Article April 11, 2011 Issue

When Christ transforms character

By Brian Talcott

Over the years, both as a Protestant chaplain in the United States Air Force and as a Christian Science practitioner who has had the opportunity to minister to those in the prison system, I’ve worked with many individuals who felt stuck, unable to change—whether they’ve been behind bars literally, or figuratively trying to break free from some mental prison or addiction. But as they gained that higher vision—as the healing spirit of the Christ saved and uplifted their consciousness and awakened them to their innate goodness—they began to change. 

In the Bible, Elihu, a young friend of Job’s, encouraged his friend this way: “If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness: then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom” (Job 33:23, 24). The messenger concept anticipates the coming and activity of the Christ.

The advent of Christ Jesus is announced in Scripture as Emmanuel, God with us. The incredible message and meaning of Christ Jesus’ ministry is that God is with us always. This saving activity of the Christ is described by Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health: “Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness. The Christ is incorporeal, spiritual,—yea, the divine image and likeness, dispelling the illusions of the senses; the Way, the Truth, and the Life, healing the sick and casting out evils, destroying sin, disease, and death” (p. 332).