FROM THE EARLIEST MENTION OF GOD IN THE Old Testament to the last chapter in the New Testament, the character and identity of divinity is often represented as Spirit. The first three verses of the Bible tell us: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. 1:1–3).
In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy clearly illustrated the nature of God as divine Spirit—as unbounded, illimitable, omnipotent, and omnipresent Spirit. This point is essential to the theology of Christian Science and its healing practice. Appreciating the allness of Spirit—always present, always powerful, always infinite, always substantial—provides the foundation for recognizing the insubstantiality of anything opposed to or unlike Spirit. The nature of matter, for example—temporal, limited, and finite—cannot possibly express the enduring qualities of Spirit. And consequently, the student of Christian Science relies steadfastly on the dependable power of Spirit to direct his or her life, to bring light and inspiration, and to supply the assurance for practicing effective, prayer-based healing.
Christ Jesus surely understood the nature of God as pure Spirit and trusted implicitly in spiritual power throughout his ministry. When he healed "all manner of sickness," when he stilled a life-threatening storm at sea, or when he passed unseen through an angry mob intent on destroying him—in each of these instances Jesus was exercising the unparalleled power of Spirit. He was demonstrating the reality of divine Spirit and of God's spiritual creation in the face of all the contrary evidence that the physical senses threw at him suggesting that matter was the sole condition and arbiter of man's existence.
