In the realm of spiritual growth students of Christian Science are do-it-yourself people. They know that no other person can do this growing for them. No one else, no matter how spiritually developed, can solve for them the problem of being and free them from material limitations. Obviously, they can have prayerful help from another, or profit from another's high example. But in the last analysis each one must find for himself man's unity with God, and in this understanding strive to reach the summit of Truth.

In other words, Christian Science teaches that there is no vicarious route to salvation from evil. It accepts without reservations the Apostle Paul's directive: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." ^{Phil. 2:12, 13;}

Despite this clear Biblical teaching, there is a widely held theological belief that man's attainment of the kingdom of heaven is not primarily dependent on individual effort, but on faith in the cleansing effect of Jesus' blood shed upon the cross —and that by this act of sacrifice he mollified an angry Deity, and vicariously paid the debt of sin for all mankind. But when we refer to the record of Jesus' teaching and healing work, we find no evidence of this theory. Instead, we see proof after proof of a God who is unchanging Love—a God who needs no reconciliation with His children.

According to Christian Science, Christ Jesus' mission was to show in clear, practical terms the reality of man's inseparability from God, creative Mind, and how to reach a healing, liberating understanding of this fact. To show us the way of salvation, Jesus mastered every phase of material limitation, even death itself, and he made it clear that through obedience to his teaching we can do the same. Mrs. Eddy tells us: "Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man's oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him endless homage. His mission was both individual and collective. He did life's work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals,—to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility." ^{Science and Health, p. 18;}

The work that saves us from sin and disease, and eventually death, is the persistent effort to express the Godlike qualities of thought that bring to view our real, spiritual selfhood. The Bible tells us that God, infinite Spirit, made man in His own image. This image, or reflection, becomes more and more apparent as egotism, selfishness, and sensuality are willingly surrendered and the purity, love, and integrity of man's true identity are expressed in daily life. Spirit must be evidenced in spirituality, and we find health and freedom only as we blend in quality with the divine nature.

Jesus' experience here on earth was really a progressive surrendering of mortal selfhood, and only by following his example can we reach the pinnacle of spiritual power and demonstration. He deliberately laid aside the mortal sense of himself so that he might see clearly his oneness with God and reflect His omnipotence. He was our Exemplar, and we must do as he did if we would duplicate his works. Mrs. Eddy says, "Fidelity to his precepts and practice is the only passport to his power; and the pathway of goodness and greatness runs through the modes and methods of God." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 270;}

Christian Science teaches us that the concept of man as a personal soul encased in flesh is an illusion. It is a mortally-mental counterfeit of the real man, the embodiment of right ideas that God creates. So the only self we need to surrender is really no self at all—just a false sense of man as animate, intelligent matter. Paul understood the vast importance of giving up this limited view of man's selfhood. He wrote to the Romans: "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. ... And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." ^{Rom. 12:1, 2;}

Like the mortal body in which it seems to reside, sickness is but a phenomenon of mortal thought. It is the externalization of discordant thinking—of fear, sin, mortal opinions and beliefs—and we gain our salvation from sickness by denying it and its seeming cause any presence, power, or intelligence. All real knowing is in God, the actual Mind or consciousness of man, and as we willingly sacrifice a material sense of ourselves as Jesus did, and recognize the divine Mind to be the governing Principle of our being, this sacrifice silences mortal thinking and becomes a law of annihilation to the discord.

Jesus "did life's work aright." He worked out his own salvation from all limitation, and in the process he showed us how to do it, too. Mrs. Eddy summarizes it beautifully: "Our Master taught no mere theory, doctrine, or belief. It was the divine Principle of all real being which he taught and practised. His proof of Christianity was no form or system of religion and worship, but Christian Science, working out the harmony of Life and Love." ^{Science and Health, p. 26.}

Alan A. Aylwin