Christian Science is the devil’s great masterpiece of imitation
victory. It is the vain attempt to know the resurrection life without
the crucifixion death. It is the attempted robbery of the life
pictured in the twenty-third Psalm, the life of still waters and green
pastures, the life in which all the needs of the sheep are met by an
all-powerful and all-loving Shepherd. But while attempting to claim the
twenty-third Psalm, the Christian Scientist blots out the twenty-second
Psalm with its agony of Calvary and its resurrection victory. We must
be one with the Lord Jesus in his death and burial before we can be
one with him in resurrection life. The blood of the Lord Jesus must
be kept always at the heart of the teaching and the experience of the
Victorious Life. The reason for much disappointment in the living of
the Victorious Life is because there is what may be called a Christian
Science acceptance of the teaching without a real foundation being laid
in the blood of the Lamb.
First of all, the foundation must be laid in a clear understanding of
the meaning of the new birth. Those who have had experience in dealing
with hungry Christians seeking the life of victory in Christ, have
been amazed at the number of such earnest inquirers who have no clear
conception of what it means to be born again, or to be saved by grace.
Can You Tell a Sinner Just How to Be Saved?
The following question has been put again and again to audiences
consisting of Christian workers and Bible students: “How many here are
sure you could tell an inquirer exactly what he must do to become a
Christian and receive the new birth?” The result of this question is
nothing less than startling. As many as half and two-thirds in these
audiences have not raised their hands to indicate that they could
explain the way of salvation. But if one cannot tell an inquirer how
to be saved, neither can he tell why he himself is sure of salvation.
And until one knows the word regarding the real meaning of sin and the
atonement, there will be only disappointment in trying to get hold
of the experience of victory in Christ.
The steps of salvation are perfectly simple. First, one must know that
he is lost. Otherwise he cannot need a Saviour. To believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ died in my place, I must believe that I am such a
sinner as deserved death. “All have sinned and come short of the glory
of God” (Rom. 3:23). Joined with this is the word, “The wages of sin
is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord” (Rom. 6:23). I am saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8); faith
is believing that all my sins were put on Jesus and he paid the penalty
for them (Isa. 53:6); now I have been born again and am a child of God;
and I know it not because I feel it, but because God’s Word says so
(John 1:12; 1 John 5:9-13).
A clear understanding of the blood will save us from a superficial idea
of sin and its awfulness. If the cross of Christ is ever in view we
shall have God’s estimate of sin, and there will be a clear realization
that it required the whole sacrifice of Calvary to accomplish the
miracle of victory. In a testimony meeting at a Victorious Life
conference a Christian was explaining that his chief difficulty had
been with “those little troubles,” such as irritation, impatience,
pride and such things. “You mean those devilish sins,” the leader
of the meeting suggested. There is not likely to be that earnest,
agonizing heart cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me
from the body of this death,” so long as we think of sin as little
troubles to be overcome. All sin is devilish, and the Son of God is
the only one who has won the victory over sin. Victory for us then
begins with the cross of Christ, but it is possible only as we keep
continually under that shed blood and appropriating His resurrection
life. The whole sacrifice of Calvary is necessary to keep us free from
the least of what we call the little sins.
Christian Science not only would rob a Christian of faith, it would
rob him of the blessed hope. “The second appearing of Jesus is
unquestionably the spiritual advent of the advancing idea of God in
Christian Science,” says Mrs. Eddy. Hope points toward the future, and
Christian Science has no place for future deliverance from evil and
sin, except as the human race learns that these are errors of mortal
mind.