"Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; ... for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God." So writes Paul in the second chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians (verses 13-16). In this statement he illustrates the fact that it is through Christ, the spiritual idea of Truth and Love, that the belief of dualism is destroyed and man is found to be not two, material and spiritual, but one—spiritual. "The middle wall of partition" is broken down, dispelled, by the presence of the Christ in consciousness. The demonstration of this proves man's unity with God, showing that God and the real man are inseparable, are one, as divine Principle and idea. Thus the material is proved unreal, the conflict between the material and the spiritual ceases, and peace and harmony are realized.
How can the Christ-consciousness, which dispels the illusion of material sense, be experienced? By uniting thought to God, by understanding God through the ideas which express Him. Man, in his true selfhood, is spiritual. He is the expression of God, Soul, Spirit, the manifestation of Mind. When we understand—know God through the ideas which express Him, our true selfhood as His reflection comes to light. In this way we prove man's unity with divine Truth and Love and demonstrate the Christ-consciousness. On page 583 of the Glossary of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy defines Christ as, "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error."
The experience of a student of Christian Science serves to illustrate the healing effect of the Christ, which comes to the human consciousness to destroy the errors—illusions —of material sense. This young woman was struggling to overcome a painful physical condition. She had become so mesmerized with the apparent reality of the trouble that healing did not take place. She decided, therefore, to call upon a Christian Science practitioner for help. During the subsequent conversation with the practitioner the student remarked: "There seems to be a wall between me and God. I feel cut off from Him and cannot gain a consciousness of His presence."
The practitioner lovingly replied that we make our own walls. She then went on to explain that the apparent walls which sometimes seem to separate us from divine Truth and Love are built up in human consciousness through ignorance and false belief. These walls are without reality or substance. They are illusory, having no foundation in Truth, and they are dispelled by our persistently seeking out and holding to the true facts of being in Science, prayerfully acknowledging the oneness and allness of divine Mind, Life, Truth, Love, and firmly denying the testimony of mortal mind, or material sense. Through faithful perseverance in following this course on the part of both practitioner and patient the Christ-consciousness was realized, and healing was finally accomplished.
It can be logically deduced that because God is good and evil is the opposite of God, there is no reality in evil. Belief in evil gives to it the only power or presence it may ever seem to have. We must stop believing in evil as an entity; then it will no longer hold sway in our thinking.
Mrs. Eddy writes in her textbook (p. 470): "If God, or good, is real, then evil, the unlikeness of God, is unreal. And evil can only seem to be real by giving reality to the unreal." And on page 330 of the same work she says: "The notion that both evil and good are real is a delusion of material sense, which Science annihilates. Evil is nothing, no thing, mind, nor power." When this truth is understood, fear of or belief in evil is destroyed.
Christ Jesus revealed man's spiritual nature and his unity with Truth and Love throughout his earthly experience. Speaking of his true selfhood as the Christ, he said (John 10:30), "I and my Father are one." He proved his unity with divine Mind in healing the sick, redeeming the sinner, raising the dead, and, above all, in his unequaled demonstration of self-sacrifice and love in what have since been known as the resurrection and the ascension. The demonstration of man's spiritual selfhood and of his unity with God is a universal demand. This demonstration is the only way by which true salvation can be realized. It is a fundamental point in Christian Science healing.
The purity of the Master is an undeniable fact. The Christ was so known and exemplified by him as to cause him to be acknowledged for all time as Christ Jesus, or Jesus the Christ. The Christ-consciousness is unassailable by evil. No illusion of material sense ever found lodgment in the thought of the Master. He remained conscious of the truth alone as real, knowing nothing as actual but the spiritual, the harmonious, and the perfect. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy explains that Jesus accomplished his healings by beholding the perfect man in God's likeness, rather than by seeing a sinning mortal. The Master refused to acknowledge the evidence of the material senses. His thought was always turned to God, always entirely loyal to divine Mind, from which he derived his healing power. His close allegiance to God and his full acceptance of spiritual facts were the reasons for the marvelous instantaneous nature of his demonstrations.
If instantaneous healings do not take place in our experience, we should search our thinking to see to what extent we are entertaining illusions. We should constantly awaken to a clearer realization and demonstration of man's at-one-ment with divine Mind and know only the perfection and beauty of holiness which belong to man as the son of God. As the spiritual facts of being become clearer, so that we accept them as naturally as did the Master, then we also shall find ourselves experiencing more instantaneous healings.
As we study and apply the truths of Christian Science found in the Lesson-Sermons in the Christian Science Quarterly, and read and ponder the Word of the Bible and the writings of Mrs. Eddy, the walls of illusion in human consciousness will be broken down. As the truth becomes more readily accepted, man's eternal inseparability from divine Truth and Love will be demonstrated. Let us each claim the great facts of our being and demonstrate them through the Christ-consciousness, through conscious and constant at-one-ment with our Father-Mother God.
Paul said (Rom. 8:38, 39), "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." So let us break down the wall of illusion, demonstrate our oneness with God in Christ, and rejoice in our eternal heritage of freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss.
