In the Christian Science Bible Lesson January 3, 2011 Issue

Purified by the Spirit of the Christ

For the lesson titled "Sacrament" from January 3–9, 2011

By Janet Clements

The Golden Text of this week’s Bible Lesson, titled “Sacrament,” invites us to consider the “now” and “how” of worshipping God—giving ourselves wholly, even our very breath, to the vital Principle and reality of our being. In every section, we are offered Christly instruction in ways of honoring God. Our devotion to living these precepts forwards our spiritual journey in accepting and worshipping God. 

First on our journey is baptism. In Section I, John’s baptism with water is an outward sign of an individual’s inward purification of thought. It’s interesting that John saw a distinction between his baptism with water and Jesus’ baptism with the Holy Ghost. In my research on this, I found that one meaning of the original Greek word for “ghost” is “vital principle.” So, one way of looking at Jesus’ baptism with the Holy Ghost is that it opens thought to purification by divine Principle, which envelops and washes the very fabric of our being, revealing and sustaining our sound, flawless, holy nature.

This all-encompassing baptism produced practical results with Jesus’ healing of ten lepers (see Luke 17:12–14, citation 3). It showed that not even the incurable could be left out of the impartial, baptismal activity of the Holy Ghost. Living this Christly precept of baptism uplifts thought to experience the holy presence of God, the kingdom of heaven right here. 