Do you agree with John 8:24 that you must believe Jesus is God to be saved? Jesus says in John 8:24 … “… if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” Please note: There is no “He” in the original Greek language.
There are plenty of reasons to believe that Jesus was God in human form. John, Paul, and the writer of Hebrews said He was, Jesus said He was, and so did God. But I don’t believe that every time He said the words “I am” He was really saying He is God. For example in John 8 He used that phrase 8 times and only the last one was understood by the Jews to be a use of the name of God. We know that because that’s when they took up stones to stone Him. (John 8:58-59)
In John 8:24 Jesus told them that if they did not believe He was the one He claimed to be they would die in their sins. That’s because He claimed to be the one God sent to save them from their sins.
Spirit led study will bring one to the conclusion that Jesus is God. The blood of a sinless man was required to redeem us, and there’s only ever been one. No one with a human father could qualify. As far as salvation is concerned I would say that someone who has studied the Bible and still denies the deity of Jesus has a problem because of this, but the Bible doesn’t say say that believing Jesus is God is a prerequisite. I think it’s something that the Holy Spirit reveals to us after the fact through our studies.