In the Christian Science Bible Lesson February 25, 2013 Issue

The law of liberty

For the Lesson titled "Christ Jesus" from February 25 - March 3, 2013

Steve Warren

Why would this week’s Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson, titled “Christ Jesus,” be so filled with words such as law and liberty? The Golden Text shows their connection: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). Watch how this liberating law is applied throughout the Lesson.

In Section 1, Christ Jesus is recognized as bringing us a new government, and it says his rule would be established “with judgment and with justice” (Isaiah 9:6, 7, citation 2). In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy says that the “truer sense of Love” that Jesus brought us “redeems man from the law of matter, sin, and death by the law of Spirit,—the law of divine Love” (p. 19, cit. 4). The liberating effects of spiritual law, vanquishing material law, are illustrated further in the sections of the Lesson that follow.

The book of Romans, in Section 2, says, “Christ is the end of the law” (10:4, cit. 8). In other words, Christ Jesus fulfilled the law given to us by Moses, as he demonstrated by healing all kinds of illnesses and even walking on the water, thus proving the power of spiritual law over material law. In Section 3, Jesus further establishes the primacy of spiritual law when he feeds over five thousand people, despite having just a few loaves and fishes on hand (see John 6:5–14, cit. 11). Mrs. Eddy explains, “The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God’s unchangeable law” (Science and Health, p. 135, cit. 12). The law of Christ is at work in human affairs, “… Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply” (Science and Health, p. 206, cit. 16).