The Surety Of The Truth

I thank God for the Holy Spirit, who helps us know God's word.

1 John 2:22 - "Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son.”

The false teachers of John's day denied the truth of who Christ is. The specific falsehood that was being taught was called gnosticism, and it had two primary doctrinal errors. Now I'm going to use a little seminary training for this next statement.

1. Docetism. This is a fancy Greek word which means that something seems or appears a certain way. The gnostics believed the body is evil. So, God, who is Spirit, could not take on flesh. They said. So, according to them, Jesus did not become a man. He did not come in the flesh, it only appeared that He did. They denied a real, human Jesus. Of course, this is a blatant denial of the incarnation of God becoming man.

2. Cerinthianism. Cerinthus was a contemporary of John. He thought that Jesus had a real human body, but that he was not the Christ until the Holy Spirit came upon Him at His baptism. Cerinthus and his followers taught that the Holy Spirit remained upon Jesus throughout his three years of public ministry, but the Holy Spirit left him before the crucifixion, since the Holy Spirit could not be associated with suffering.

Of course, the Bible teaches that Jesus is fully God who came in human flesh. To deny that is defiance against God and makes you a false teacher. Jesus is the eternal God who stepped out of eternity into time, born of a virgin, clothed in human flesh, died upon a cross, and rose from the dead. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

John says that anyone that teaches differently from that is a liar. The fact that they are opposed to Christ means they deny the reality of who Jesus is. The antichrist lies because he denies that Jesus is the Christ. And whoever denies the Divinity of Christ, that He is the Christ, the anointed One from God, ultimately denies the Father as well.

A person cannot believe whatever he wants about God's son, Jesus Christ, and think he can have a relationship with God the Father. To believe wrongly concerning Jesus is to believe wrongly about God. Why? Because Jesus is God. He is God who came in human flesh.

1 John 2: 23-26 - "No one who denies the Son has the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well. 24 What you have heard from the beginning is to remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father.

25 And this is the promise that he himself made to us: eternal life. 26 I have written these things to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.”

You can tell by the tone of John's writing in this passage that his message about false teachings was a serious one. For believers, though, John offered encouragement. He said that if what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. What they had heard from the beginning was the preaching of the gospel. They were to let the truth of the Gospel remain and take up residence in them. They were to hold on to it and not be moved away from it.