1 John 2:21-23 – I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Yeshua is the Messiah? This one is the anti-messiah: the one who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.
The apostle John lays out some ground rules for spiritual truth and error. He begins with “no lie comes from the truth.” This statement on its own would do much to identify false teaching we see in the world today if we would simply take it at face value. Anything that is not true cannot be from the truth; simple in its profundity.
But then John takes it a step further by claiming that anyone who denies that Yeshua is the Messiah is a liar. This is strong language in today’s culture of inclusion. But the Bible is not limited by any cultural definitions. It can’t be, or it could not have survived for the millennia of its existence. The Bible rises above all culture because it is eternal.
John then ties faith in Messiah to belief in God as the Father. To deny one is to deny the other. This is how closely Yeshua is identified with the teaching and character of the Father. Yeshua clarified this for us prior to his crucifixion in his conversation with Philip.
John 14:8-11 – “Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.” Yeshua said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works. “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.”
John goes so far as to say that those who deny Messiah are antichrists, or anti-messiah. This also substantiates another teaching of Messiah.
Matthew 12:30 – “Anyone who is not with me is against me, and anyone who does not gather with me scatters.”
Not recognizing Yeshua as the Messiah results in opposition to the purpose and plan of God for all time. John equates not believing that Yeshua is the Messiah means one does not have God, either.
To believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, or the “Christ,” is to acknowledge that he was anointed by God, for this is what the term itself means. If he was anointed by God to do and to teach the things he did, as he explained to Philip, then he maintained the exclusivity of his relationship with the Father as God. This is why to have one is to have the other, and to deny one is to deny both. This is also validates the Bible, because he only taught what was prophesied in the prophets and Writings (i.e., the Old Testament, or Tanakh).
Luke 18:31- Then he took the Twelve aside and told them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. Everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.
Luke 24:25, 27 – He said to them, “How foolish and slow you are to believe all that the prophets have spoken! … Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures.
The Messiah is the Lord of God’s Kingdom. Trust in Yeshua as the Messiah provides stability beyond any cultural variability. This stability carries over into one’s personal life and provides the believer with a solid basis for consistent practice in harmony with God’s will.
And accomplishing God’s will on the earth is what the Kingdom of God is all about.
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