21. . . no lie is of the truth. 22Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.
Nothing is more fundamental to life and all of existence than the identity of Jesus Christ. The man Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. He is fully and truly human, and He is fully and truly God. This is what is true and central to Christianity, as the apostles taught it. Secularists would say that the Bible speaks about religious truth using religious terminology, as though it were not genuine truth in the philosophical or even the scientific sense. Thus, they would say the notion of Jesus Christ being God in the flesh is a “Christian” truth, but not an absolute truth.
However, John is writing here about the God of all creation, the one he wrote about in His gospel account: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3). This is the God who created all things that science studies and philosophers contemplate. So the truth John writes about is absolute, and anything that goes against this truth is a lie.
In specific, the truth he writes about here is the identity of Jesus. Contrary to popular thought, the term “Christ” is not Jesus’ last name. The word is the transliteration of the Greek term that means Messiah or literally, “the Anointed One.” To the Jewish mind, this makes Jesus central to all God’s promises for His people, fulfilling God’s purposes in the world. Jesus was the blessing promised to Abraham long ago (Gen. 12) that God would bless the world through Abraham and his descendants.
But further, John identifies Jesus as “the Son” and puts Him on the same level as the Father (an apparent reference to God). To deny the one is tantamount to denying the other. One cannot claim to be faithful to God and not at the same time and in the same way be faithful to Jesus. The apostle Paul puts it similarly, centering our salvation squarely on this truth:
[I]f you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved . . . (Rom. 10:9)
The word “Lord” in context there refers back to Yahweh of the OT, who is so identified as God of the Jews. Thus, anyone who denies or teaches against the objective, absolute truth that Jesus is God on the same level as the Father believes and propagates a lie.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus and God the Father, I worship You in spirit and truth.
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