Turning the page…
Turning the page…
Glory · Jesus Christ
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.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/does-it-matter-which-jesus-i-believe-in · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
Galatians 1:6-12
As you read: Paul doubles the curse on anyone, even an angel from heaven, who preaches a gospel different from the one already given.
6I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different “good news”;
7and there isn’t another “good news.” Only there are some who trouble you, and want to pervert the Good News of Christ.
8But 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.
9As 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.
10For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? For if I were still pleasing men, I wouldn’t be a servant of Christ.
11But I make known to you, brothers, concerning the Good News which was preached by me, that it is not according to man.
12For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:3-15
As you read: Paul's fear that the serpent's old trick will corrupt minds from the simplicity in Christ, while preachers offer another Jesus and are welcomed.
3But 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.
4For 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.
5For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles.
6But though I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge. No, in every way we have been revealed to you in all things.
7Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you God’s Good News free of charge?
8I robbed other assemblies, taking wages from them that I might serve you.
9When I was present with you and was in need, I wasn’t a burden on anyone, for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my need. In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will continue to do so.
10As the truth of Christ is in me, no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
11Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows.
12But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them that desire an occasion, that in which they boast, they may be found even as we.
13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles.
14And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light.
15It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
Matthew 7:21-23
As you read: People doing mighty works in Jesus' name who hear 'I never knew you.' Sincerity is not the same as knowing Him.
21Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22Many 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?’
23Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’
Colossians 2:16-19
As you read: A church being tempted to add to Jesus; Paul's answer is that they hold everything by holding fast to the Head.
16Let no one therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day,
17which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.
18Let no one rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God’s growth.
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.”2 Corinthians 11:3
“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.”2 Corinthians 11:4
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”;”Galatians 1:6
“and there isn’t another “good news.” Only there are some who trouble you, and want to pervert the Good News of Christ.”Galatians 1:7
“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.”Galatians 1:8
“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.”Galatians 1:9
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.”1 Corinthians 15:17
“I don’t make void the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!””Galatians 2:21
“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!””Acts 4:12
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?’”Matthew 7:22
“Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’”Matthew 7:23
“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.”Romans 10:9
“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.”2 John 1:9
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!””Mark 9:24
“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.””John 9:25
“who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”Colossians 1:15
“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.”John 20:31