"Now are we the sons of God"

MARY ANN WILLIAMS

In the third chapter of I John we read, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." Is there any statement in the Holy Scriptures that gives us a clearer and more definite sense of our true relationship to our Father-Mother God than this inspiring declaration? We are children of God, who is the Father-Mother of all His vast spiritual creation.

On page 587 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, gives us a definition of God which reads in part, "GOD. The great I AM;" and, "Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence." Christian Science teaches that man reflects God; therefore, all the qualities or attributes of God are reflected by man, as His image and likeness. Then, since God is Life, we are the sons of Life, of Love, of Spirit. God's qualities are made manifest in man; therefore, we see God through His reflection, man.

When we speak of man in this glorious light of spiritual understanding, we speak of the perfect, the real man, the man God made. He made man in His image and likeness, and maintains him as such. God has never changed the perfection of man.

We also learn through a consecrated study of Christian Science that God fills all space, is ever-present good, and that there is nothing in His creation unlike Him. Whence, then, can we find an opposite of God in the form of sin, disease, or death, which forms of discord seem so real to us at times? If evil is real, where did it originate? How can we experience suffering or pain, sorrow or fear, when all space is filled with God, good?

The answer is that evil—sin, sickness, discord—has no place in which to seem to exist, except in human belief. Mortal mind claims to be real, to create good and evil thoughts; and these erroneous thoughts seem to manifest themselves in bodily conditions or in our human affairs. What a falsity this is! God never created evil, and God is the only creator. There is no other power or creation. Our Leader writes (Science and Health, p. 487), "Christian evidence is founded on Science or demonstrable Truth, flowing from immortal Mind, and there is in reality no such thing as mortal mind." This proves conclusively that good is real, and that error, by whatever name it is called, is unreal, having no place in which to live or grow and enforce its would-be laws, which are not laws at all. God is the only lawmaker.

When thought is allowed to enter into its native joyous expression of good, of love and all that tends to lead one to God, we are blessed in seeing all false conclusions melt into nothingness. Thus do we awake to find that "now are we the sons of God." We can see this true relationship only as we hold our thought to all that is good and true.

"Sons of God"! The Father's abundance is unlimited, infinite. He is the source of all there is, and He knows us as His beloved sons. God does not withhold any good from His children. He knows every need, and fulfills all His promises. Our need is always for more love, grace, and wisdom, and when we sincerely ask of Him, we receive the answer to our prayer.

Let us prove our true sonship, even as did Christ Jesus, who said, "I and my Father are one." We can declare and realize our oneness with Life and Love, and manifest the qualities of our Father in heaven. As this spiritual relationship is understood, men will prove that they are brethren and will truly love one another. Our Leader writes on page 340 of Science and Health, "One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself;' annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,—whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed."

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According to the Pattern

December 28, 1940

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