Volumes have been written about the Bible, but it’s what it writes in a person’s heart, mind, and life that matters—and makes it relevant to anyone who opens his or her heart to its message today. It is the voice of God, which spoke to those who wrote the Bible, and speaks to those who read it—inspiring and healing us. It’s the living Word of God—the God who is Love.
The Gospel of John starts out saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). The Word of God is the Word of divine Truth and Life speaking to us of our eternal identity and oneness with God as His deeply loved spiritual image and likeness. Throughout the Bible, God is leading us to move beyond the fetters of a supposed life in matter—beyond mortality—into daily proofs of our innate purity, goodness, and immortality, and eventually into our full and final demonstration of eternal Life. And so, Mary Baker Eddy gave the following as the first of six “important points, or religious tenets,” of Christian Science: “As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 497).
A focal point in the Scriptures is the prophecy in the Old Testament of a Messiah, and the fulfillment of that prophecy in the New Testament. That Messiah was Christ Jesus, God’s witness leading humanity into the daily and final demonstration of eternal Life. Through Jesus’ teachings, and his healing works, individuals are led to think differently—to utilize their inherent spiritual sense to discern the eternal realities of being—so they can be set free from the sins that spring from the belief that materiality is the reality of existence. Speaking and living God’s Word, Jesus demonstrated its power. Jesus’ resurrection was the culminating proof that man (each of us) is actually the eternal reflection of God, and that we can prove this truth by following, and putting into practice, Jesus’ teachings as set forth in the Bible. But our discernment of Truth needs to be developed, as was so with Jesus’ disciples.
