Wrong Jesus, Wrong Gospel
Is believing who Jesus is, His identity and attributes, as much a requirement for salvation today as trusting in the work He performed: His death, burial, and resurrection alone for the forgiveness of sins?
The answer is a resounding yes. You cannot separate the work of Christ from the person of Christ. The validity of the death, burial, and resurrection rests entirely on who was dying, being buried, and rising again. If we preach the wrong Jesus, we are inevitably preaching a wrong gospel.
Here are several scriptural proofs clarifying why the identity of Jesus is non-negotiable in the gospel of the grace of God.
1. The Gospel Concerns a Specific Person
The Apostle Paul defines the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, but notice the specific title he uses: "how that Christ died for our sins." He does not say "a man died" or "a martyr died." He uses the title "Christ" in association with Jesus.
In Romans 1:1-4, Paul explicitly states that the gospel of God is "Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." The gospel he preached concerns His identity: He is fully man (seed of David, fulfilling Messianic prophecies) and fully God (Son of God).
Scripture consistently links His title as "Christ" with His nature as God. As John 20:31 states: "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." While John wrote this to Israel regarding the Kingdom, this verse is helpful for definition: to be the "Christ" is to be the "Son of God." You cannot have the Savior without having the Deity. While the gospel of grace today is not merely believing that Jesus is the Son of God, to trust in His blood shed on Calvary’s cross alone as the payment for our sins, we must believe and know who He is.
Paul reinforces this connection between trusting the person of Christ and believing the gospel in Ephesians 1:12-14. He writes of those who "first trusted in Christ." He continues, "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise." Notice the order: you hear the gospel, which is about Him, and by believing it, you are trusting "in whom", Christ Himself. We trust the blood because of the veracity and authority of the one who shed it, and the moment we do, we are sealed by the Spirit until the day of redemption.
2. The Necessity of the God-Man
It is the sinless nature of Jesus Christ as God that allowed Him to take the place of sinful man on the cross to offer Himself as a perfect Savior. We must preach the right Jesus because a "lesser" Jesus cannot save:
If He were not Man: He could not shed blood or die, for God is a Spirit and immortal (Joh 4:24, 1Ti 6:16). He had to partake of flesh and blood to destroy him that had the power of death (Heb 2:14). Furthermore, there is "one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1Ti 2:5). Only a man could stand in the gap to pay the debt mankind owed (Rom 5:12-19).
If He were not God: He would have been born with Adam's sin nature. A sinner cannot die for another sinner; he must die for his own sin. Psalm 49:7 states, "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him." Additionally, if He were not God, He would not possess perfect knowledge. The Law declares that a man is guilty even if he sins without knowing it: "though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity" (Lev 5:17). A mere man, limited in knowledge, inevitably commits sins of ignorance. To be the absolute sinless sacrifice, Christ needed the divine attribute of omniscience to walk in perfect righteousness.
Therefore, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (2Co 5:19). If we remove His deity or humanity, we remove the power of the cross.
3. Warning Against "Another Jesus"
Paul was very concerned that the Corinthians would be beguiled away from the "simplicity that is in Christ" (2Co 11:3). In the very next verse, he warns against one who comes preaching "another Jesus, whom we have not preached…or another gospel" (2Co 11:4).
This proves that there are false "Jesuses" being preached and, therefore, false gospels. The "Jesus" of the Jehovah's Witnesses (a created angel), the Mormons (the spirit brother of Lucifer and a lesser God), the Muslims (a mere prophet who did not die on the cross), or the Hindus (one of many gods or masters) is "another Jesus." Trusting in the death of a created angel, or a prophet who never died, cannot pay for sins. Therefore, trusting the wrong Jesus results in a false gospel. We must trust the Creator who became our Savior. Also, Galatians 1:6-9 warns strictly against perverting the gospel of Christ, which begins with His identity.
4. Paul Preached the Person
Immediately after his conversion, before Paul wrote Romans or Corinthians, we see him in the synagogues. Acts 9:20 says, "And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God." In Acts 9:22, he proved "that this is very Christ." Paul’s ministry, especially to Jews, was grounded in identifying who Jesus was from the scriptures to validate what Jesus did: “For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.” (Act 18:28).
Conclusion
To be saved, we must believe in the person and work of the true Biblical Jesus. If someone believes that a mere human prophet died for them, or that He is a lesser “god”, or falls for the heresy that He "emptied Himself" of His deity and was not fully God while on earth (which comes from corrupted Bible translations of Philippians 2:5-8), they are not trusting the right gospel.
To strip Him of His full deity or humanity is to preach "another Jesus." We are saved by trusting the finished work of the Lord of Glory (1Co 2:8).
As 2 Timothy 1:12 says, "For I know whom I have believed..." It starts with the Whom.
