The author of the New Testament book of First Peter counseled early Christians to "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you." When a Christian Scientist met with a class of ministerial students at a theological school, a number of basic, heartfelt questions were discussed. We thought our readers would be interested in some of those questions and the responses that were given by the Christian Scientist. In a future issue we'll share more of this interchange.

Question: What do Christian Scientists believe about Christ? And, what do Christian Scientists believe about the nature of man?

Answer: To a Christian Scientist, Jesus Christ is what the Bible says he is: our Saviour, Lord and Master, the Messiah, the Lamb of God, the only begotten Son of the Father, the author and finisher of our faith. A Scientist loves Jesus and takes the gospel healing record as authentic—as literally and factually true. He considers Jesus' crucifixion, physical resurrection, and ascension to be the central events in human history.

An area where we differ from many other Christian churches is that we do not regard Jesus as God, but rather as the Son of God. Many point to certain passages of Scripture that they feel show Jesus actually to be God. But Christian Scientists feel these passages show Jesus' fundamental unity with God as His Son, not that he was God. We feel there is a great deal of Biblical evidence for this distinction—for example, Jesus' own sayings: "My Father is greater than I"; "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God"; and "I can of mine own self do nothing."

To leave it there, however, would be inadequate, since in response one could say: "If he wasn't God, then you must feel he was just another man—albeit a very good man." Yet this view is far from Christian Science. To the Christian Scientist, Jesus was so much more than just another man! Although we reject the deification of Jesus, we do affirm his divinity, and we recognize the enormous gulf between the life of our Lord and sinful humanity.

Christian Science speaks of Jesus as the unique individual through whom the nature of God was revealed to humanity. The importance of Jesus' sonship is that it shows us that the nature of being a Son is to be exactly like the Father—wholly good and spiritual. As Jesus said, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."

Christian Science also makes a distinction—although not a separation—between Jesus and Christ. To us, Christ means spiritual sonship, it means the spiritual man, the divine, eternal ideal of God. Christ was the divine nature Jesus referred to when he said, "Before Abraham was, I am." Jesus was the man who was born of a virgin nearly two thousand years ago, who walked, ate, lived everyday life, and whose life and healing ministry the Gospels record. As Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, explains in her book Science and Health, "This Christ, or divinity of the man Jesus, was his divine nature, the godliness which animated him."

The reason these distinctions are important to Christian Scientists is that they help to break out of the argument "Was Jesus God or man?" by showing that Jesus didn't just reveal the nature of God, but in fact, as God's Son, also revealed the genuine nature of man. So the real answer to the question "What do Christian Scientists believe about the nature of man?" can only be found in their understanding of what Jesus' life reveals.

As the Son of God he revealed true sonship to humanity—he showed that man belongs to God, not to the world, and that man's genuine, eternal nature is spiritual, holy, intact. So he showed humanity that the way they were thinking of themselves and seeing themselves was totally wrong. He showed that we must not be content to see one another as fallen mortals but must deny material selfhood, take up the cross, and discover who man is in Christ—in true relationship to God as a beloved child.

We feel this is why Paul writes: "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." And why the Bible also tells us, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."

Question: Then, what about sin: Do we just ignore or deny it?

Answer: No. For sin is what blinds us to our identity as children of God. And when Christian Scientists speak of sin, they mean exactly what other Christians mean: disobedience to God and His laws; alienation and separation from God; missing the mark. Sin is what distorts our view of who God created us to be. Sin would argue that God's creation, man, is anything but godlike.

Because the nature of sin is to separate us from God and to separate us from being the children God created us to be, the central mission of Christian Science is salvation from sin. Mrs. Eddy stressed this point again and again. In her book Rudimental Divine Science she states, "The emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing of sin...."

It's true that when people think of Christian Science they tend to emphasize physical healing. And I don't want to minimize the importance of this to Christian Scientists. We regard physical healing as the "signs following" that the Gospel foretells—the evidence of the spiritual regeneration and transformation that have come through repentance and a deeper reliance on God. But while most of us don't have need for physical healing each day, the battle against sin is indeed a daily one.

Question: So why do Christian Scientists speak of sin as unreal? Or, for that matter, of death, disease, evil, and matter as unreal?

Answer: This must be understood in context. Christian Scientists only speak of sin as unreal in the context of the infinitude and absoluteness of God. Anything that is real in any eternal or ultimate sense has to have its source in God. Otherwise it is only a temporary appearing, rather than a real or final fact. Because of the fact of God's sovereignty, sin has no legitimacy, no necessity, no permanence. Since sin is not of God, it can—indeed, must—be challenged. This is why in Jesus' healing work he commanded those he'd healed to "Go, and sin no more." Sin dominates the carnal mind or, as Mrs. Eddy describes it, mortal mind. But to understand man's relation to Christ is to realize the necessity of breaking the cycle of sin—of showing sin to be without inherent power and no part of God's creation.

This involves a mighty struggle. And Mrs. Eddy understood sin to be so pervasive that no mere human effort could save from its effects. In her Miscellaneous Writings she says, "There is not sufficient spiritual power in the human thought to heal the sick or the sinful." To her, freedom from sin comes by degrees and is only obtainable as we grow in grace; as we're faithful in the battle between flesh and spirit—as we put off the "old man" and put on the "new man."

And in Science and Health she writes: "Christian Science rises above the evidence of the corporeal senses; but if you have not risen above sin yourself, do not congratulate yourself upon your blindness to evil or upon the good you know and do not. A dishonest position is far from Christianly scientific. 'He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.'"

The same applies to our understanding of evil. When Mrs. Eddy was asked if Christian Scientists believe that evil exists, she answered in her Message to The Mother Church for 1901, "Yes and No!" and went on to explain: "Yes, inasmuch as we do know that evil, as a false claim, false entity, and utter falsity, does exist in thought; and No, as something that enjoys, suffers, or is real. Our only departure from ecclesiasticism on this subject is, that our faith takes hold of the fact that evil cannot be made so real as to frighten us and so master us, or to make us love it and so hinder our way to holiness." As Paul says in I Corinthians, "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."