The Kingdom of God Is Within You

Dec 27, 2003, 12.00am IST


The coming of Christ was God's precious gift to the world, a spiritual guide who showed us a path of hope and self-discovery. Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, wrote in Science and Health about Jesus Christ: "His consummate example was for the salvation of us all, but only through doing the works which he did and taught others to do. His purpose in healing was not alone to restore health, but to demonstrate his divine Principle."


"He was inspired by God, by Truth and Love, in all that he said and did. The motives of his persecutors were pride, envy, cruelty, and vengeance, inflicted on the physical Jesus, but aimed at the divine Principle, Love, which rebuked their sensuality."

"Jesus was unselfish. His spirituality separated him from sensuousness, and caused the selfish materialist to hate him; but it was this spirituality which enabled Jesus to heal the sick, cast out evil, and raise the dead."

Though in a human form, Jesus lived all the divine qualities of humbleness of mind, meekness, courage, patience, loving kindness, and forgiveness.

Thus Jesus taught and demonstrated for tired humanity, that it is possible for all to live the divine qualities and bring blessings manifold for themselves and everyone they come in contact with.


God did not need his help to govern His creation, but because of His abundant love for us all, He sent incarnate Jesus to show us the way.

The Scriptures tell us: "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." (John 4:9)

Jesus's Sermon on the Mount is a practical guide for us to live our lives by. A person's life was completely reformed, when he read the Sermon once a week for several months, and made honest effort to put the teachings into practice.

Even Mahatma Gandhi was inspired by the Sermon, and he practised it in his life in many ways, and thereby brought about good results for the entire world to acclaim its relevance today.

From Christian Science we understand that Jesus was a human name, and Christ was not a name so much as the divine title of Jesus. Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal nature.

The name is synonymous with Messiah, and alludes to the spirituality which is taught, illustrated and demonstrated in the life of which Christ Jesus was the embodiment.

The proper name of our Master in the Greek was Jesus the Christ; but Christ Jesus better signifies the Godlike. Christ is an idea, the divine influence forever present in every human consciousness which guards, guides and governs every human being.

All we have to do is to listen and follow. Thus Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is within you.

L T Caswell writes in a hymn: "I am the way, the truth, the life,/ Our blessed Master said;/ And whoso to the Father comes,/ Must in my pathway tread:/ To point that living way, to speak/ The truth that makes men free,/ To bring that quick'ning life from heaven,/ Is highest ministry."

Mrs Eddy wrote: "Christmas to me is the reminder of God's great gift,/ His spiritual idea, man and the universe,/ a gift which so transcends mortal, material, sensual, giving/ that the merriment, mad ambition, rivalry, and ritual of our common Christmas/ seem a human mockery in mimicry of the real worship/ in commemoration of Christ's coming."

Subhash Malhotra