsy, he said, "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." Luke 5:20.
Bible students who are honest observers of their own character may find that healing sin can seem difficult. We may need to hear what Jesus said to the man he healed at the pool of Bethesda. After the healing the Master warned, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." John 5:14. The inclination to continue sinning often seems as persistent as the inclination to sin in the first place.
The press and popular opinion would suggest that our parents' behavior and our environment permanently fix in us such sins as anger and pride. And unless we are very watchful, we may believe these lies. Further, we are often told that because the "first man," Adam, was a mortal sinner, every other mortal, including ourselves, is also a sinner. And we may believe this, too.
One basic reason we may be tempted to believe genetic, psychological, and theological explanations of why we are sinners is that sin seems so real. It seems to come back like crab grass, no matter how much we pull, hoe, and spray. See Miscellaneous Writings 343:20-25 . For example, a quick temper can appear so ingrained that we may after a while feel helpless before it and say: "Yes, I have a bad temper. My dad had a bad temper." Or, "I can't help it. It's just me."
But the bad temper is not you, although it may seem to be. That mortal with sinful habits is not the man God makes. God is Soul, wholly pure and good, and man is the perfect reflection of Soul. God causes man to express good constantly, for man's holy purpose is to manifest God in every way. This expression constitutes the only man there really is: as perfect in quality as God, and at one with God. Christ Jesus said, "I and my Father are one," John 10:30. meaning not that he was God or that man is God, but that God and man are forever inseparable as Father and child, Mind and reflection. To the degree we accept these Christly truths, we can prove them correct by healing sin, instead of just sadly enduring it.
There are no formulas in Christian prayer for healing sin, but redemptive prayer rests on the pure foundation of absolute and present perfection. There are aspects of sin it is wise to handle often in our prayers, and we approach each one through the basic Christian virtues of humility and love.
One of the first requirements in healing sin is to admit that we are sinning. This is among the first steps to take because it marks a step up in morality. The prayer of spiritual understanding heals sin; and in human consciousness, morality is to spiritual understanding what a foundation is to a building—the solid base on which it stands. When we admit that we are sinning, we move out of self-deception. Man is the perfect, sinless child of God. That is certainly true in absolute Science, but if we try to hide our sins behind self-delusion and self-justification, we are hardly being sincere Christians, let alone Christian Scientists. Mrs. Eddy states clearly as one of the six basic tenets of Christian Science: "We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts." Science and Health, p. 497.
Another important step in healing sin is to admit sin's wrongness. Sin tempts us to believe that it gives pleasure. Many people in the world today say that if a thing is pleasant, it must be good. But clearer thinkers know that what merely brings immediate gratification is often quite evil, such as overeating or an outburst of temper under pressure.
Sin is always wrong, no matter how good it feels at the moment. Important to healing, this admission results from moving toward God and away from mortal belief. Man is the child of God, and the closer our thought comes to this spiritual fact, the better our thought.
To heal sin through prayer we should recall that all sin is a silent, evil suggestion before becoming an action or even a conscious thought. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "The belief of sin, which has grown terrible in strength and influence, is an unconscious error in the beginning,—an embryonic thought without motive; but afterwards it governs the so-called man." Ibid., p. 188.
This suggestion is never our natural or true thought—no more ours than a splinter can be a natural part of our hand. Always a suggestion of the carnal or mortal mind, sin would undermine the natural Christliness in human consciousness with whispered lies tempting us away from Truth. Even if they come so subtly that we accept them as our own, they never are our own. Our natural thoughts are angels, or holy thoughts from God. Meekly accepting this fact while we challenge the suggestions, we let thought ascend in purity, in somewhat the way a helium-filled balloon rises when its tether is untied.
Actually, God is All. He is the perfect, causative Principle, and man the Mind-contained reflection of God. From this basis we can and must prove that our thoughts, feelings, and impulses are God-derived. In reality man has never been a sinner, and this humble admission is an absolutely essential step in the Christian healing of sin.
Each of these steps (not just the last one) is necessary to healing sin. In fact, if we take only the last step, we may not heal sin at all. We may ingrain it more deeply in our thought, because we have not uncovered its deception but covered it, like sweeping dust under a rug. Mrs. Eddy writes, "To prove scientifically the error or unreality of sin, you must first see the claim of sin, and then destroy it." Ibid., p. 461.
All of this work must be done with love. We may sometimes feel exasperated with ourselves because of stubborn, unhealed sin. What's needed is an attitude of gentle, patient, but prodding love for ourselves. This strengthens the readiness to be healed.
Every sincere thinker wants to be free of sin. Every sincere Christian wants to be more Godlike. Through Christian Science every one of us can—step by patient step—demonstrate the Bible's promise, "Sin shall not have dominion over you." Rom. 6:14.
