Explorations
Christian Science
Bible Lessons
August 21,1898
CHRIST JESUS.
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- Section 2 -
(The one anointed) Jesus' spiritual origin and his demonstration of divine Principle richly endowed him and entitled him to sonship in Science. He was the son of a virgin. The term Christ Jesus, or Jesus the Christ (to give the full and proper translation of the Greek), may be rendered "Jesus the anointed," Jesus the God-crowned or the divinely royal man, as it is said of him in the first chapter of Hebrews: - Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee With the oil of gladness above thy fellows. With this agrees another passage in the same chapter, which refers to the Son as "the brightness of His [God's] glory, and the express [expressed] image of His person [infinite Mind]." It is noteworthy that the phrase "express image" in the Common Version is, in the Greek Testament, character. Using this word in its higher meaning, we may assume that the author of this remarkable epistle regarded Christ as the Son of God, the royal reflection of the infinite; and the cause given for the exaltation of Jesus, Mary's son, was that he "loved righteousness and hated iniquity." The passage is made even clearer in the translation of the late George R. Noyes, D.D.: "Who, being a brightness from His glory, and an image of His being." 332:26-15 Chapter 10: Science of Being - [PLATFORM] (-11- Christ Jesus) Mary's conception of him was spiritual, for only purity could reflect Truth and Love, which were plainly incarnate in the good and pure Christ Jesus. He expressed the highest type of divinity, which a fleshly form could express in that age. Into the real and ideal man the fleshly element cannot enter. Thus it is that Christ illustrates the coincidence, or spiritual agreement, between God and man in His image. (-12- Messiah or Christ) XII. The word Christ is not properly a synonym for Jesus, though it is commonly so used. Jesus was a human name, which belonged to him in common with other Hebrew boys and men, for it is identical with the name Joshua, the renowned Hebrew leader. On the other hand, Christ is not a name so much as the divine title of Jesus. Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal nature. The name is synonymous with Messiah, and alludes to the spirituality which is taught, illustrated, and demonstrated in the life of which Christ Jesus was the embodiment. The proper name of our Master in the Greek was Jesus the Christ; but Christ Jesus better signifies the Godlike. 333:16-9 Chapter 10: Science of Being - [PLATFORM] (-13- The divine Principle and idea) XIII. The advent of Jesus of Nazareth marked the first century of the Christian era, but the Christ is without beginning of years or end of days. Throughout all generations both before and after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spiritual idea, - the reflection of God, - has come with some measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive Christ, Truth. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets caught glorious glimpses of the Messiah, or Christ, which baptized these seers in the divine nature, the essence of Love. The divine image, idea, or Christ was, is, and ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God. Jesus referred to this unity of his spiritual identity thus: "Before Abraham was, I am;" "I and my Father are one;" "My Father is greater than I." The one Spirit includes all identities. (-14- Spiritual oneness) XIV. By these sayings Jesus meant, not that the human Jesus was or is eternal, but that the divine idea or Christ was and is so and therefore antedated Abraham; not that the corporeal Jesus was one with the Father, but that the spiritual idea, Christ, dwells forever in the bosom of the Father, God, from which it illumines heaven and earth; not that the Father is greater than Spirit, which is God, but greater, infinitely greater, than the fleshly Jesus, whose earthly career was brief. | ||||
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