Saving your body
A Christian Science perspective.
Most people pay a certain amount of attention to their body. They feed it, give it some rest at night, dress it during the day. The world, especially the commercial world, also pays a certain amount of attention to your body. In fact, an extraordinary amount of attention!
The growing resources that are poured into society’s effort to save the body are quite dramatic. Save it from illness, aging, overweight, fatigue, deterioration, contagion, accident – in fact, discord or limitation of any kind. Right here in the United States we’ve been learning in recent years just how strongly people feel about finding the best way to deal with health-care issues.
In light of the massive material answers various societies are pursuing, the Bible offers a rather stunning contrast in its teaching that “Christ ... is the saviour of the body” (Ephesians 5:23). If that’s accurate, then there’s a lot of rethinking that will eventually take place on health-care questions.
Just what does this mean, that Christ is the savior of the body? Christian Science has shown that Christ is God’s saving power that reaches into the lives of men, women, and children to transform them spiritually and heal them physically. The Bible gives numerous examples of this. Christ Jesus’ life gave evidence of the saving Christ as no other individual had ever given it. Again and again, Jesus proved that the healing Christ saves the body from a world of troubles, because it redeems human thought from the materialistic thinking that produces those troubles. And ultimately Jesus’ own inseparability from and understanding of the Christ saved his body from destruction on the cross. Jesus assured us that the Christ would save our bodies too. He said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12).
Jesus prayed that God would send a Comforter that would teach us all things (see John 14:16, 26). Christian Scientists throughout the world feel a vigorous certainty that Jesus’ prayer has been fulfilled. They have a deep conviction that this Comforter, this present-day appearing of the saving Christ, has come to humanity in a fresh and tangible way.
They point to a substantial record of practical evidence that Jesus’ promised Comforter is the divine Science taught in Mary Baker Eddy’s book, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.” This Comforter truly is an “advocate” (an original meaning of “comforter”) for us, bringing spiritual healing when we need it. That is, healing through prayer based on the understanding of the allness of Spirit, which is God, and the intelligent application of God’s laws that govern each one of us. And every healing through Christ gives evidence that we are not material but the very expression of Spirit.
With the huge health-care investment society is making, it’s worth exploring this spiritually scientific perspective more seriously. One way to begin could be right within our own life. We can apply the spiritual truths in the Bible in a simple but concrete way today. Science and Health is immensely helpful in opening up Bible truths that bring healing in such a natural way. So if you have a problem, you can humbly turn in prayer to the Christ, the message of God’s healing love, and discover that it is just as real and powerful today as it was the day Jesus taught and lived it. It is possible for you to prove that Christ saves your body from that difficulty. Maybe save it from an ache or pain. Perhaps save it from getting tired and worn down by the end of the day. Or save it from disease.
Over a lifetime, I have found Christian Science to be dependable not only in caring for my health, but a blessing in every other area of my life. In fact, it is a way of life. Thousands of others have found the same. I see Christian Science healing as a response to Christ Jesus’ call in his Sermon on the Mount, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
So what’s the fundamental difference between a material approach to caring for the body and the spiritual approach encouraged by Christian Science? A material approach is an attempt to save matter. The spiritual approach saves us from matter – and all its limitations and vulnerabilities. The spiritual approach provides the foundation for increasingly experiencing the fullness of our true spiritual nature and freedom. This is the consciousness of being Godlike, the consciousness of our concrete, substantial, and permanent existence as the very image and likeness of Spirit, God.
Christ Jesus was speaking to disciples for all time when he said we could do this. Christ really is here now to save us and bring healing. We can feel the support of the Comforter, the advocate, revealing that this second coming of Christ truly is the savior of our body.