Editorial December 29, 1951 Issue

SONSHIP

Richard J. Davis

In the Gospel of Matthew (3: 16, 17) it is related that "Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and to a voice from heaven, saving, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." This recorded incident conveys to every student of Christian Science the glorious significance of spiritual baptism, and most important of all it reveals unmistakably man's divine sonship with the Father. It indicates that as we are baptized, that is, purified and spiritually redeemed, to us the heavens are opened and the consciousness of divine reality appears. The spirit of God descends upon us even as it did upon Jesus, and the voice of God declares and lovingly assures us that we are His beloved sons, in whom He is well pleased.

Christ in Christian Science reveals and brings to the receptive heart the demonstration of our sonship and forever oneness with God. Christ is the revelation of man's true spiritual identification as the idea of Soul. Referring to this, Mary Baker Eddy writes in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 316): "Christ presents the indestructible man, whom Spirit creates, constitutes, and governs. Christ illustrates that blending with God, his divine Principle, which gives man dominion over all the earth."

Christ, the divine idea of sonship. is therefore, when demonstrated, the true idea of sonship for all. In order to rise above the main arguments of material sense, everyone must sooner or later understand what sonship with God the Father really means. It is the basis of all demonstration over sin, disease, and death. Jesus had to prove that the Christ, his spiritual sonship and identity, was not subject to material beliefs and the so-called laws of matter; and in Christian Science we are learning to see and demonstrate that our true sonship is not and cannot be subject to material conditions. In Science, man's incorporeal being is seen as entirely separate and apart from the beliefs of human hate and wrath, entirely separate from the dream of material existence.

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GOD IS GOOD
December 29, 1951
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