Our seal of approval
We all rely on quality guarantees for things we buy. We may trust certain organizations, government agencies, or individuals whose seal of approval appears on a product. This familiar concept can help us understand an important need we all have: to feel God's seal of approval.
Christians recognize Christ Jesus as having the full approval of God. referring to himself as the Son of man -- the truest example of God-created man ever known on earth -- Jesus said, "Him hath God the Father sealed." n1 How wonderful to feel God's recognition and approval!
n1 John 6:27.
In contrast, most of us can think of a lot of things to feel guilty about. We don't show enough love to our spouse, parents, or children. We don't get all the housework done, get good grades, or keep our weight down. Many people even feel guilty when they're sick. Can we ever trade in these inadequacies for the feeling of how much God loves and approves us?
Yes. By the purity, unselfishness, and goodness of his example and teaching, Jesus showed mankind the way to feel God's seal of approval themselves. He taught that it is not an automatic rubber stamp for those who follow a certain religious dogma. Rather, humility, repentance, and deep love for God and man are the demands of the Father.
If we think of God's seal of approval as being placed on materially evolved human beings, we might well think that it had long since been erased by mankind's sorry history of bad behavior. But a mortal is not the man that God, Spirit, originates or approves. Nor is he or she our true identity. Christ Jesus came to show us how to stop acting out this false concept of man right here and now. He brought us the Christ, the eternal divine message whose function is to lift mankind to the true idea of man in God's likeness.
This real man's point of origin is God. In fact, all reality proceeds from God because He is all the Truth, Life, intelligence, and substance that really exists. God is also infinite good. So everything real, including man, has its source in good. Since God is all-powerful, there is no possibility for interferrence with or contamination of His creation. Its perfection is sealed. As mary Baker Eddy n2 writes, "The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor can God, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin." n3
n2 Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.
n3 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 475.
In these statements lies the healing truth that can free you and me and all mankind from the weight of guilt or unworthiness. man, God's authorized image, is not a sinner! The sin that needs punishment or correction is the beliefm that there is a power opposed to God that can make us act contrary to our true nature as a perfect spiritual, loved child of God.
Mrs. Eddy's definition of sin and evil as error, or false belief, may cause someone to dismiss her discovery, Christian Science, as blasphemy or impractical idealism. But Christian Science doesn't pretend there is no evil. Rather, it teaches that since God, good, is All, the powerlessness of evil to make man sick or sinful can be proved through prayer. Science agrees with Christ Jesus' definition of evil as a lie. n4
n4 See John 8:44.
When a lie is exposed and no longer believed, it has no power at all. When an error is corrected, it no longer has any effect. No matter how serious a sin or error, once it has been genuinely given up -- replaced with the truth -- it ceases to exist and cannot penalize us.
Inadequacy, selfishness, and sickness are errors, which Jesus corrected with the truth of man's perfection as God's child. Through healing both sin and sickness, he proved that evil is neither inevitable nor natural to the real man. God does not authorize evil. He approves only good. Accepting that our true identity is spiritual and good, and correcting errors in our lives that deny this fact, make us feel worthy to be called God's son.
The Father's seal -- you can prove that you have it! DAILY BIBLE VERSE If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy and afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday. Isaiah 58:10
