This week's Christian Science Bible Lesson on "Probation after death" includes Romans 8:1-2. In Paul's letter, this passage follows his famous tussle between wanting to do good but failing to do so in chapter 7. The contradiction there - between intent and execution or performance - is solved with Paul's question and answer that follow, i.e. verse 24: "...who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"; verse 25: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
Chapter 8 follows with a "therefore", i.e.,
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8: 1, 2)(emphasis added).
Is Paul telling his listeners that to be "in Christ Jesus" indicates our present spirituality and a recognition of ongoing spiritual growth which makes that spirituality evident? (Citations 9 and 10 in Science and Health in the Lesson give us some clues.)
Sandra Justad's article Challenging Impositions from the May 24, 1993 Christian Science Sentinel is excellent. Here is an excerpt:
"If we come to see that reality is ..., in its truest sense, spiritual and wholly good, evolving from God, creative Spirit, and that we can never be separated from infinite good, we find ourselves governed by spiritual law. A growing understanding of this law, and increasing conformity to the moral precepts found in the Ten Commandments, help counteract the false sense that we're subject to chance or accident."
..."The material perspective is a lie, suggesting that evil is solid reality, an inescapable presence, and that divine Life and Love are absent. But in truth evil has never been real or present, and Life and Love are never absent. That's why we can challenge successfully the false beliefs of material existence rather than feel helpless in the face of discord. Science and Health [by Mary Baker Eddy] states, "The physician agrees with his 'adversary quickly,' but upon different terms than does the metaphysician; for the matter physician agrees with the disease, while the metaphysician agrees only with health and challenges disease."
Sandy goes on to recount a wonderful healing.
Julie Swannell
More articles on this subject can be found in the periodicals available in Christian Science Reading Rooms. Check out BooksThatChangeLives.au for Reading Rooms in Queensland. You might also like to visit ChristianScienceRedcliffe.au.
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