Bramantino, The Resurrected Christ, 1490
The denial of Jesus’ divinity has been a recurring and foundational heresy in Christian history. The most infamous instance is Arianism, named after the Alexandrian presbyter Arius (c. 256–336), who taught that the Son of God was a created being—divine in some sense, but not fully God. The early Church decisively rejected this teaching at the Council of Nicaea (325 AD), affirming instead that Christ is homoousios—of one substance with the Father.
“If anyone says that the Son of God is a created being or not equal to the Father in essence, let him be anathema.” (First Council of Nicaea, Catholic Encyclopedia, 325 AD)
Beyond Arianism, the Church has identified several other Christological errors:
- Ebionism – Denied Christ’s divinity and virgin birth; insisted on Torah observance.
- Socinianism – Viewed Jesus as a moral teacher, denying his eternal preexistence and deity.
- Adoptionism – Claimed Jesus was a mere man adopted by God at baptism or resurrection.
- Unitarianism – A modern umbrella term for anti-Trinitarian belief, often denying Christ’s deity.
At the heart of each of these movements lies a common spiritual resistance: the refusal to accept that salvation must come from God Himself. But more deeply, they also reflect a twofold desire to be righteous apart from Christ: through rule-keeping (legalism) on one hand, and through moral self-deception on the other—a denial that we need saving at all. This latter form is especially present in modern spiritualities such as New Age thought, which often reduces Jesus to a symbol of latent divinity within all people.
“They have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man… and worshiped the creature rather than the Creator.” (Romans 1:23–25)
This post argues that legalism—whether in its Jewish, Christian, or moralistic secular forms—and the denial of Christ’s deity both stem from the same core: a desire to be righteous without depending on divine grace. Where legalism seeks to earn God’s favor through effort and rule-keeping, the rejection of Christ’s divinity removes his unique status as savior as the solution to the problem of universal guilt.
In New Age and humanist perspectives, this same impulse manifests not through law but through the denial of personal sin and the elevation of human nature. Both approaches are symptoms of a religious or moralistic impulse that retains the appearance of godliness while denying its power (2 Timothy 3:5).
1. Religious Self-Reliance as the Root of Denying Christ
1.1 The Insidious Lie of Self-made Godhood
The Fall narrative in Genesis 3 offers a paradigm for understanding legalism, moralism, and heresy alike. The serpent tempts Eve not with rebellion for its own sake but with the promise, “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). This primal desire for autonomy—defining good and evil on one’s own terms, and becoming like God without a relationship with Him, but through one’s own prideful effort—remains a central feature of fallen human religion.
Augustine named this impulse the Libido Dominandi (the lust for power):
“Every city, even a household, even a man’s soul, is torn by the conflict between the love of self even to the contempt of God, and the love of God even to the contempt of self.” (City of God, Augustine, Book XIV, ca. 426 AD)
1.2 The Human Deception of Righteousness by Works
The denial of Christ’s deity often stems from a human impulse to achieve righteousness through personal effort, reflecting a works-based soteriology common to nearly every world religion. Unlike the gospel, which proclaims salvation through grace alone, religions such as Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism emphasize human works—rituals, moral codes, or self-discipline—as paths to spiritual merit, revealing their origin in human striving rather than divine initiative.
By reducing Jesus to a created being or moral exemplar, as seen in heresies like Arianism or Socinianism, individuals assert that salvation can be earned, negating the need for a divine Savior. This deception, rooted in pride, rejects the necessity of Christ’s infinite atonement, which only His divine nature can accomplish, fostering a false sense of spiritual autonomy that alienates one from grace (Galatians 5:4).
“The religions of the world, in their various forms, are man’s attempt to reach God by human effort; the gospel, by contrast, is God’s initiative to reach man through Christ’s finished work.” (The Gospel According to God, John MacArthur, Crossway, 2018)
2. Legalism in Judaism and Christianity
2.1 Pharisaic Legalism and Jesus’ Rebuke
In Second Temple Judaism, particularly among the Pharisees, there was a strong emphasis on ritual purity, law observance, and social boundary markers. While not all Pharisees were legalists, Jesus frequently rebuked them for prioritizing external conformity over inward transformation.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” (Matthew 23:27)
Modern legalists are little different—they focus on obedience as a marker of righteousness and maintaining their status with God and man, not realizing that they are out of relationship with God and His grace.
2.2 Paul and the Rejection of Works-Based Righteousness
Paul’s epistles, especially Galatians and Romans, are a sustained critique of salvation by law-keeping. He argues that justification is by faith, not by the works of the Law (Galatians 2:16), and sees the attempt to earn righteousness as a rejection of grace.
“You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” (Galatians 5:4)
2.3 Legalism in Christian History
From certain strands of Catholic penitential systems to Protestant fundamentalism, legalism has often resurfaced in Christian practice. Michael Horton calls this tendency “Christless Christianity,” where moral improvement replaces the gospel of grace.
“In too many churches today, the focus is no longer on Christ and Him crucified, but on what we must do to be better parents, better citizens, and more spiritual.” (Christless Christianity, Michael Horton, Baker Books, 2008)
3. The Deity of Christ is an Offense to Legalism
3.1 Christ’s Deity and Divine Initiative
The confession that Jesus is God incarnate undercuts all human pretension to contribute to salvation. If Christ is fully divine, then redemption is not merely facilitated by God but accomplished by God. The religious spirit that resists this is often driven by the desire to maintain spiritual autonomy while retaining a moral high ground. Yet this is the way of death.
“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2, ESV)
“For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’ Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ But the law is not of faith, rather ‘The one who does them shall live by them.’ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’—” (Galatians 3:10-13, ESV)
3.2 The Scandal of Particularity
A central stumbling block for many who reject Christ’s divinity is the exclusivity of His claim. Jesus is not merely one teacher among many, but “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). The insistence that salvation must come through one man, in one place, through one crucifixion, is intolerable to the self-righteous heart, whether legalistic or relativistic.
“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
3.3 The New Age Mirror: All Are Divine?
New Age thought often denies the uniqueness of Christ by affirming a kind of universal divinity: “We are all divine.” This assertion bypasses the need for redemption and diminishes the incarnation to a symbol of human potential. In so doing, it ironically becomes its own form of legalism—a righteousness grounded in self-realization rather than repentance and grace.
“To say ‘I am God’ is not blasphemy in the New Age; it is awakening.” (The Kingdom of the Cults, Walter Martin, Bethany House, 2003)
4. Denying Christ’s Unique Deity: A Red Flag of Errant Religion
Whether it expresses itself in strict rule-keeping or in the refusal to admit the need for a Savior, self-righteousness is the deep root of much theological error. Legalism and the denial of Christ’s deity share a hidden alliance: both resist the grace that humbles the proud and exalts the cross. Both make salvation about human strength instead of divine mercy. And both, ultimately, reject the true and living God revealed in Jesus Christ.
“Having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” (2 Timothy 3:5)
To recognize and resist this spirit is not merely an intellectual exercise. It is a pastoral necessity and a spiritual safeguard. When a teacher, movement, or theology minimizes the deity of Christ—or subtly replaces grace with effort—we should be alert. The denial of Jesus’ divinity and the desire for self-righteousness are not isolated errors; they are theological symptoms of a deeper illness: the human tendency to enthrone the self.