One of the greater challenges facing humankind is the belief that life is finite. Daily news reports usually include incidents that involve loss of human life. In our own lives we might face the loss of a loved one or interact with someone who has experienced such a loss. The range of emotions may include shock, grief, or loneliness.
The problem of death – and the solution to this problem – is best understood through the teachings of Christ Jesus. Not only did Jesus raise others from the grave, but he also overcame it for himself. Before his crucifixion, he explained to his disciples that three days after it occurred he would be resurrected.
Based on accounts in the Gospel of John, it seems his disciples didn’t understand what that meant, for following his crucifixion they returned to their former occupations. And Mary Magdalene, when she returned to the sepulchre and saw Jesus, did not at first recognize him.
But when his disciples did recognize Jesus, they caught a glimpse of the uninterrupted continuity of Life, God, and they were forever changed. The proof that death could be overcome through the power of God gave them a deeper perception of the reality of life in Spirit.
Speaking of Jesus’ resurrection, Mary Baker Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” “The magnitude of Jesus’ work, his material disappearance before their eyes and his reappearance, all enabled the disciples to understand what Jesus had said. Heretofore they had only believed; now they understood” (p. 43).
The fundamental truth underlying Jesus’ works is that Spirit, not matter, is the only power. In the first chapter of the Bible it is recorded that man is made in God’s image (see Genesis 1:26). As God is Spirit, the real man is spiritual, not imprisoned in a mortal mind and material body.
My wife and I consistently relied on Christian Science as an ever-present help in life. When we’d face challenges in business, our health, or in our family, regardless of whether it was a minor or major issue, we found that prayer and listening to God guided us successfully.
So when my wife passed on, it was our study of the reality of God and man that came to thought. I saw that neither her life nor mine had ever truly existed in matter, and this healed me of grief and a feeling of loss. I was fully confident that my wife was continuing on.
The belief that man exists in matter, living and dying in the body, is the mistaken basis for all beliefs in death, grief, sorrow, and loss. The second chapter of Genesis declares man to be made from dust. But as Jesus showed us, this “dust” man can be proved to be a false concept, as it is the exact opposite of the man revealed in the previous chapter as made in God’s likeness. The spiritual understanding of the falsity of this second account frees us from the bondage it imposes.
It is in human consciousness that the seeming reality of life in matter needs to be addressed. The material senses argue that life is a mixture of spirituality and materiality. But a glimpse of Christ, Truth, begins to reshape our views of existence, bringing us into a full recognition that God is the sole creator of a marvelous spiritual universe, including man.
Where God’s law of harmony operates – which is everywhere – there is only good, God, and His spiritual creation. Through Christ, Truth, stubborn material beliefs disappear from human consciousness, and that which before seemed intangible – spiritual substance – appears. Then we can, like the Apostle Paul, “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (II Corinthians 4:18).
This understanding brings freedom from what can often feel like a heavy weight of grief when we lose someone close to us. As a result of my healing of grief after the passing of my wife, I have been able to share with others what I’ve learned. This has resulted in the lessening of their sense of grief and loss, and they have expressed gratitude for this help.
While it takes spiritual growth and persistence, we can begin at once to understand to some degree the indestructible nature of Life, God, and to rid ourselves of the belief that life ends in death.
Adapted from an article published in the July 16, 2018, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
