ARTICLE XIII.
THE WORK OF CHRIST

§ 32. Unitarians believe that Jesus felt himself to be sent by God to reveal the truth (John 18:37) and God’s pardoning love (John 1:17; Matt. 9:2, 6), to seek and save the lost (Matt. 18:11; Luke 19:10), to give rest to the weary and heavy-laden (Matt. 11:28), to carry up to a higher morality the law of duty (Matt. 5:18. 20, 21, 27, 33, 39, 44), to sacrifice himself for the good of others (Matt. 20:28), to call sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17), to preach good news to the poor, freedom to the captives, sight to the blind, and comfort to the sorrowful (Luke 4:18; 7:22), to reveal the parental love of God (Matt. 11:27; John 17:26), and to give spiritual life and hope of eternal existence (John 6:40, 47; John 10:10). Among Unitarians there are sometimes differing explanations of these texts; but all agree that the essential mission of Christ is to make people better, wiser, and happier in this world and in that which is to come.

§ 33. Unitarian Christians believe it was, and is, the chief work of Christ to save men from sin and death, here and now.

(a) Sin refers to all those actions that are committed with consciousness, through which the moral teaching of God is violated. The apostle Paul speaks of human slavery to sin and defines this slavery as obedience to corporeal desires (Rom. 6:12-23). Christ saves or frees us from slavery to sin by his teaching, which reveals what sin is and how we can avoid it: “Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon a rock” (Matt. 7:24). His teaching shows us that right and wrong are rooted in the very nature of the universe and iterates the laws of moral consequence (examples: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” [Matt. 23:12]; “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving” [Acts 20:35]; “With whatever judgment you judge, you shall be judged” [Matt. 7:2]; “Give, and people will give to you” [Luke 6:38]; “No one can slave for two masters” (Matt. 6:24); ‘A tree is known by its fruit’ [Matt. 7:15-20]; “Happy are the pure in heart, for they will see God” [Matt. 5:8]). While the teaching of Jesus manifests the duty and expediency of doing right, Jesus’ life and sufferings demonstrate the truth of his teaching, and how persons can achieve freedom from sin by turning their allegiance over to righteousness. His example shows the possibility, reality, and beauty of a life given to the service of God and humanity: “I have given you an example so that you should do as I have done to you” (John 14:15), “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5), etc.

(b) The death that Jesus delivers us from is a spiritual death, referred to in Scripture also as the “second death” (Rev. 2:11), by which we would fall into a state of alienation from God (Rev. 21:7-8; see also §56). By consistently obeying Jesus’ teachings, we “conquer the world,” become regenerate (see §§60-61), and attain everlasting spiritual life, which is the ultimate goal for worshippers of God (Eph. 2:4-5; Heb. 12:9; 1 John 5:11-12).

Thus, by a gracious mission, by simple and clear instructions, by encouraging representations of God’s parental love and pity, by winning examples of the transcendent beauty of goodness, and, most of all, by that grand consummation, death, by that exhibition of the curse of sin, and by his compassion even while he was made to bleed, Jesus brings us nearer to God by helping us to escape sin and spiritual death.