IN studying the life and works of Christ Jesus in the light of Christian Science, we discover that all his efforts were directed towards presenting his knowledge of God and the real man to humanity. Unlike philosophers of the past and present searching for man's origin in matter and hopelessly defeated in their search, Christ Jesus, looking beyond matter, with the natural spiritual perception of the Son of God, placed man forever at his eternal source, in and of the Father.
Jesus was undeceived by the commonly accepted belief that man is material and finite, by medical laws declaring incurable certain diseases, or by ecclesiastical pronouncements of some cases of sin as being beyond redemption. He healed the sick and lifted the burden of condemnation for sin by penetrating the veil of a false material sense, and discovering man as God created him, in his original spiritual perfection. His unparalleled understanding of the perfect man in God's image overcame the beliefs of the flesh, raised him from the tomb, and enabled him, finally, to ascend out of mortal sight. No wonder he could say (John 17:3), "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
John the Baptist proclaimed (John 3:36), "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life." What light, joy, and expansion these words open up to us! What emancipation they promise! "The Son" but awaits recognition, for God's immortal idea which Jesus presented has never been withdrawn, but is ever present to be understood and demonstrated. On page 361 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy speaks of "the Son" thus: "Christ, as the true spiritual idea, is the ideal of God now and forever, here and everywhere."
That redemption is within reach of everyone Christ Jesus proved by walking every step of that way himself. He overcame every temptation common to men by his understanding of God and of His perfect idea, man, His image and likeness. If he had started out in his reasoning from the generally accepted, mistaken viewpoint that man is fallen, a miserable sinner enchained by the carnal mind and under the laws of the flesh, Jesus could never have accomplished his marvelous healing works. Such mistaken theological views have handicapped many in bondage to disease and sin, and have not delivered them from their difficulties, problems, and sorrows.
In a darkened world consciousness, Jesus alone, like a high mountain peak, stood above the mist, and saw what is hidden to those on lower mental altitudes. He must have realized that to the Son, the real man, forever at one with the Father, there can be no darkness, no mist or misapprehension, no material state of consciousness, no belief in a fallen man, no devil or evil sense to claim a material counterfeit of the divine and spiritual creation. His full comprehension of the immortal, sinless being and uninterrupted harmony of God's idea, man, brought release to humanity. Though walking side by side with those believing in a material sense of existence, he lived consciously in the spiritual realm, his Father's kingdom. On page 36 of "No and Yes" Mrs. Eddy writes: "Jesus' true and conscious being never left heaven for earth. It abode forever above, even while mortals believed it was here." She adds: "Hence the human Jesus had a resort to his higher self and relation to the Father, and there could find rest from unreal trials in the conscious reality and royalty of his being,—holding the mortal as unreal, and the divine as real. It was this retreat from material to spiritual selfhood which recuperated him for triumph over sin, sickness, and death."
Man as God knows him is here today and forever, and is being revealed in Christian Science. What God knows endures, in all its original perfection. His ideas do not fluctuate, do not fall from their true perfection into a mist of uncertainty and bewildering obscurity. Man stands forever on the heights of holiness, of unsullied purity, in his original atmosphere of light and clearness.
How worth while it is to desert the old standpoints, to leave the old for the new! Jacob, after he had wrestled until daybreak with error, finally saw its unreality. The light of understanding streamed into his consciousness and repudiated his belief in a power opposed to God, good. We read (Gen. 32:30), "And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." This experience resulted in a complete healing of a great fear of his brother, Esau, to whom now he was able to say, "I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me" (Gen. 33:10). Jacob had first to recognize God as Love, see Him "face to face"; then he was able to see Love reflected by man: he could see the face of his brother as though he had seen the face of God, and healing resulted.
In these days of readjustment and reconstruction, when world situations seem tense and international relations strained, all need to remember, first and foremost, to seek the face of God. In wrestling with difficult problems, differing viewpoints, and national characteristics, which seem so easily to cause friction and misunderstanding, we, like Jacob, must entertain the angel of inspiration which points to reality, and if faithful, we likewise shall see God "face to face" and the face of our brother as though we had seen the face of God. Then he will be pleased with us and we with him.
The spiritual idea of Life and man has been revealed in this age. We should look up and "see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory" (Luke 21:27). This coming is not a spectacular appearance of a person in the skies, but it comes to the risen thought of each individual as the true concept of God and man. This revelation heals disease and sin today as of yore, because God is understood in Christian Science and His Christ recognized. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God" (I John 3:1,2).
