In the New Testament we read of a prophecy that was made at the time of Isaiah and was currently being fulfilled. In his Gospel, Matthew words the prophecy thus (1:23): "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."
With what expectancy men and women must have awaited the coming of a Saviour who should be called by the name Emmanuel, or Immanuel! Indeed, in the centuries after this prophecy was made, the Israelites caught glimpses of what this coming would mean to the world. But since they believed salvation to be a future rather than a present possibility, the full experience of "God with us" was, for them, postponed.
Many people have looked back reverently to the occasion described in the opening chapter of Matthew and to the glorious years that followed. Yet to the extent that they have believed that the personal Jesus, rather than the Christ, Truth, which he represented, was the complete fulfillment of the prophecy and the means by which marvelous works were accomplished, the practical import of "God with us" has been obscured.
With the discovery of Christian Science, however, the Saviour, or Immanuel, is explained to be exactly what the name implies—"God with us" now. Through the teachings of this Science we learn that "God with us" is not confined to time or person, but is reflected as the ever-present, ever-operative, and practical Christ, Truth. We learn therefore that the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah is to be experienced now.
Referring to healing works, Mrs. Eddy writes in the Preface to the textbook, Science and Health (p. xi), "They are the sign of Immanuel, or 'God with us,' —a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime,
To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense],
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised."
This divine influence, or Immanuel, "ever present in human consciousness," is inseparable from the Mind and the Life that is God Himself. Jesus referred to the closeness of this relationship in his statement (John 10:30), "I and my Father are one." He proved that when the ideas of the divine Mind and the activity of the divine Life permeate human consciousness and living, then the unity of God and man are experienced as Mind and Life with us.
"God with us" means Mind with us. It means that the ideas of the divine Mind constitute what we know. "God with us" means Life with us. It means that the activity of the divine Life constitutes our living. "God with us" means Love with us. It means that divine Love characterizes all that we are being.
The role prophesied for Immanuel was that of Saviour. What better way can there be of saving us from mortal beliefs than precluding them? Our Leader says, "Where the spirit of God is, and there is no place where God is not, evil becomes nothing,— the opposite of the something of Spirit" (Science and Health, p. 480). "God with us" precludes God's opposite, just as light precludes darkness and truth precludes a lie and is therefore the savior from it. Thus when Mind is with us, matter is not with us, and when Life and Love are ever present, mortality and discord are never present. One might paraphrase the words of St. Paul to the Romans (8:31), by saying, "If God be with us, who can be against us?"
In order that divine Mind may act on our behalf, we must think and act in harmony with it. We must be conscious only of the things that are of good report. The consciousness of these things precludes the belief in and therefore the experience of their so-called opposites. When we reflect the divine Mind, it is our Saviour from mortal mind. In the same way, to the extent that divine Life and Love characterize our daily living, their activity is our Saviour from the lack, fear, and inadequacy inherent in the mortal concept of existence, because they preclude them. In no case is our Saviour apart from us: it is always "God with us."
Because the Saviour is always "God with us," there is only one way in which the Saviour can operate, and that is as consciousness. Our consciousness of God as Mind, Life, and Love is our Saviour, and no more close and tangible Saviour can be imagined. It is, however, no good just knowing about God as the only Mind and Life unless we let that Mind and Life occupy our knowing and living. Then we are letting Mind and Life be with us. "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?" we read in Jeremiah (23:23). God at hand is good at hand. God, good, is at hand, or with us, when good characterizes all we know and do.
In the consciousness of "God with us" we experience healing, and those who turn to us for help may be healed also. In Christian Science we learn that only what the Mind of man knows can be experienced by man. All sin, sickness, discord, and death constitute the so-called mind of mortals. They exist as belief only, and being no part of divine knowledge, they are no part of divine experience. Mortal beliefs fade out as the so-called mind that holds them gives place to the divine Mind. This occurs in the degree that the divine Mind is accepted as our only Mind.
Not what we know of the human problem determines healing, but the extent to which "Immanuel, or 'God with us,'" permeates our thinking. Light has only to be itself to preclude darkness, and Truth is its own refutation of a lie. Mrs. Eddy states on page 483 of the textbook, "We classify disease as error, which nothing but Truth or Mind can heal, and this Mind must be divine not human." Mind comprises consciousness; therefore we can be conscious of nothing but Mind and its ideas.
Jesus knew that mortal beliefs cannot stand in the presence of God. An incident that perhaps typifies his whole career is related in John's Gospel. When the men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees came to take him at Gethsemane, we read that "as soon ... as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground" (18:6). Evil beliefs do not fall to the ground in the presence of a mortal, but before the Christ, the consciousness of Mind as the I AM, the all of man's being as God's reflection.
The standpoint that was adopted by our Master is the only admissible one for those who have discerned the Saviour, or "God with us," in Christian Science. They have discerned how to let the Life and Mind that are God constitute the source and substance of their living and knowing. They are learning that the consciousness of God with them acts as their Saviour.
