Today in the United States, annual health-care costs are 14 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. The phrase "out of control" is often used to describe this soaring cost. Politicians offer reform plans to solve the problem, but there is disagreement as to which one would work best.

More than a century ago, Mary Baker Eddy, challenged by serious physical difficulties, pondered at length the question of health care. She knew that during his three-year ministry Christ Jesus performed countless spiritual healings and taught his followers to heal through spiritual means. He commanded them, "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:8). Mrs. Eddy yearned to understand the directives of Jesus, to follow his example, and to explain his healing method to others.

This healing method, discovered and explained by Mrs. Eddy, is uncomplicated and straightforward. She wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:  "Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they forsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divine Mind, and abandon their material beliefs. Eradicate the image of disease from the perturbed thought before it has taken tangible shape in conscious thought, alias the body, and you prevent the development of disease" (p. 400).

Jesus was the ultimate metaphysician; that is, he healed mentally, beyond physics or matter, as the word metaphysics signifies. One might argue, "How can a physical condition be changed through a mental approach? How can a material body respond to anything except material remedies?" The answer lies in correctly comprehending creation and the true basis of man's relationship to God.

Is real substance material or spiritual? Did God make a material man? Does matter possess qualities of life, intelligence, and substance? The fundamental facts of being are indicated in the first chapter of Genesis in the Bible, which states that God made man in His own image and that everything He made was good and complete. And because God is Spirit, as the Bible also teaches, we can conclude that everything, including man, is actually spiritual. Consequently, matter is not the reality it seems to be. Man, as God's image, reflects only what God is. So can he express anything unlike God—conditions of disease, decay, disorder, or death? Are these conditions included in God's spiritual creation of goodness and perfection? They cannot be!

Clearly, disease and discord seem to be real, but this picture of mortality is actually an illusion. The Biblical allegory of Adam and Eve, which follows the first account of creation, illustrates the false concept of creation as limited, material, mortal. It describes a mist coming from the earth and claims that man is created from "the dust of the ground" (Gen. 2:7). But the power of Christ, the true idea of God exemplified by Jesus, disperses the mist. The Master showed us that we can reverse the lie of material creation and demonstrate our God-given dominion, man's perfect, spiritual heritage.

The ability to heal metaphysically as Jesus did lies in the ability to distinguish between the reality of creation and the unreality. Since man's true substance is unchanging good, there cannot, in absolute fact, be bad health. Health is a divine right, a spiritual quality; it is not a variable, physical condition. The truth is that man is subject only to the divine laws of God, which produce perfection, goodness, and immortality. Man coexists with God as His idea, and this relationship is eternally intact.

Trying to eliminate disease from a material standpoint is like trying to control a fire by throwing water on the smoke: it completely misses the source of the difficulty. One could spend a lot of effort and money without quenching the flames. The human consciousness is what needs to be changed, before the body can be permanently healed. The thoughts of an individual are manifested on the body. If one believes that a material body is real substance, that it has a mind of its own, that it can decide man's fate, this may be manifested in imperfection and ill health. But if one sees through the lie that claims man is material and affirms with a humble conviction that only the spiritual qualities of God can be expressed in man, the body will correspond. By spiritualizing one's consciousness through prayer, and through increasing purity, health will be demonstrated naturally.

Jesus proved that there's no need for becoming absorbed with physical circumstances. When he healed the man at the pool of Bethesda who had been ill for thirty-eight years, he did not ask for a doctor's prognosis or for a second medical opinion. He never accepted as reality an appearance of imperfection but understood the truth of man's spiritual wholeness; and this understanding healed the man (see John 5:2–9). When the disciples Peter and John passed the lame man asking alms at the gate of the temple, they did not contemplate material options. They said they had no money to give him, but then they restored his health by realizing his God-given perfection (see Acts 3:1–8). These healings took place immediately. The remedy was the Word of God, which is described in Hebrews as "quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12). These spiritual healers understood God's uncompromising affirmation recorded in Exodus: "I am the Lord that healeth thee" (15:26).

The Master clearly gave a very strong message: if one were going to be a Christian, growing in spirituality and practicing spiritual healing would necessarily be expected. It makes no sense that the healing capability Jesus taught and practiced be limited to just a few centuries two thousand years ago. Through years of dedicated prayer and Bible study, Mrs. Eddy discovered the divine laws that had been demonstrated in early Christian healing, and she has explained them in Christian Science—the Science of Christianity. Her book entitled Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is today's complete manual on health care. The chapter "Fruitage," found in the last one hundred pages, is filled with testimonies from individuals who were healed by reading the book. A better understanding of God and of man's inseparable relationship to Him produced these wonderful results. And these same results are happening today.

When health care focuses just on the false picture of a "healthy" or "unhealthy" material body, it misses the basic issue of what the genuine source of health is and what man really is, and so the results rest on an uncertain foundation. When researchers find a cure for one disease, another seems to take its place. There are more known diseases today than ever before. Sophisticated technology and billions of dollars have not solved overall challenges concerning health.

To enjoy health more consistently and to place it on an enduring, spiritual basis, we need to realize with complete humility that God is All and expresses only perfection in man; nothing unlike Him can truly exist. Mortality misrepresents reality. And by understanding man's true, spiritual status as God's image and likeness, mankind can demonstrate the divine laws governing health and harmony.