A Deceptive Christian False Teaching No One Talks About
- Brother Pastor
- Mar 20
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 21
There’s a Christian false teaching that few people recognize, and even fewer discuss. It claims that Jesus had enough "faith" to stay committed to His mission, endure the crucifixion, and rise three days after His death.
Some preachers have muddled the Lord’s faithfulness to His purpose with the concept of saving faith. What they fail to realize is this: if Jesus had faith in the same way we do, He could not have been the sinless Lamb of God.
I’ve written a short, devotional-style paper titled "Jesus Had No Faith: A Biblicist Approach," which you can download for free by clicking that title link.
That said, I’m not one to let valuable doctrinal content sit unpublished, gathering dust in the shadows of a Google-bot-crawled document. While readers can download the full argumentative paper, I’ll also share its content as a series of reformatted blog posts.
Here’s the plan: the theological argument in these posts—starting with this one—will take on a more conversational tone compared to the free download. If I don’t take this step, Google might flag the unedited, cut-and-pasted paper as non-user-friendly, burying it where it’ll never see the light of day!
So, let’s dive into part 1 of 2 and make sure you read the part 2 (of 2) whose link is at the end of this post.
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Faith as the Reconciliatory Foundation
I. Introduction
Thesis Statement
Jesus Christ, being the full expression of the Godhead, doesn’t rely on anything outside of Himself. This means He doesn’t need faith and can’t be swayed by temptation like we are (Dan. 4:35, Acts 17:24-25, Col. 1:16-17).
Put simply, if we think Jesus needed faith or could have stumbled into sin, we’re missing the point of His sovereignty. It’s not just that He represented God—He is the fullness of God Himself, not some mere messenger.
The Seven I Am Statements of Jesus
This presentation must begin with a brief overview of who the Godhead is, presented at the largest macro possible and in His own words. In biblical terms, there exists a relationship between the created and the Creator, where the former requires the omniscient and omnipotent sustenance of the latter (Gen. 1:1-3; John 15:5; Acts 17:28; Isa. 40:28).
The Godhead, more often referred to as the Trinity, consisting of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is one God acting in unity according to manifestative need (Matt. 3:16-17; John 14:16-17; 1 John 5:7).
Within this perfect eternal essence is the declaration that reveals the triune nature of the one true God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:1-3).
While this passage reveals the Father and the Word (Son), it does not explicitly mention the Holy Spirit.
To complete this triadic revelation, the Bible states, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:1-2).
Not coincidentally, when the Word (the Son) was baptized and came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, and the Father identified the Word as His beloved Son, once again revealing the unity of the Godhead (Matt. 3:16-17; Mark 1:10-11; Luke 3:21-22).
While this describes God as Creator and Sovereign, as well as the origin of time itself, it does not yet explain how humankind interacts with Him or why it should. This revelation began when God provided the prophet Moses with an all-encompassing description of His essence.
When Moses asked the Lord what name he should use to identify Him to the children of Israel, God replied, “I AM THAT I AM. Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exo. 3:13-14). In this profound declaration, the Godhead confirmed the all-encompassing nature of His being available to each manifestation.
This is further affirmed through the seven “I AM” statements of the Word/Son of God, Jesus Christ. While an exhaustive biblical apologetic on each statement and its theology would make this presentation unnecessarily cumbersome, listing each characteristic is critical for clarity.
Here are the seven “I AM” statements of Jesus:
1. “I Am the Bread of Life” (John 6:35).
2. “I Am the Light of the World” (John 8:12).
3. “I Am the Door” (John 10:9).
4. “I Am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11).
5. “I Am the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25).
6. “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6).
7. “I Am the True Vine” (John 15:1).
The revelation to Moses, the “I AM” statements of Jesus, and the Lord’s declaration, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58), all point to a sovereign power that exists independent of any other source.
More plainly, “I AM” cannot exist as the universal Sovereign while simultaneously declaring “I need,” which is a predicate for the receipt of grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 4:4-5; Titus 3:5).
Jesus's Sovereignty and Natural Law
Faith further has the unique property of manifesting miracles which violate natural laws (Exo. 14:21-22, Matt. 28:1-10, Rev. 21:1-5). Since an omniscient being authored natural law, violating them would simply involve adjusting or changing the rules as necessary—commonly referred to as miracles, sign, and wonders (Ex. 7:3, Acts 2:22. Heb. 2:4).
For example, Jesus healed a blind man using nothing more than a mud pack (John 9:1-7). Blindness, like every other human frailty, results from the sin of Adam and Eve (Gen. 3). The blind man should have remained blind for the duration of his life however, the Lord violated natural law which He had sovereign control over.
Although Jesus Christ has sovereign power of natural law, it must also be noted that this power is assigned to followers of the faith in certain situations as well (Matt. 10:1, John 14:12, Acts 2:43). Jesus could only bequeath super-natural power if sovereign and the ability to manifest such works is a result of humankind possessing faith (Matt. 10:1, Luke 10:19, John 14:12, Jam. 5:15).
If Jesus is the creator and distributor of miraculous power to the otherwise powerless, then He cannot be subject to the same inequality, namely that of requiring faith to receive and re-distribute.
II. Faith as the Reconciliatory Foundation
Faith and Faithfulness
Much of the confusion arises from a misunderstanding of Hebrews 3:1-2, which states: "Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house."
This passage refers to the Lord as being faithful to His purpose. However, this should not be interpreted as implying that Jesus had need of “saving” faith received through grace as does fallen humanity (Rom. 5:1).
Instead, it highlights perfect alignment with Himself as the fullness of the Godhead (Gen. 1:26, Isa. 6:8, 2 Cor. 13:14). This becomes evident because of the Lord’s testimony of “being sent down from Heaven” (John 3:13, John 6:38, John 8:42).
Next, in the book of Revelation, Jesus “stood before Him who sat on the throne” (Rev. 7:9-10). This is crucial because if Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead and is sovereign over all things, it is impossible for Him— even in human form— to either receive grace through faith or be subject to its saving power as is the sinner (John 8:46, 1 John 3:5).
Origins of Christological Faith
The chief requirement for possessing faith is less about being a sinner and more about having a beginning. For clarity, sinfulness is immaterial if one is never born. Biblical evidence suggests a direct connection between having a beginning and the rejection of sovereign rule, with Lucifer, other angels, and the first human beings serving as archetypes (Isa. 14:12-17, Gen. 3).
Jesus also made an eighth I AM statement when He declared, "Before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58).
When this is combined with the revelation of Him being the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, one must conclude that because He is not only the Alpha and Omega but also God, He cannot require faith (Rev. 22:13).
Unlike humans and angels, who have a beginning and an end, and thus fit the profile of sinner, Jesus is eternal and self-existent.
The origins of Christological faith can be traced to the moment created beings departed from the presence of God, resulting in judgment and separation between Creator and creation.
Three sets of biblical texts highlight—not only the necessity of ecological and later physiological creation—but the process by which faith became essential.
The prophet Isaiah records that an angel named Lucifer violated eternal order by rejecting all that God had given him. Lucifer’s rejection of God’s sovereignty was an unrighteous act of free will through abandoning his purpose (Ezek. 28:12-15, Rev. 12:7-9).
As a result, he was cast out of Heaven and reappears in the Genesis narrative as a seductive serpent in the Garden of Eden (Rev. 12:9, 20:2). Furthermore, the purpose for preaching manifest in spacetime.
Adam and Eve’s choice to disobey God mirrored Lucifer’s rejection of divine authority, leading to their judgment and expulsion from Eden. As had Lucifer said in his heart, “I will be like God,” so did the serpent tempt Eve with, “your eyes shall be open, and you will be like God” (Gen. 3:5).
This was significant because with Adam and Eve’s newfound awareness—“the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Gen. 3:7)—marked the point at which faith became necessary.
Despite humanity’s separation from God, grace through faith was extended as the means of reconciliation with Him (John 3:15–17; Rom. 10:9–11; Gal. 2:16). However, no such path exists for Lucifer, later Satan, or the angels who joined his rebellion because eternal destruction has already been pronounced upon them (Jude 1:6; 2 Pet. 2:4; Matt. 25:41).
Humanity faces this same fate only if rejecting salvation through Jesus Christ (John 3:18, 2 Thess. 1:8-9, Rev. 20:15).
Jesus, as the sinless Lamb of God, is not beholden to sin nor subject to its remedy: grace through faith. To prove the Lord had faith is affirming He was also needing grace as no biblical evidence exists that grace is not the result of faith (Rom. 3:24-25, Rom. 4:16, Rom. 5:1-2).
Instead, as the centerpiece of God’s plan of reconciliation, He is “the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2, 2 Cor. 5:18–21; Heb. 4:14–16).
Please read part 2 (conclusion) to this paper in the next article Was Jesus a Sinner Requiring Faith in God?
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