Editorial May 21, 1932 Issue

The Christ and Jesus

Clifford P. Smith

The lack of a clear and consistent concept of the Christ is one of the first few reasons why most people, even Christians, have failed to get and to give the full benefits of the Christian religion. Jesus spoke of himself, of the Christ, and of God in distinct terms, but the beginnings of confusion can be seen between the earlier and the later documents in the New Testament, and afterward the Christ of the Gospels was almost excluded from the creeds which were formulated as the tests of Christian faith.

What is the Christ? In the Bible the word "Christ" is used with three shades of meaning. It is used as a synonym for the Messiah whose advent was the subject of Jewish prophecy and expectation. It is used as a title given to Jesus because he fulfilled the Messianic prophecy and expectation. It is also used to denote the character or office of the divine Saviour as that which exercises or manifests the saving power of God. Mrs. Eddy has adopted this Biblical usage. Consistently with it she has furnished a definitive statement of the Christ on which all people may unite; that is, "the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 583).

This is a definition for every era and for all time. Thus it was that Paul spoke of the Christ as having delivered the children of Israel at the time of the exodus from Egypt (I Cor. 10:1-4); and thus it is that the Christ actually can be with everyone always, as Jesus said, "even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28:20)—even unto the end of error.

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