Editorial June 20, 1994 Issue

Disobedient or obedient?

Richard C. Bergenheim

Do you know how much mischief has been caused by the widely held belief that man is naturally sinful, disobedient? This notion, uncorrected, would poison our relationship with God. We begin to think of Him as a stern judge, a punisher, a being to be feared rather than loved and revered. It jeopardizes our health, for the body is no longer expected to be obedient and responsive to God, divine Mind. We pray uncertainly, not knowing if an illness is a divine punishment or if God is interested in helping or able to intervene on our behalf. Misbehavior, rebellion, and criminality are let loose. Once one accepts the premise of Adam's original disobedience, as though it represented the true history of man, the consciousness of God's omnipotence is lost and human experience reaps the resulting sorrow.

Jesus began his mission, however, by declaring to the people that they were not expelled from the kingdom of God; he declared that they were in the midst of the kingdom, in the presence of God at that very moment. His words continue to demand our attention today. In the third chapter of Genesis, disobedience, mortality, a lack of faithfulness, represented by Adam and Eve, were driven out of the presence of God. But man, God's eternal likeness, has never left his Father's kingdom.

Jesus' divine nature—the Christ—enabled him to illustrate the true nature of man created in God's likeness, inseparable from Him. Through his work, many recognized the power of God working within them, and they were reformed and healed. Paul must have understood this when he wrote to the Romans, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Rom. 5:19). This raises a very important question. Do we live as though Jesus never lived, as though he had never left his example before us? That is, do we continue to follow the example of Adam, accepting sickness and sin as inevitable, or do we spurn that and follow the Christly pattern left us by our Master, which reveals the perfect nature of man and the possibility of demonstrating health and all good?

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