Editorial December 16, 1939 Issue

Obeying God's Will

Duncan Sinclair

No one who ever lived on earth was more obedient to the will of God than was Christ Jesus. From his earliest years until his ascension, he was obedient to his heavenly Father. What did this signify? It meant that he understood God to be the creator who governs His creation through perfect spiritual law; that he knew that the will of God is perpetually active through spiritual law, and that it manifested itself in every good quality, in every right idea. It meant that he was aware that in reality there is only one will—God's will. And with this knowledge, it was his effort continually to reflect the qualities or ideas of God, thus obeying the divine will.

The Master was the greatest healer of all time, because of all men he was the most obedient to the will of God. The Gospels of the New Testament tell of his consecrated life, his constant communion with God, his unceasing prayer for greater understanding of the divine will. They record the result of this consecration—how he healed sickness and sin, and overruled so-called material law when it threatened disaster; how he raised others from the dead, and overcame the belief of death for himself. By reflecting the qualities of God, perfect Mind, Christ Jesus was obedient to the Father's will, and thus vanquished the erroneous beliefs which hold mankind in bondage. Mary Baker Eddy writes thus of him on page 168 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "He did the will of the Father. He healed sickness in defiance of what is called material law, but in accordance with God's law, the law of Mind." It was obedience to God's will which enabled him to be the great demonstrator of Truth and Love, and gave him the victory over material sense and self.

Christ Jesus is the Way-shower in that he demonstrated, for the sake of all mankind, the perfect will of God through his understanding and obedience. His every word and deed was intended to aid mankind in mastering the carnal mind, which is ever at enmity with God. No one knew better than he the nature of this supposititious mind, which Christian Science calls mortal mind. He knew that it is the apparent source of every erroneous belief, of every evil suggestion, of every false material concept—of all that is opposed to the perfect activity of perfect Mind. And it was his purpose so to enlighten mankind spiritually that they should learn obedience to God, good, and thus separate themselves from all evil. This was the method of salvation which Jesus taught, and so wonderfully demonstrated. Christian Science is teaching its students obedience to the will of God, even as did the Master. In doing this, it is showing them that in reality there is only one will—the divine will—to be obeyed. It reasons thus: God is infinite and perfect Mind. There is therefore no real intelligence save that of divine Mind. That is to say, there is in reality no will but God's will, no carnal or evil will. When, then, a mortal indulges in evil, and in doing so disobeys the law of God, the will of God, he is indulging in that which has no reality, he is being deceived by the illusory suggestions of mortal mind. Our revered Leader writes (ibid., p. 111), "I find the will, or sensuous reason of the human mind, to be opposed to the divine Mind as expressed through divine Science." Her words state the matter exactly. The "sensuous reason of the human mind" must therefore be overcome through spiritual understanding, in order that the divine will shall reign supreme.

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