Editorial October 31, 1953 Issue

"JOINT-HEIRS WITH CHRIST"

Richard J. Davis

Christ Jesus saw clearly that the way of deliverance from all fleshly ills and materiality was the understanding and demonstration of man's true identity as a son of God. His great endeavor was to make that sonship understandable, just as Christian Science does today. But it is evident that as long as one can be induced to accept and hold to the belief of a fleshly creation and birth—as long as one continues to think of himself as material and living in a matter body—the new man or the new birth cannot appear or be demonstrated.

As the teaching of Christian Science points out. the new birth requires first of all a perception of man's present spiritual and real being, and from that standpoint a courageous and continuous renunciation of the false claim of material creation and creator. It therefore presents the necessity of putting the belief of family relationship on a new and right basis. Specifically referring to this, Jesus said (Matt. 23:9), "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Speaking of this same point, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in her textbook. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 31): "Jesus acknowledged no ties of the flesh. He said: 'Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.' Again he asked: 'Who is my mother, and who are my brethren,' implying that it is they who do the will of his Father. We have no record of his calling any man by the name of father." David also had some perception of his true spiritual sonship and being when he wrote (Ps. 100:3), "Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture."

It is not difficult to understand the human inclination to sometimes resist the giving up of a belief in human birth and parenthood; and yet, is it not clear that one blesses and benefits not only himself but his children alike in knowing that we are all, as John declares, "the sons of God," the ideas of Mind, the glorious and eternal expression of Love's being? In an even more positive statement the Master said that he who leaveth not father, or mother, or sisters, or husband, or children for the kingdom of heaven's sake, is not worthy to be a follower of Christ.

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