Are we divine?

Growing numbers of people are beginning to recognize that man is more than the material sciences make him out to be—that our true nature is actually spiritual and good, a reflection of the divine, which transcends what the physical senses report about us. This realization raises profound questions: What does it mean to be spiritual? What is the source of good? and What is the divine?

Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, found that as her understanding of “spiritual,” “good,” and “divine” evolved, so did her ability to heal people of physical, mental, moral, and other challenges, and to do so with scientific certainty. But that meant relinquishing much of what she had learned from traditional religion, the material sciences, and the five physical senses. Instead, it was necessary to develop a spiritual sense or understanding of who we really are.

One particular focus was the two opposing stories of creation in the Bible. Genesis 1 says that there is only one creator – God, Spirit – who creates the entire universe and everything in it spiritually, and that everything God makes is very good. It also says that God creates man – male and female – in the divine image and likeness and blesses him, causing him to manifest His power.

Genesis 2 and 3, on the other hand, contain the allegory of a manlike god and a failed material creation. “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy states, “The first record assigns all might and government to God, and endows man out of God’s perfection and power. The second record chronicles man as mutable and mortal, – as having broken away from Deity and as revolving in an orbit of his own” (p. 522). In fact, since God is infinite good, in reality, each of us reflects only good.

But the material senses would always tempt us to believe that the second account of creation is true, that we could be creators and the source of good, or even that we could be powerful gods in our own right. This seems deceptively plausible when we are successful and things are going well for us materially – until things begin to fall apart in the human experience. In the true, spiritual creation, good is infinite and eternal. It cannot be lost or lessened.

And this brings us to the second point. What is good, and where does it come from? Christ Jesus explains it most clearly. The Bible tells us that he was the Son of God, the Messiah or Savior sent by God to lift mankind out of sin and suffering; that he was sinless, pure, compassionate, and humble; that he healed every kind of disease, raised the dead, stilled storms, fed thousands with only a few loaves and fish, and overcame even his own death.

Yet in spite of all these good qualities and accomplishments, Jesus said, “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God” (Matthew 19:17).

Jesus always made the distinction between himself and his Father, God – the real source of good. Jesus reflected that goodness without measure, but he was not the source of it. And since good comes from God, it must bless everyone; it must be reliable, ever present, and meet every human need – unlike the “good” that originates in matter or human minds and can be perverted, lost, or undermined.

But wasn’t Jesus divine? The primary definition of “divine” refers only to the one God and His unique attributes and power. Jesus was not divine in this sense, because he was not God, but he manifested the divine nature through his virgin birth and his unwavering obedience to God’s law, enabling him to redeem people from sin and suffering by waking them to their true, spiritual nature. Science and Health explains, “The Christ was the Spirit which Jesus implied in his own statements: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life;’ ‘I and my Father are one.’ This Christ, or divinity of the man Jesus, was his divine nature, the godliness which animated him” (p. 26).

In the Gospel of John he says, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (17:20, 21).

Jesus demonstrated that we are one with God because Spirit is our source. Since the material senses perceive only physical, human selfhood and matter, Jesus taught the need for each of us to be “born again,” not of the flesh, but of the Spirit, God – that is, to put off that false sense of an independent mind, a material body, and a human personality, and instead to recognize ourselves as the reflection of divine Spirit.

So many healings and blessings have come from cultivating the humility to see that we are not cause, but effect – not the divine Mind, but what the divine Mind is knowing. As the divine image and likeness of God, each one of us naturally reflects the divine.

Adapted from an article published in the March 2025 issue of The Christian Science Journal.