Could Jesus have sinned?

I believe it is better to draw our conclusion from the revelation of the Person of Christ as God come in the flesh and His attributes as God (for example His intrinsic holiness and immutability) rather than to speculate upon the "what if" details of His earthly sojourn.

Hebrews 7:26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Had He been capable of sinning on earth then He is still capable of sinning now (according to Hebrews 13:8).

HankD

[ April 23, 2003, 09:31 AM: Message edited by: HankD ]

 

I know this may be a day late and a dollar short, but there's absolutely no way Jesus could have ever sinned, God Incarnate, the God-Man, though 100% man, yet still 100% God.

I haven't read all the posts, but many agree that Jesus couldn't sin, I agree as well.

Jesus set the Perfect example on the pinacle of temptation, to prove the devil is no match, and exactly how stupid satan is to even think he could tempt the Son of God to sin. Also it shows that the devil is under the authority of God all the while. The LORD can make satan do that which would be considered against his will, all to accomplish God's will. The will of God in the temptation of Christ wasn't to prove Him sinless, it is already known that God cannot lie. It was to show man, no matter how weak we are, just as in Christ's humanity He also was weak in the flesh, as we are in Jesus and He in us we are more than conquerers through Christ Jesus and can overcome any temptation. We are to reckon ourselves dead, yet alive unto Christ, that's the key to overcoming temptation, Jesus is our City of Refuge, He is our way of escape from temptation altogether, and most of all from sin we'll ever commit, but never a license to sin willfully and arrogantly.

My Aunt Judy died believing Jesus did sin in the Garden of Gethsemane. Though many times I pointed her to scripture proving Jesus to be without sin, she held to the false teaching from an apostate. Was she saved? If you had known my aunt before she said she got saved and after (II Cor. 5:17) you would know she had become a "new" creature in Christ. Did she die with victory in her soul? I'd have to say , yes, she died clinging to her faith, praising Jesus for saving her, while in much anguish and pain, dying of cancer throughout her body. But I do have to say she was confused about many things of the Word of God.

I read a statement recently, I can't remember just who said it, but it makes a lot of sense: "We as men with magnifying glass in hand, look for any little detail that might be considered a mistake in the Word of God." I believe many are like the old crow, finding any little shiny object beholding it in his own esteem, when instead it is nothing more than junk.

To even think for an instant that Jesus could sin, is due to ignorance of the Nature of God altogether, trying to seperate the Spirit from the Body of Christ is a little more than simple ignorance. The one and only time the Body of Christ became separate from the Spitit was on the Cross. Jesus had become sin for all of creation and said,"Into thy hands I commend my Spirit" and He gave up the ghost.


In Christ, and never to be removed!


Brother Ricky

 

That's right brother Ricky, saved people can and do believe wrong doctrine (which may or may not be heresy).
Only God knows if our errors come out of our head or our heart.

HankD

 

Mike. Since when has Christology become a non essential of the faith? You may hold your opinion, but I can never respect it, and I maintain it is outright heresy. You can never prove from the word of God that Christ Jesus the God-Man could have sinned. Such a false notion just is not there.


Harald

 

Sorry you feel that way.

OK. Frankly, I don't really care whether or not He could've. The point is that He didn't. If it means that much to you, fine. He couldn't have sinned. There you go.

 

Mike. You have had your say. I am most sad that you display this kind of an attitude at such a serious doctrine. Just to let you know, it gave me no pleasure whatever to read your seemingly forced (or feigned) change of opinion. There is no triumphing in my mind, if you thought so, just sadness. Despite all this I wish you well.


Harald

 

And I'm saddened (or, at least, I would be if we didn't expect as much from you) that you would condemn me for having a different opinion on an issue that we have the liberty to disagree over.

I wasn't trying to bring you pleasure. I was trying to get you to drop it before you embarrassed yourself further.

Wow! You actually had something nice to say to someone else. I'm shocked.

 

I assume that all if not most have heard the expression, "there's no such thing as a stupid question". Well, the person that came up with that never heard this question. Jesus always is, always was and always will be without sin. He's the same yesteday, today, and forever. Christ is God and God can not even think of sin, let alone do it. Any questions, i really hope not b/c it's rather elementary.

 

Agreed.

[qb]

I don't think Hebrews 13 applies here.

He was also man and man can sin.

 

Mike...the statement of the topic was, "Did Jesus Sin" not could he have sinned, i was answering differently...but yes Christ was man, (God made flesh) and the same way someone would feel pain or hunger is the same way he felt and yes he faced temptation and endured it all, so yes you're right that he could've sinned...that's fundmanental (with out a sinless Christ there's no salvation, just like without the virgin birth, etc. all fundamentals)

my statement still stands, this is a common sense statement and still a stupid question,

 

Stupid Question? No. If a recently converted person was ignorant of Jesus' life and background and was truly trying to grasp that idea and could not get a grip on it, then why not ask? How else are you to learn. Just look at the discussion this stupid question has started among some pretty intelligent people. Did he sin? No. Could he have sinned? Never thought about it. I would think not.

In Christ

Ronnie

 

The impeccablitity of the Lord Jesus Christ?? Of course He was impeccable! Incapable of sin! Isaiah 53: 9 tells us, "He hath done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth!" You see, God knew beforehand that He would not sin as a man!

Now, you and I in our ole "pea brains" can't comprehend the impeccablitiy of the Lord Jesus Christ, can we?? His ways are far above ours! His incapablity to sin is far beyond what we can even think--because the best we can do is to think with sin present!

Blackbird

 

Just because God had foreknowledge that He wouldn't doesn't mean He couldn't.

 

As a man, yes he could sin. As God, no he could not. This is a paradox that the human mind cannot comprehend or explain. I will just leave it in God's realm, where it belongs.

Thank God that even if I am wrong about my explanation, He did not sin. Hallelujah!

 

Can you find me that one verse that indicates that a person must be able to sin in order to actually be considered a person?

 

May I quote from a noted authority, John A. Broadus in his commentary on Matthew (which echoes another great authority Alfred Edersheim):

How could Jesus be tempted? Was it possible for him to sin? If this was in no sense possible, then he was not really tempted, certainly not "like as we are." (Heb 4:15) But how can it have been possible for him to sin? If we think of his human nature in itself, apart from the co-linked divinity, and apart from the Holy Spirit that filled and led him, then we must say that, like Adam in his state of purity, like the angels and every other moral creature, his humanity was certainly in itself capable of sinning, and thus the temptation was real, and was felt as such, and as such overcome; while yet in virtue of the union with the divine nature, and of the power of the Holy Spirit that filled him, it was morally impossible that he should sin. Matthew, p.61 American Commentary on the New Testament.

I give this quote to show that the possibility that Jesus could have sinned is not foreign thought in Baptist circles and indeed in the foremost authority on the Life of Christ, one Alfred Edersheim.

It further adds to my comments early about the fact of the temptations. I cannot understand how a temptation can be real if in reality it cannot be a matter of choice. It then becomes a farce.

Sometimes we want Jesus to be so much God that we fail to appreciate his absolute humanity. It is hard for these finite minds to begin to comprehend this concept that Jesus is the God-Man; fully God and fully man. He is not either or and this lends to the confusion we have about the works of Jesus the Christ.

I trust this lends some credulity to this theological postulation about the temptations and dispels the notions that it is an heresy. I cannot type out five pages of thought here, but it should cause the reader to search further and not be so quick to judge and to condemn.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Very well said.

 

Hi Terry,

I heard it put this way once...

Though He came in the flesh (sarx), He would not sin because He could not sin.

HankD

 

Yet, he WAS tempted, but unlike us he did NOT.

How do you respond to Jesus's dying words on the cross "my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Not necessarily related, but am curious to your interpretation.

 

Mark 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Why had God forsaken Him? He was being punished for our sin.
How horrible was it for the Holy and sinless Son of God to made sin?
Who of us can comprehend this:

2 Corinthians 5 :21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Habakkuk 1:13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity…

Isaiah 53
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

HankD