Field Guide to Counterfeits: How Shrinking Jesus Breaks the Gospel

Only God Saves: The Divine Bridegroom and the Cross

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2521579/open_sms]  Scripture says only God saves (Isa. 43:11)—yet Jesus forgives sins and proves His authority (Mark 2:5–12). In this wrap-up episode, we connect the prophets’ marriage-covenant imagery and Torah’s tension (Jer. 3:8; Deut. 24:1–4) to Paul’s insight that death releases from the law (Rom. 7:1–4). The point is simple and decisive: the cross saves because the crucified One is God the Son—the divine Bridegroom whose own blood seals the new covenant and cleanses His bride (Acts 20:28; Luke 22:20; Eph. 5:25–27).

Field Guide to Counterfeits: How Shrinking Jesus Breaks the Gospel

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2521579/open_sms] This episode is a concise “field guide” for spotting and answering counterfeit gospels that shrink Jesus—reducing Him to a creature, a mere role, or only a prophet. It opens by framing the stakes from John 5:23 and Isaiah 43:10–11: Scripture commands us to honor the Son just as the Father, and it insists there is no Savior besides YHWH—so if Jesus isn’t truly God the Son, worship becomes idolatry and salvation collapses.

When Jesus Tells You Who He Is: Son of Man, I AM, Judge of All

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2521579/open_sms]  In the trial scene Jesus speaks plainly—claiming Daniel 7’s Son of Man and Psalm 110’s enthroned Lord—so neutrality isn’t an option. We follow His “I AM” identity and the divine prerogatives only God has: forgiving sins, ruling Sabbath/temple, judging all humanity, and holding resurrection life in Himself—ending with a call to worship and obedience.

The Name Above Every Name: YHWH Texts Fulfilled in Jesus (and the “You Are Gods” Question)

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2521579/open_sms] The apostles don’t merely imply Jesus’s deity—they apply YHWH-only Scriptures directly to Him. We read key OT→NT “name” chains, explore the Angel of the LORD and “My name is in him,” then clarify Psalm 82/John 10: “gods” as delegated authority—not rivals to the one true God—before inviting listeners to call on the Name that saves.

Begotten, Firstborn, and “The Father Is Greater”: Answering the Tough Texts

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2521579/open_sms]  We put on the “two-natures lens” (true God, true Man) so hard passages don’t turn into heresies. We tackle the most-quoted objections (“greater than I,” “the Son doesn’t know,” “firstborn,” “beginning,” Proverbs 8), and show how the early church read these without denying Jesus’s full deity—ending in ordered relations, not a lesser nature.