Does it matter which Jesus I believe in?
Yes. Paul feared churches would receive 'another Jesus' and 'a different good news,' and pronounced a double curse on anyone who preached one, even an angel from heaven. Salvation rests not on sincerity about any Jesus but on the real One: the Christ of Scripture, true God and risen Lord. A diminished Jesus leaves you exactly where a false god would: still in your sins.
This question arose from studying Who is Jesus? and What is the gospel?.
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Not a summary of these passages: the passages themselves. Read them, then come back to the study below.
The study
What the Scripture says
Paul feared a counterfeit
His worry was not weak faith but substituted faith: 'as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness,' so minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And the counterfeit was already arriving: 'if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach... you put up with that well enough.' The danger was not persecution of the truth but patience with a substitute.
But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if you receive a different spirit, which you did not receive, or a different “good news”, which you did not accept, you put up with that well enough.
A different gospel is no gospel at all
When the Galatians turned to a Jesus-plus-law message, the very error Paul spends the letter tearing down, Paul did not call it a variant view: he called it desertion. 'There isn't another good news,' he wrote, only people who want to pervert the Good News of Christ, and twice over he pronounced God's curse on anyone preaching otherwise, 'even though we, or an angel from heaven.' A message with a different Jesus is not a lesser version of salvation; it is no version of it.
I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different “good news”;
and there isn’t another “good news.” Only there are some who trouble you, and want to pervert the Good News of Christ.
But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any “good news” other than that which we preached to you, let him be cursed.
As we have said before, so I now say again: if any man preaches to you any “good news” other than that which you received, let him be cursed.
A diminished Jesus cannot save
The reason is arithmetic: salvation requires exactly who He is and what He did. 'If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.' If righteousness could come by the law, 'then Christ died for nothing.' A Jesus who is merely a teacher or moral example offers no cross that saves and no resurrection that justifies. There is 'salvation in none other,' for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.
If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.
I don’t make void the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”
Sincerity about the wrong Jesus does not save either
Jesus' own warning cuts hardest: many will say 'Lord, Lord' and even prophesy and do mighty works in His name, yet hear, 'I never knew you.' The saving thing is not enthusiasm in His name but actually knowing Him as He is: confessing Him as Lord and believing that God raised Him from the dead. John states the stakes plainly: whoever does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God.
Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’
Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’
that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Whoever transgresses and doesn’t remain in the teaching of Christ, doesn’t have God. He who remains in the teaching, the same has both the Father and the Son.
Weak faith is not the same as a false object
The Bible never demands perfect theology before it will let Jesus receive anyone. The desperate father cried, 'I believe. Help my unbelief!' and got his son delivered; the man born blind began with almost nothing and grew: 'One thing I do know: that though I was blind, now I see.' The real Jesus receives honest ignorance and grows it. What He does not do is swap Himself for a counterfeit and still call it salvation. The test of any portrait of Jesus is simply this: is it the Son as the apostles saw Him, 'the image of the invisible God,' holding all things together?
Immediately the father of the child cried out with tears, “I believe. Help my unbelief!”
He therefore answered, “I don’t know if he is a sinner. One thing I do know: that though I was blind, now I see.”
who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
As you read, you may wonder…
Scripture raises the next question
Studying the Word naturally opens more of it. Follow what you just read: it leads somewhere.
Continue this trail
Which modern portraits of Jesus preach another Jesus?→“He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?””How does Jesus becoming man show us the Father's love?→“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”What does it mean that Jesus is the Lion of Judah?→“One of the elders said to me, “Don’t weep. Behold, the Lion who is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome; he who opens the book and its seven seals.” I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.”Explore further
What is the gospel?→The Gospel trail“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”Should I test every teaching by Scripture?→The Word of God trail“Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”We haven't written this one yet. Take it to your church or small group: the Word answers it wherever it is asked. If we study it here later, all the better.
Hold onto these
Verses to meditate on
But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any “good news” other than that which we preached to you, let him be cursed.
For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if you receive a different spirit, which you did not receive, or a different “good news”, which you did not accept, you put up with that well enough.
There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved!”
Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’
Whoever transgresses and doesn’t remain in the teaching of Christ, doesn’t have God. He who remains in the teaching, the same has both the Father and the Son.
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