10-Denial of Deity

The third basic doctrine of false teachers is the denial of the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ. The scale of the denial can range from outright verbal rejection or disavowal of the person, Jesus Christ, to the silent refusal to acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. There is more warning against this unbiblical doctrine than any other lie Satan has manufactured. The apostle John was constantly exposing the false teachers, who came in Jesus’ name, but the confession of their heart was a denial of the deity of the Lord. They still loved the world.

I John 4:1-3,

1)”Beloved, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2)By this know ye the Spirit of God; every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; 3)and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God; and this is the spirit of antichrist, of which ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world.”

The deity and humanity of Jesus Christ is fundamental to understanding the redemptive process of God. This process has five inseparable ingredients. First, the virgin birth of Jesus, which broke the sinful blood line of Adam. The eternal God was incarnated into a perfect pure body conceived by the Holy Spirit. In other words, God took upon Himself human form for all to see. Jesus was tempted in all points, by the devil, even as we. But, unlike sinful man, Jesus never gave in to the intense pressure to sin. He was the perfect man, completely victorious over sin. For had He sinned, His blood and His death would be empty and meaningless, and we could not be saved. We must believe in this to be saved.

Secondly, we must believe that Jesus’ crucifixion and shedding of blood was the complete atonement for our sin, and that He paid the price for all to be forgiven and cleansed by God. His shedding of blood was full payment for the penalty of breaking the law of God, which is death.

There is a teaching being popularized today, that is polluting and poisoning the minds of many people. It is that Jesus took our sins upon His Spirit, and not just His body. They say He had to do this before His body could die. What does it mean that Jesus bore our sin, that He took our sin upon Himself? It means that Jesus bore the penalty (death) of sin. He became a sacrificial substitutionary sin offering. The Bible repeatedly refers to His body and blood as the sacrifice, not His Spirit.

Isaiah 53:10 says that the soul (mind) of Jesus was the sin offering. Some would read this and thereby justify their error by teaching the spiritual death of Jesus Christ. If His dying spiritually is a lie, then what does it mean when God says His mind or soul was a sin offering? It means that He chose in His Spirit and mind to let His body die for us. He didn’t choose to sin, and neither did He have to die spiritually before His body could die. Spiritual sin is sinful thoughts, desires, motivations and attitudes. Jesus resisted sinful thoughts to His death, never giving heed to them. For had He taken our sinful thoughts into His heart, He would then no longer be pure. He sweated drops of blood, resisting those thoughts.

Those who teach that He “became sin” in His Spirit are teaching that He took our sinful thoughts and desires into His mind and heart. Whether they know it or not, that implies that Jesus became a sinner and that He Himself then needed to be spiritually born again. Therefore, it is not surprising that the heretics, who hold to the spiritual death of Jesus Christ, also teach that He had to be born again from Hell. May God open their eyes to the eternal danger they are in. This teaching distorts and destroys the atonement, the incarnation, the deity of Jesus.

Let me repeat it again. The teaching that Jesus died spiritually proclaims that Jesus entered Hell, His Spirit was dead, bound by sin, and needed to be born again or redeemed. This is heresy at its deepest levels. Hearing and believing such lies in your heart will bring nothing upon you but the wrath of God. Those who hold to this heresy teach that Jesus entered the region of the damned in Hades, bound and gagged by our sin. If this is true, then Jesus lied to the repentant thief on the cross when He said, “today thou shalt be with me in paradise.” This one statement of Jesus exposes the damnable lie of His spiritual death. Jesus entered into the paradise compartment of Hell, to lead the Old Testament saints out from their captivity (Ephesians 4:8-10, Luke 16:19-31, II Corinthians 12:4).

This teaching closely resembles the Gnostics of the first and second century, who were also heretics. Just remember, that our Lord’s physical act of shedding blood and bodily resurrection completed a spiritual transaction between you and God, if you believe that in your heart.

The third ingredient that you must believe to be saved, is that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. And that His resurrected body would never taste of death again. It is the same body that came out of the tomb, that today is at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, waiting to return to the earth. You cannot have eternal life, you are not redeemed, if you doubt or dispute the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul states this central truth very simply.

Romans 10:9-10,

9)”That if you confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10)For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

The fourth ingredient is the ascension of Jesus Christ back to Heaven, from which He came. In His resurrected, glorified body, He was transported into Heaven from the earth, in the sight of His disciples. Had He not returned to Heaven, the Holy Spirit couldn’t be sent into the earth to be received and indwell His followers.

The last ingredient in God’s plan for your redemption is the bodily return of the Lord Jesus Christ, to resurrect the dead bodies of His followers, and to change those of the living saints. Seven years later Jesus will rule the nations from Jerusalem and complete the first resurrection by resurrecting the martyred saints of the 70th Week. Isaiah prophesied of the King and His kingdom.

Isaiah 9:6,

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

Jesus is that child born in Bethlehem and that son given in Jerusalem, of that there can be no question. If the first two prophecies find their literal fulfillment on the earth, then so will the third one. It is obvious there is a gap of time between the child and the son, so why do so many discount His earthly reign? It is just a longer gap of time. The third part of Isaiah’s prophecy will take place on the earth. This great truth of His imminent coming kingdom has always been attacked and always will be. Let me warn any reader right here, that to attack the earthly millennial reign of Jesus is to call God a liar. It will produce the wrath of God upon anyone who denies it. Peter reveals that deniers were prevalent in his day also.

II Peter 3:1-3,

1)”This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, 2)That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior; 3)Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

Peter tells us that people who follow their selfish lusts will deny or doubt the imminent return of Jesus. They will know about Jesus, but really don’t know him. They won’t be looking and longing for His promised coming, as the Lord repeatedly commanded us to do. It is because their hearts are not established on His deity, but on the treasures of this earth.

If you doubt, deny or reject any of the five ingredients of our Lord’s deity and humanity you are deceived and under the control of Satan. This redemptive plan is for everyone, there is no other way to be redeemed. To be redeemed, there must be an identification and association with this plan by the person who hears it. We must become one with Him and His word. The devil’s desire is for you to believe everything and anything but this plan. He doesn’t care if you use the name “Jesus,” as long as it is not the One just described. Satan doesn’t even care if you say with your lips all these things, as long as you don’t really understand and identify with them in your heart. People who reject God’s total redemptive work in Christ have fallen. Many preachers seem to proclaim great truth, but if they deny or omit any part of this plan, they have committed harlotry and belong to the devil’s counterfeit church. They have been seduced.