POLL: Christ peccable or impeccable?

I voted for #3, but I could vote for #4 and see no contradiction between them.

 

I agree with swaimj. I voted for #3, but feel that #4 is true also, and compatible with #3. But I also recognize that perhaps someone could believe #4 and not #3.

 

Christ did not have a sinful human nature, but he experienced temptations to disobey or to sin, yet without yielding

I chose this one as being the nearest to theological correctness. If Christ could not sin in His human form, I am left with a lot of questions about the various temptations and their validity. I truly believe that Jesus was indeed man in every sense that we are except without sin......more like the first Adam.

The 3rd option seems to join the two natures.....which I grant we find virtually impossible to comprehend...so that at any time the divine overrules the human.......what then of the cries on the cross,,,,My God, My God, why hast Thou foresaken me? Who died on the cross? The divine-human man? Or was it the man, Jesus?

Cheers,

Jim

 

Tough questions Jim1999, and I think there is an element of mystery here that is beyond our comprehension, and perhaps not fully explained in the scriptures. I guess the question is, was Jesus able to sin, but chose not to, or could he not sin, and thus faced temptation beyond what we could bear? Hebrews 5:8 is interesting. It says that Jesus "learned obedience through what he suffered". I don't think that this means he had to experientially learn to obey God. I think it means that he learned from experience what obedience is by receiving a difficult command from the Father and going through the process of obeying it (specifically the command to go to the cross). In a sense it was not possible that he could have ever disobeyed, yet the value of his example to us is that he became a man and went through the process.

 

Our ole finite minds cannot comprehend the impeccable nature of the Lord Jesus Christ--to answer the question--which died on the cross--as stated above---simply--both!!!

Your friend,
Blackbird

 

For myself I chose option #3:
Christ did not have a sinful human nature, but he experienced temptations to disobey or to sin, yet without yielding

For Him to have been truly tempted He would have had to have been possesed of a capacity to give in to the temptation, true humanity, while not having a sin nature, being able to never sin. A true mystery but such is the Word is God and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

May God bless.

A servant of Christ,
Drew

 

He had two natures (whatever that means in contemporary language), but he was one person. Maybe we should be careful about making Christ divided into two by the way we pose these questions. Even when the doctrines were affirmed at Chalcedon, mystery was plain in the language. I would affirm that Christ was sinless, but like Drew said, capable of sin--the rest is mystery.

 

Imagine that!! GOD--capable of sin!! For God in flesh to be capable of sin--would have to also mean that at any point in God's eternity--God is still capable of sin! Imagine that--PURE HOLINESS capable of filthiness!

Your friend,
Blackbird

 

Maybe He could not sin because He would always choose not to.

 

Here is a question for you all was not Adam created sinless?... He was also tempted and did sin!... If Christ did not have the ability to sin and didn't how could he save us who fell in Adam?

By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned!... If Christ did not have the ability to sin... Then would that also say that the begotten of God Jesus Christ and pardon the mundane expression... robot was programmed to not commit sin.

As I see it he had to and was tempted in all points as we are!... And the temptation of Adam plunged a people God created into sin and all his posterity... Did not Satan use every trick in the book to try to get the Son of God Jesus Christ to sin!... Even using the words of his Father against him?

The only reason I or any of Gods children are saved is because Jesus Christ carried out the law to a jot and a tittle... Its not that he couldn't sin but didn't but that he could have and did not... And thats an eternal mystery... And to me that is why he is my Savior!... Brother Glen

 

Jesus had two natures, Adam had one. Jesus had one spirit, Adam had one. The spirit being the essence of the person gets credit and blame for decisions made. The nature isn't the person, just the conduit through which they experience the world. Adam's spirit decided to sin. Jesus' spirit (being the Spirit of God) couldn't. It takes nothing away from his experiences of temptation or being human. When he was hungry, he felt the same hunger that you and I experience, he wanted to have that hunger alleviated, the same as you and I, he knew of possible courses of action (eat or not eat), but, here is the important part, he did not WANT to sin, the act that would be sin did not appeal to him. Temptation is the enticement to fullfill a God given desire in a God forbidden manner. Satan tempted (enticed) Jesus, Jesus felt the same physical feelings we would feel, he can relate to how we feel, but, Jesus was not tempted (he didn't find Satan's offer enticing).