A reason for hope

The things of the Spirit matter deeply to Christians. Christians of all churches have often felt the power of Spirit in tangible ways, blessing and healing them. It is that Holy Spirit, which made man and woman in God’s own image, that breathes through the pages of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. An understanding of this results in experiences of healing that put the message of Jesus Christ in sharp perspective.

For Christian Scientists, they show forth the spiritual vision of the first chapter of Genesis, in which God has created man and woman in the divine image and likeness. The inspiration of Spirit, of the Love, which is God, heals and saves, bringing us into “newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

“This is the man (and woman) glimpsed through the earthly life of the Saviour,” a fellow member of my church wrote, “culminating in His resurrection and ascension beyond all the limitations of a mortal and material sense of existence. God’s grace, so understood, is . . . the awakening of humanity from the nightmare of materiality to the present and eternal perfection of God’s spiritual creation.

“What this basically involves is putting off the old man for the new — the man determined by genes for the man revealed through Christ — not by changing one into the other, but by exchanging appearance for reality, the outward for the inward, the humanly plausible for the divinely certain. “It is that change, from the old man to the new man in Christ, which brings healing. This is more than simply the healing of a physical body, but a powerful regeneration by the Spirit that points to something more — much more — about the underlying nature of reality.

This spiritual reality, in whatever terms it is understood, ultimately brings Christians of all backgrounds together. As the founder of my own denomination, Mary Baker Eddy, put it, it is “the spirit of Christ calling us together.” She continued, “when the doctrinal barriers between the churches are broken, and the bonds of peace are cemented by spiritual understanding and Love, there will be unity of spirit, and the healing power of Christ will prevail.”

Moji George, Christian Science Committee on Publication for Nigeria West