1 Peter 2:24 "Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree ... that we should live..."

Question:

There is so much that I am in agreement with in Unity teachings, Our Oneness with God, that we are the manifested Sons of God, and I'm sure many more. However, the one thing that keeps me from attending a Unity Church is that you believe Jesus Christ was just a teacher or a prophet, when the Bible clearly states according to Romans 10:9 Jesus Christ is Lord!
I Peter 2:24 “Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed” (KJV). There is no man, teacher or prophet that can purchase our very lives or healing by dying for us, only Jesus. Our lives are not our own; they've been bought by a price. If I were hung on a cross, it would not profit you anything. Only Jesus. He alone is God. What do you believe about the Holy Spirit, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues? I don't have space to speak about all those scriptures teaching on the Holy Spirit and His wonderful attributes.

Comment:

RESPONSE: And I don't have space to cover all the questions you raise. I hope you will continue to question and explore. And I hope you'll trust your own instinctive reaction to Unity, rather than allowing others to define it for you.   Let me say, briefly, that it is not really correct to say that Unity believes Jesus "was just a teacher or a prophet." He was a teacher and a prophet. He also became the Christ in full human expression. Jesus Christ is, indeed, Lord. He is the full expression of the Christ – the divine idea that contains all divine ideas – in human form. We see – at least I do – Jesus Christ as fully divine and fully human. Where we differ from mainstream Christianity is that we don't see Jesus as unique. He is not – to quote the Nicene Creed – the "only-begotten" Son of God. He is the perfect expression of the divinity that lives in each of us. He doesn't call us to worship him, but to follow his example and allow ourselves to become the Christ in full expression as well.   As far as Romans 10:9 is concerned, I do not, indeed, believe that "God raised him from the dead." I believe that Jesus Christ moved through a painful and demeaning death experience to show us that death has no reality in spiritual truth. It is no more to be feared than birth is. To say that God raised him from the dead gives death a reality that it does not have. I also believe it's a gross misunderstanding of Jesus' message and ministry to see him as a sacrificial victim, and to understand God as a power that, instead of infinite love, would insist on death and vengeance.   The beliefs you cite are common interpretations of scripture. There are other ways of understanding the same scriptural passages – equally historical, equally well established, centered in a different understanding of our relationship to the Power of God. We are Unity because we believe that there is only God – imperfectly expressing, often, because of our ignorance of our innate Oneness with that Presence and Power of infinite love. There is no separation from God – how could we be separate from a God of omnipresence? – and thus there was never a need for Jesus to "purchase our very lives." Jesus taught what he taught and did what he did to awaken us to our innate Oneness with God, and to call us to use that Oneness to create a new consciousness – the kingdom of heaven. So to say of Jesus that "He alone is God" is, I think, to miss the whole point of his ministry. It was never about him. It was always about us.   Blessings!

Rev. Ed