Everyone deserves to be healed. That's what Christian Science is all about—redemption, salvation, the spiritual joy of the pure goodness that leads to the harmony we call heaven. This Science follows the path of Christ Jesus' teachings. And Jesus tells us, "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." ^{John 3:17.}

However, most Christians who have yielded to some type of sin feel conscience-stricken afterward. And at that point in their lives, this feeling is probably the best thing that can happen to them. Conscience, guilt, and remorse show that such a person is aware of right and wrong, that in some way he is responding to the presence of Christ, Truth, in his consciousness.

Christian Scientists certainly agree with other Christian denominations that sin must be recognized as sin. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in Miscellaneous Writings: "The knowledge of evil that brings on repentance is the most hopeful stage of mortal mentality. Even a mild mistake must be seen as a mistake, in order to be corrected; how much more, then, should one's sins be seen and repented of, before they can be reduced to their native nothingness!" ^{Mis., p. 109.}

A major step in overcoming sin is perceiving that it is completely foreign to our true nature as the child of God—that we need not identify it as any part of our actual being. Too often the extremely conscientious person will find himself thinking, particularly if he also has a physical illness, "I don't deserve to be healed." But there is no one, no matter how serious the sin he has been tempted by, who does not deserve to feel God's mercy and His infinite, unchanging love. God does not create or tolerate sickness; much less does He send it to punish people.

Guilt can be one of the carnal mind's ways of attempting to hold us forever in bondage to its claim of sin. Mortal mentality rather likes to feel guilty, because it can then feel virtuous. It justifies itself by saying, "Well, I feel guilty about my sins, so perhaps I'm not so bad after all." But the mortal mentality is totally wrong, and this is where God's love comes to rescue us by showing us that the carnal mind with all of its faults and sins has nothing to do with us. We are actually the children of God. Our true selfhood is the creation of God—God's spiritual likeness, His holy man, who is pure and perfect. The Bible gives us such reassurance in the words of First John, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." ^{I John 3:9.}

This spiritual knowledge that our true selfhood is and forever has been the innocent, immaculate expression of God opens the doors of practical reformation and salvation to us. We can stop feeling miserable and guilty—and we can stop sinning, either in fact or in memory—when we realize the spiritual goodness of our true being as God's likeness. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Mrs. Eddy writes, "The design of Love is to reform the sinner." ^{Science and Health, p. 35.}

In a manner of speaking we might say that Christian Science itself is "the design of Love," for it reveals God's supremacy, His allness and goodness that allow no room for evil or error or sin to be created or to exist. The man of God's creating could not be less than Godlike. God's mercy is shown in His revelation of what He is, divine Love, and of what man is, perfect Love's offspring, through Christ Jesus' life and teaching.

For instance, one of Jesus' many impressive healings was that of a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. Jesus healed him in an instant with the words "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." And the Bible tells us, "Immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked" (see John 5:1-15).

We do not know the nature of the man's illness, but John does say, "Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." Jesus' consciousness included no attitude of personal condemnation toward the man. Jesus' help was merciful. He embodied the mercifulness of Christ, Truth, whose purpose is always to heal and save with God's redeeming love.

When the Master said to the man that he should sin no more, he must have known that the man could demonstrate that Christly ability to be free and stay free of sin. He knew that man is the offspring of God. And we too can demonstrate our God-given ability to be free and stay free of evil of every sort by knowing who and what we really are as God's pure likeness.

God's mercy is even greater—infinitely greater—than the mercy of a benign parent who lovingly forgives a child's sins. His mercy is the tender love He has made available to us in showing us our true selfhood in Christ, ideal manhood. There is nothing more redeeming, more comforting, than to know that man is not a hopeless sinner; that sin, because it was not created by God, has no actual power, presence, or reality and has no hold over God's likeness.

Man is not a creature of the flesh, helplessly controlled by physical sensations and desires. Man is the incorporeal creation of God, Spirit, who governs and controls him with the goodness and joy of divine Truth, Life, and Love. And man has always been God's likeness. Therefore we can always choose to do right.

With what joy we can drop sin, self-condemnation, and guilt and the belief of a penalty. A penalty is only associated with sin; but if we're not associated with sin and have been redeemed to the point where we know that in truth we never were, then we're truly free. Sin has no reality in God's kingdom, and it can be proved to have no reality in our lives either. As God's beloved child, we do deserve to discover and feel the divine mercy that reforms and redeems and heals us.

BARBARA-JEAN STINSON