To believe upon Jesus Christ as the Son of God for salvation is to believe upon God who became flesh and lived among us. God who became flesh in the womb of a virgin and was born as God in the flesh (Mt 1:23). He came down from heaven and grew up as God in the flesh and had His ministry doing the will of the Father as God in the flesh (Lk 2:49, Jn 6:38-40). He was justified in the Spirit as God in the flesh and was seen of angels as God in the flesh (1Tim 3:16). The disciples had seen and laid their eyes upon Him and handled Him as the Word of life (1Jn 1:1).
God had to become a man in the likeness of sinful flesh so that He could condemn sin in His flesh by shedding His blood and being crucified unto death (Rom 8:3). God had to become a man and experience what is was like to be a man in the world in which man lived and He did this without any sin mentally, emotionally or in any part of his flesh that was tempted from without. As a man He was crucified through weakness (2Cor 13:4) and he came from heaven that we might have life (Jn 5:40, 10:10).
He is the Son of God (Jn 1:34), the Son of man (Jn 1:51), and God in the flesh (Rom 8:3, 1Tim 3:16, 1Jn 4:2,3). For man to believe upon the Son, who died and shed His blood for the remission of sins (Mt 26:28) was to have eternal life that came from the Father and the Son (Jn 5:26).
Jn 3:12-18 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe , if I tell you of heavenly things? 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up : 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish , but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish , but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved . 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned : but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Jn 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you , He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Jn 14:6,7 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way , the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.7 If ye had known me , ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Jn 12:44,45 Jesus cried and said , He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. 45 And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.
Jn 6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Jn 6:44,45 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard , and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
*This is the living Word of Life that cometh down from heaven as the bread of life. This Word of Life came down to reveal the Father that man would believe upon Him through the Son...
Mt 11:27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
The spirit of this age denies that Christ came in the flesh as God with us, to humanize Jesus Christ and not recognize Him as God that came in the flesh. This is done to deify man to make man equal with Christ without the deity of God. To make Jesus Christ the Son to be lesser than the Father is to strip Deity and Divinity away from the Son. To strip Him of these, humanizes the Lord Jesus Christ and makes His blood and death on the cross only a human experience of a sacrificed life and not one of obtaining eternal redemption for man (Heb 9:12).
God is the only one that can obtain eternal redemption for man. For sinful man to be redeemed from His sin that separated Him from God, that redemption must come from God through the shedding of His own blood from one that is perfect and without sin. God is the only one that is perfectly righteous and knows no sin and that perfection is in the Son and there is no way that we can know the perfect righteousness of the Father without knowing the Son. The Son was sent to reveal the perfect righteousness of the Father and is our righteousness...
1Cor 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
In order for any of this to take place God had to become a man through His Son. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their sins unto them (2Cor 5:18,19)
To say that the Son is not as great as the Father is to say that what was offered through the Son was something less than the greatness and goodness of the Father. The Father has always been in the Son and the Son could offer nothing but the life of the Father who was in Him. This is what Christ meant when He said the Father was greater than He and that the Father was only good, because the Father was revealing Himself to man through the Son. This made the Son equal with the Father, for not only was the Father in the Son but the Son was in the Father. That means that the Father could reveal nothing but the Son whom He sent as the only begotten.
The Son was the only begotten because the Father could reveal no other. They are one and the same, within and without. The Father revealed the Son and the Son revealed the Father. If you have seen me you have seen the Father, Jesus said. They are one and they agree in one and no man cometh unto the Father but by me, Jesus said, and no man cometh to me except the Father draw them. There is no salvation, no redemption, no reconciliation, no righteousness, no justification or sanctification or forgiveness of sins through the Son without the Father. If any believe otherwise or any other doctrine, then they deny that Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh through the Son.