Article February 16, 1924 Issue

"There is therefore now no condemnation"

JESSIE G. SINCLAIR

When Christian Science first illumines for us the wonderful truth contained in the words of Paul, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," what a wealth of comfort we experience; and what heavy burdens begin to drop from us! We have, perhaps, been believing that some one was misjudging us, and thus treating us unfairly, or was feeling resentful towards us over some apparently real or fancied error on our part. Then Christian Science comes to us and shows us the way out of the difficulty; for it makes plain what the Bible means when it says, in the first chapter of Genesis, "God created man in his own image;" and father on in the same chapter, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." God holds no thought of condemnation for His creation; and so no thought of condemnation can be entertained by His image and likeness, man. The God-created man—and there is no other real man—is perfect; and there can be no changing of God's creation, man. "My counsel shall stand." Man remains forever "very good."

A lesson to be drawn from this is that any appearance of evil is naught but false belief, a denying of man's present and eternal perfection as the image or reflection of perfect Being. A lie is corrected by the truth. Then, as we substitute the true view of man for the false belief, we find happiness. Even should our brother-man fail to recognize for himself the truth of the situation immediately, his mistaken opinion will no longer have power to disturb us, remembering, as we do, that the only true criticism is the discernment of Love's perfection.

This discernment of perfection will also show us where we have fallen short of the divine standard. One fault after another will be uncovered through it, in order to be destroyed. This should be a joyful experience, although, until we recognize clearly what is going on,—namely, the purification of consciousness,—it may seem hard. Instead of gladly welcoming each higher view of man and leaving the dead past to bury its dead, we may be tempted by such thoughts as self-depreciation, the impossibility of our ever attaining the heights we have glimpsed, and such like. If accepted, these erroneous suggestions will retard our progress; but if we recognize the higher vision as an angel from God, we shall entertain it and be grateful. Living up to our highest standard of good, to our highest understanding of man, we shall gradually gain more of that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus." Mrs. Eddy exemplifies the power of this mental attitude when she writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 476, 477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick." And it is the same spiritual understanding of man which heals the sinner also.

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