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Sing unto him a new song.

—Psalms 33:3

Exploring Bible Verses

An exploration of Bible citations from the Christian Science Quarterly® Bible Lessons

“. . . a lesson on which the prosperity of Christian Science largely depends."—Mary Baker Eddy

from the Golden Text

Leviticus 26:13 

I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

• • •

I have set you free; now walk with your heads held high.

—Contemporary English Version

The word upright appears several times in this Bible Lesson. This use, from the Hebrew verb quwm, means arise or stand up. Other terms translated as upright are:

yashar, signifying straight or right (Responsive Reading, Psalms 37:37 ); 

tamiym, meaning whole, sound, or perfect (citation 1, Psalms 37:18 ); and

wanniyth‘owdad, indicating the bearing of one who is testifying (citation 12, Psalms 20:8 ).

from the Responsive Reading

Psalms 37:37

Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.

Psalm 37 is considered part of the scriptural body of Hebrew wisdom literature. It is a collection of proverbs arranged as an acrostic, each group of verses beginning with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

These words stand in contrast to the preceding lines about the wicked man: “He passed away, and, lo, he was not” (verse 36 ). The “end” of the perfect man uses the same Hebrew noun (‘achariyth) as another biblical phrase, “the last days” (see Isaiah 2:2 , for instance)—alluding to future, reward, or outcome. This man will enjoy the completeness, soundness, and well-being encompassed in the word peace (shalowm).

from Section 2

3 | Genesis 2:18

The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 

The Hebrew term for help (‘ezer) is used repeatedly in Scripture to refer to God as man’s source of help. Psalm 33, for instance, says: “Our soul waiteth for the Lord: he is our help [‘ezer] and our shield” (verse 20 ).

from Section 4

7 | John 9:2, 3  

His disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 

The disciples’ question reflects the speculation of Jewish teachers about life during the period before human birth—as seen in the account of the twins Jacob and Esau fighting in their mother’s womb (see Genesis 25:22 ). And the conjecture about the effect of parents’ sins on their children is seen in Psalm 51: “I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (verse 5 ). Jesus’ response rejects the disciples’ hypotheses and assures them of God’s loving purpose for man. The healing that follows emphatically confirms his words.

7 | John 9:32

Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. 

“Since the world began” includes the Greek word aiōn—a term used in the Bible to represent perpetuity of time. It appears in Jesus’ assertion, “If a man keep my saying, he shall never [aiōn] see death” (John 8:51 ). And Hebrews 13:8 has, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever [aiōn].”

This verse recalls Isaiah’s declaration about God: “Since the beginning of the world men have not heard … what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him” (64:4 ).

from Section 5

9 | Acts 20:9  

And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep.

In buildings of the time, windows were often little more than openings in walls. In larger structures, they were sometimes cut into upper story walls, rather than ground floors, to deter intruders. Window glass had not yet been developed, and shutters or lattices were frequently left open—in this case, to alleviate the heat (and possibly smoke or fumes) from the many lamps (see verse 8 ).

from Section 5

10 | Romans 8:2  

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 

Paul uses the word law dozens of times in his letter to the Romans. His distinction between the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” and the “law of sin and death” is not necessarily a rejection of the Torah, the Mosaic code given in the first five books of the Old Testament. Rather, he warns that the material interpretation of God’s law—the flesh as opposed to the Spirit (see 8:13 )—holds man in bondage. And he affirms that the spiritual sense of the law found in Christ brings liberation.

Many current Bible translations read you—probably the original Greek wording—instead of me in this verse. The New International Version, for example, has: “Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

Related Healing Ideas

Creation now: God’s immediacy in healing

By Jon Gib Harder
From the May 1980 issue of The Christian Science Journal

Creation is happening now. The spiritual insight of the first chapter of Genesis doesn’t refer to past events, but to present revelation. Right now divine Principle, God, is saying: “Let there be light” and “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (verses 3, 26 ).

It is a mistake to think of God and man in terms of past history rather than current actuality. Healing depends on this fact of God’s unfolding creative activity. When we understand that there has never been a moment more perfect than this now of being—flowing forth from Love and just as fresh as God’s pure, creative impulse—we wipe out the arena for disease or troubles of any kind. Such errors disappear because they don’t actually exist.

Error doesn’t have a present. All too easily we relegate creation to a point in the past or to a process occurring over a period of time already past. But in reality, history is not a factor. Mary Baker Eddy underscores this point when she writes in the Christian Science textbook, “The true theory of the universe, including man, is not in material history but in spiritual development” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 547 ). 

Humanity readily accepts a time-bound man, living a clothesline existence made up of experiences strung out as events stretching from birth to death and overlapping with other mortal lives to form the collective history of mankind.

Divine theology by contrast is always in the present tense, as in the great revelation that came to Moses in the wilderness: “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14 ).

God’s nature is creative, upbuilding Spirit, whose action is now, and who assures us of ongoing divine reality, right where we are. God’s assurance to Moses is His promise to us: “Certainly I will be with thee” (Exodus 3:12 ).

Even a glimpse of the divine power as real and comprehensible has immediate effect, and leads us into the deepened trust that brings clearer views of God. And because God is ever present, this fact is a law of healing and reformation. This isn’t human knowing, but divine revelation appearing where we most need it—right within individual consciousness.

We’re not anchored to material living —pleasurable or painful—by anything but individual and collective belief. Belief is but a state of nonthought swept aside by the rousing action of the Christ, the proclamation of God’s ever-present kingdom, as soon as we receive this truth. To accept the Christ as our Saviour is to make a spontaneous response to God. God’s immediacy results in constant access to our normal state of spiritually based perfection.

When we are healed, we’re not seeing creation restored to what it was but seeing it as it really always is. We’re seeing creation in action, man appearing as he is; and we forge ahead with our Principle, God, into new vistas of being. 

The Apostle Paul describes the immediate action of all-present Spirit this way: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17 ).

_{This article has been shortened to fit this page. To read the entire article, go to
jsh.christianscience.com/creation-now-god-s-immediacy-in-healing.}

© 2017 The Christian Science Publishing Society. The design of the Cross and Crown is a trademark owned by the Christian Science Board of Directors and is used by permission. Bible Lens and Christian Science Quarterly are trademarks owned by The Christian Science Publishing Society. Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptural quotations are taken from the King James Version on the Holy Bible.