1 John 2:21-23

I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.

John does not treat this like a secondary matter. He does not say this is a small difference in opinion. He goes straight to the center of the faith and says that a lie about Jesus is a lie about God.

That is strong language. But it has to be.

Because the denial John is confronting is not merely a denial of a title. It is a denial of who Jesus is in His very being. John says that to deny the Son is to deny the Father also. In other words, if you make a distinction in their glory, if you lower the Son beneath the Father in nature and deity, you do not just miss Christ. You end up misrepresenting the Father too.

That is exactly where the error of cults goes wrong. Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, and every system that speaks respectfully of Jesus while diminishing His deity carry the same old poison. They may use His name. They may praise His teaching. They may even say salvation comes through Him. But the question still stands.

Is He God?

That is the issue. Not merely, Is He impressive? Not merely, Is He important? Not merely, Is He sent? John presses us past all the religious fog and forces the matter into the open.

Is He God?

People will say, “Jesus is great.”
But is He God?

They will say, “He is the Son of God.”
But is He God?

They will say, “He was the first begotten.”
But is He God?

You see, dear friends, until that question is answered rightly, the whole picture of salvation gets twisted.

Think about this.

Suppose you are sitting in my house when suddenly a man storms up the walkway, kicks in the door, and rolls a live grenade into the room. You freeze. You cannot move. I run down the hallway, grab my little boy, and throw him on the grenade to save you.

You would not call me loving. You would call me unspeakably cruel.

And that is exactly the picture created when people say Jesus is not God, but only a created being sent by the Father to take the hit. In that view, the Father remains at a distance while another absorbs the blast. The Father becomes harsh. Cold. Detached. The Cross becomes something terrible in all the wrong ways.

But that is not the gospel.

Isaiah 9:6 says of the coming Son,

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Jesus Himself said in John 10:30,

I and my Father are one.

And Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 5:18 and 19,

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them

Then Paul tells Timothy of the wonder of it all in 1 Timothy 3:16,

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh

There it is.

The Cross is not the Father sending someone else to suffer while He watches. The Cross is God Himself entering our grief. God Himself stepping into our judgment. God Himself taking the blow. That is why John speaks so sharply. Because once you diminish the Son, you do not merely weaken a doctrine. You deform the very heart of God.

Do not miss that.

This is more than a doctrinal discussion for theologians in a quiet room. This reaches right into the way you see the Father. If Jesus is less than God, then the Father can seem cruel. But if Jesus is truly God, then Calvary becomes the clearest revelation of divine love the world has ever seen.

The hands stretched on the Cross were the hands of God in flesh. The heart bearing our sin was the heart of God come near. The love poured out there was not secondhand love. It was His own.

So hold fast to the Son, saints. Do not accept a reduced Jesus. Do not settle for religious language that sounds reverent but robs Him of His glory. John says that no lie is of the truth. And one of the oldest lies ever told is that Jesus can be honored without being confessed as God.

He cannot.

To know the Son rightly is to know the Father truly. To see Jesus as He is is to see that God did not stand back from our ruin. He came Himself. He suffered Himself. He saved us Himself.

And that is why the gospel is not merely true.

It is beautiful.