Is the object of our faith the earthly Jesus of Nazareth or the crucified and resurrected Christ?
The crucified and resurrected Christ is the object of our faith, not the Jesus of Nazareth in His earthly ministry. Although He is one and the same person, the gospel is based on what was revealed after His resurrection and ascension, as Paul emphasizes to the Gentiles.
Les explains, reviewing 2 Corinthians, that Paul the apostle to the Gentiles constantly emphasized that Christ no longer dealt only with Israel but that the gospel had now gone to the whole world. The love of Christ constrains us because if One died for all, then all were dead; since Adam fell, every human being inherits the Adamic nature and is spiritually dead. Therefore, Les says, the crucified and resurrected Christ—not the Jesus of Nazareth of His earthly ministry—becomes the object of our faith. He stresses that although it is the same person, our gospel rests on what was revealed after Christ's resurrection and ascension.