The Son of God

KATE W. BUCK

ONE of the reasons for the persecution of Christ Jesus was that he called himself the Son of God, and acknowledged no other sonship. This angered the people, because they thought he was claiming superiority for himself, whereas, on the contrary, he was claiming nothing for himself but all for God. Simon Peter was inspired to speak an eternal fact when, in response to the Master's yearning to be understood, he said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." In all Christian Science churches every Sunday these comforting words from the first epistle of John are reverently read: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." What great power would be developed if each listener realized, even in a small degree, what it really means to be the son of God!

Jesus lived up to his sonship, acting the part of a son, claiming for himself by inheritance all that the Father had, while recognizing the Father as supreme. He was the servant of the people, ready to serve in the humblest capacity, even to the washing of his disciples' feet—and he was the Son of God. On page 226 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes of Christian Science as "asking a fuller acknowledgment of the rights of man as a Son of God, demanding that the fetters of sin, sickness, and death be stricken from the human mind and that its freedom be won, not through human warfare, not with bayonet and blood, but through Christ's divine Science." Her teachings clearly show that God is all-intelligence, not injecting His intelligence into matter in any form, even though mortals call that form man.

Only by spiritual understanding can the activity of God be expressed—the glory, power, and permanency belonging to God. So-called material man is not a ruler; neither is he the son of God. He is the seeming outcome of material sense, of the belief in a dual existence—God in one place and man in another; whereas, in truth, God and man are forever at-one, as Mind and idea. The futile endeavor to establish the reign of personal sense instead of spiritual sense is responsible for all human woe. Loyalty to material belief must be put aside, and loyalty to God as infinite Spirit, manifested in spiritual ideas, must be established.

There is a wide difference between a servant and a son. Primarily, a servant serves for hire, but a son serves for love. A servant is indeed "worthy of his hire;" a son, on the other hand, has all because of relationship. A son naturally becomes the comrade of his brethren, to help, advise, uplift, and prove thereby that they are all of one family. Those who gain a larger realization of the Father's qualities, and are better able to manifest them, must be lovingly patient with those who seem slower of attainment and acceptance. There is one Father, one Mother, one Christ (the true, ideal Son of God); and to possess the Christ-consciousness is the heritage of every man. Should not we, therefore, awaken to claim so priceless a legacy, and live as if we really knew ourselves to be the actual sons of God, and not merely suppositional sons of men? God is the one Lawgiver; so that a true son of God puts no dependence on material law; neither does he recognize matter as able to bind or suppress the spiritual.

The admission that the truth is spiritual opens the door to an understanding of creation, wholly apart from the perishable presentations of materiality, and establishes the existence of Principle and idea, God and man—man harmoniously expressed as perfect spiritual creation, where discord is unknown. On page 569 of Science and Health we read, "Every mortal at some period, here or hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the mortal belief in a power opposed to God;" and this is what Jesus, our elder brother, came to teach and prove.

The consciousness of spiritual power, through unity with God, is the only method of redemption. We must confidently claim our sonship with the Father, and let Him work through us, surrendering all sense of selfhood apart from Him, and be eagerly ready to let His perfect will be done. This is the new birth—the laying off of the old man and the putting on of the new. Yet the new is old, and the old forever new, because there has never been anything but God and His expression of Himself—man. Thus we find our true heritage; and, resting in the Father's mighty love, which includes all His children, we may be actively at peace, using the power of God in the degree of our acceptance and understanding of it.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit