For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ -- 1 Corinthians 3:11 (NIV)

This is why the gospel is so important. If the gospel isn't laid correctly, then all the other teachings are for nothing. If we haven't believed the right things about Jesus, we haven't believed at all.

John the Baptist urged his Jewish brothers and sisters to turn away from their sins and pointing to Jesus, who was coming toward him, said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!". (John chapter 1). He also testified that Jesus is the Son of God.

John the disciple elaborated upon this in John chapter three when he wrote, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." These same words, one and only are also used in John 1:14 and John 1:18.

The words "one and only" are one word in the Koine Greek language: monogenes and literally means "only born" [mono=only genes=born]. A well respected Greek scholar by the name of A.T. Robertson comments on this word when he writes that it is used strictly in the sense of meaning, "As of the only begotten from the Father" (pg 13, Word Pictures in the New Testament, Vol. 5) as it is defined in John 1:18.

Although no one was ever or ever again conceived in the same manner which Jesus was, this word monogenes has deeper implications because it reaches further back in time before his virgin birth all the way to eternity.

Furthermore, the Greek grammarian R.C.H. Lenski writes, "Jesus never unites himself with us by saying "our Father." When he says "my Father" he distinguishes himself, the essential Son, from all others who are only adopted sons. This is made evident with greatest clearness in John 20:17, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God." (pg 100, The Interpretation of St. John's Gospel).

Jesus is different from all created creatures. Satan can't make this claim. Neither can the angels, or any higher ranking angel. As Paul the Apostle wrote in Colossians, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."

Make sure you have believed the right things about Jesus Christ. It is important. What you believe will determine exactly how you will spend all of eternity.