We read in Science and Health: "Jesus bore our infirmities; he knew the error of mortal belief, and 'with his stripes' [the rejection of error] we are healed" (S. & H., p. 20).
"The atonement requires constant self-immolation on the sinner's part. That God's wrath should be vented upon his beloved Son is divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man-made" (S. & H., p. 23).
"Final deliverance from error...is not reached.... by pinning one's faith without works to another's vicarious effort" (S. & H., p. 22).
It denies the vicarious, the substitutionary work of Christ.
It makes atonement the sinner's task, and not the Savior's work. "The atonement requires," they say, "constant self-immolation on the sinner's part."
But, thank God, the Scriptures leave us in no doubt on the subject. "Christ also path once suffered for sins, THE JUST FOR THE UNJUST, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)).
Here we get the affirmation that Christ died; that He died vicariously, that He died in the flesh. All these affirmations are denied point blank by Christian Science. It strikes at the truth that salvation is through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, on the principle of faith apart from Works on the sinner's part; but the blow will recoil on this antichristian system and crush it, for, Scripture tells us: "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:55But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)). "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8, 98For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8‑9)).
The whole gospel is denied by Christian Science, and the faith of the redeemed of all ages is descried as "unnatural" and "man-made."