Who Is Jesus Christ? Why We Must Test Every Teaching by the Bible

There are many different ideas about who Jesus Christ is. Some people believe He was merely a great teacher. Others believe He was a created being who existed before His earthly ministry. Some religious organizations describe Him in ways that sound Christian but differ significantly from what the Bible teaches.

That is why this question matters: Who does the Bible say Jesus Christ is?

Our answer should not ultimately come from a church, a denomination, a religious leader, a television preacher, or any organization. It should come from Scripture.

Jesus Is Eternal, Not Created

The Bible does not present Jesus as a created being.

John begins his Gospel with an extraordinary statement:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:1

John then says that all things were made through Him.

Think about what that means. If all things that were created came into existence through Christ, then Christ Himself cannot be one of the created things. He existed before creation.

Colossians makes the same point. Paul says that all things in heaven and earth were created through Christ and for Christ, and then says, “He is before all things.”

Jesus did not come into existence when God created Him. He is eternal.

When Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), He was not merely saying that He existed before Abraham. He was identifying Himself in language that points to His divine identity.

Jesus Is Equal With the Father

Jesus is not presented in Scripture as a lesser god or a subordinate created being.

Philippians 2:6 says that Christ existed “in the form of God” and did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped. Hebrews 1:3 describes Him as the exact representation of God’s nature.

Jesus Himself said:

“I and my Father are one.”
John 10:30

This does not mean that the Father and Son are the same person. Scripture distinguishes them. But it does mean that Jesus possesses the divine nature and is not merely another created being somewhere below God.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity attempts to express this biblical truth: there is one God, and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct persons who share the one divine nature.

Jesus Is Not the Brother of Satan

This is another area where we must distinguish between what a religious system teaches and what Scripture teaches.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that Jesus and Lucifer were both spirit children of Heavenly Father. Official LDS material describes Jesus as the Firstborn Son of the Father in the spirit and Lucifer as “another spirit son of God.” LDS teaching materials have also explicitly described Jesus as the “older brother” of our spirits and Lucifer as a spirit child of Heavenly Father.

That creates a serious biblical problem.

The Bible never presents Jesus and Satan as brothers. Instead, it presents Jesus as the eternal Creator and Satan as a fallen creature who rebelled against God.

John says that all things were created through Christ. Colossians says that Christ created things “visible and invisible.”

Christ is therefore on the Creator side of the Creator-creature distinction. Satan is a creature.

Jesus and Satan are not brothers.

Jesus is Lord. Satan is His enemy.

Mormonism Gets Several Things Wrong

This is not about attacking individual Latter-day Saints. Many Mormon people sincerely love God, believe in Jesus, read the Bible, and desire to live moral lives.

But sincerity does not make a teaching true.

The LDS Church has doctrines concerning God, Jesus Christ, humanity, salvation, the afterlife, and the nature of God that go beyond or differ from biblical teaching.

The question is not whether those teachings sound religious. The question is whether they are true.

And that question must be answered by Scripture.

If an organization tells us something about Jesus that contradicts what the Bible teaches about Jesus, we have a responsibility to believe the Bible rather than the organization.

False Teachers Are Plentiful

The existence of false teaching should not surprise Christians.

Jesus warned about false prophets. Paul repeatedly warned about false teachers. Peter warned that false teachers would arise among God’s people.

The danger is that false teaching does not always announce itself by saying, “I am false teaching.”

Sometimes it comes wrapped in Christian vocabulary.

It talks about Jesus. It quotes Scripture. It speaks about God. It may even encourage people to live moral lives.

That is why Christians cannot simply ask, “Does this sound Christian?”

We must ask, “Is this biblical?”

Test Every Claim

The Bereans provide us with an excellent example.

When Paul preached to them, they did not simply accept everything he said because Paul was an apostle. They examined the Scriptures to determine whether what they were being taught was true.

That is exactly the attitude Christians need today.

When a preacher makes a claim, check it.

When a denomination makes a doctrinal statement, check it.

When a religious organization says, “This is what Jesus taught,” check it.

When someone says, “God told me,” check it.

When someone tells you that the Bible really means something completely different from what it plainly says, check it.

And when someone claims to have special revelation that changes the message of Scripture, check it even more carefully.

No teacher should be placed above God’s Word.

The Bible Should Be Our Ultimate Authority

Christians can respect pastors, teachers, scholars, churches, and Christian organizations without giving them ultimate authority.

Our ultimate authority must be God.

And the written Word of God is the standard by which we test what we are being taught.

This does not mean that every Christian will interpret every passage perfectly. Christians can disagree honestly about difficult subjects.

But there is a profound difference between honestly disagreeing over the meaning of a difficult passage and deliberately accepting doctrines that contradict the overall testimony of Scripture.

We need to continually bring our beliefs back to the Bible.

God Wants Us to Know the Truth

Truth matters to God.

Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

God did not give us His Word so that we would blindly follow religious authorities. He gave us His Word so that we could know Him, understand His will, recognize error, and live according to the truth.

We should therefore never be afraid to examine our beliefs.

If something we believe is true, honest examination will not destroy it.

And if something we believe is false, we need to know that.

Our loyalty must ultimately be to God and His truth, not to a religious label.

We Need the Truth to Be Good Disciples of Christ

Being a disciple of Jesus means more than calling ourselves Christians.

A disciple follows the teacher.

To follow Jesus faithfully, we need to know what Jesus actually taught and who Jesus actually is.

If we have the wrong Jesus, we have a serious problem.

The Jesus revealed in Scripture is not a created spirit being. He is not the brother of Satan. He is not merely a superior angelic being. He is the eternal Son of God, the Creator of all things, the exact representation of God’s nature, and the One through whom God has provided salvation.

That is why the identity of Jesus matters so much.

And that is why we must test every teaching against the Word of God.

Religious organizations can be wrong.

Preachers can be wrong.

Teachers can be wrong.

Scholars can be wrong.

And we can be wrong.

But God’s truth is not wrong.

So let us search the Scriptures, examine what we are taught, reject what contradicts God’s Word, and hold firmly to the truth revealed in Jesus Christ.

The Bible must have the final word.

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