The Impeccability of Christ

THE IMPECCABILITY OF CHRIST:
DID THE LORD POSSESS A SIN NATURE?

I humbly present this short post to my brothers and sisters in the Lord with the desire that it will challenge them to think deeper on an issue that is very important for our understanding of our Savior, and thereby our better appreciation for His sacrifice. I know that people have been arguing over whether Christ was able to sin for a very long time. Until recently, however, I did not realize that this was a belief held by people who in all other ways seemed committed to sound doctrine.

The question of whether Jesus could have sinned, of course, goes hand in hand with the question of what it means when the Scripture says that Jesus “was tempted as we are.” I hold to the view that the temptations of Christ were not as ours and that at no point did He ever struggle with the question of whether or not to give in to sin. In addition, I stand firm upon the doctrine of the impeccability of Christ and as such I reject the claim that He could have ever sinned.

A quick word before we move on. First, the doctrine of the impeccability of Christ does not just teach that He did not sin...that there was no sin in Him, but that He could not sin. Not that He ever desired to do so and was unable to do it, but that He never sinned because His very nature made it so that He had no desire to sin!

The other thing I wish to mention is that while I hold fast to my conviction that Jesus was not tempted in the same manner that we are tempted, this is not a doctrinal matter for me. I admit that I could be wrong on this issue, but I have yet to see any overwhelming biblical evidence that contradicts what I believe. I see no reason why my holding to this belief should put me outside the boundaries of Scripture any more than it should do so for someone who disagrees with me on this issue. On the doctrine of impeccability, however, I maintain that the only biblical option is to embrace it. I say again, Jesus never sinned nor could He have sinned.

Before we turn to Scripture, I want to make one quick point...and I will do so by asking this question. Thinking back to the title of this post...did it offend you? I certainly hope it did. I hope that to ask the question of whether or not Jesus possessed a sin nature makes you upset because this addresses one of the key points that I wish to make. For Jesus to have been able to sin, He would have required a sin nature, would He not? And was Jesus not born of a virgin in order that He might be born free of the curse of man? Was this not prophesied from the very beginning (Genesis 3:15)? One might hear the rebuttal that Adam and Eve were likewise not born with a sin nature and yet they still sinned, and that therefore Christ also could have sinned. I would reply, however, that neither Adam nor Eve possessed the divine nature of God...neither one was God made man. Jesus was fully human, without a doubt. But He was also fully God. His two natures were not in conflict, but completely and perfectly united, so that even while wrapped in frail humanity, He was infused with the power of divinity...nay, He was and is divinity! Remember that we are not speaking of Greek mythology here, where demigods possessed were half man and half god...no, Jesus was the God-man. God in the flesh. The mistake too many people make is that they want to treat each one of His natures as if they are separate and unable to influence each other. Jesus' divine nature was there along with His human nature, so that were we to assume that His human nature could have desired to sin, His divine nature would not have permitted it! As one author said, whom I am unable to credit due to my inability to remember who it was, Jesus' human nature did not act independently of His divine nature! And yes, Adam sinned in the garden, but assuming he received forgiveness for his sins and we will see him in heaven (which I think is true), will he be able to sin then? Will we? When we inhabit our resurrected bodies or live in our glorified ones, will we have the ability to sin? If not, why not?

Do you see that it is our messed up view of what it means to be truly human that confuses us? We look at ourselves and think Jesus had to have been able to sin because He was like us...but we should instead look to Him and realize that we will one day be just like Him in His humanity! Perfectly human. To sin is not a natural trait of humanity, only of fallen humanity. Jesus was born human, but brothers and sisters, take care that you do not suggest He was born with that nature common to fallen man, for He was not!

Hebrews 13:8

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

This is one of those verses that supports the doctrine of the immutability of Christ. In other words, Jesus never changes. Think about it. Was Jesus able to sin before the Incarnation? Can He sin now? Well then why would you even want to suggest that He could sin when He walked upon the earth? Especially in the light of the absence of any passage that specifically says He could have done so? The inspired words of Scripture clearly state that He's always been the same from the very beginning. In other words, from before the foundation of the earth! Dare we contradict the Word itself?

Hebrews1:1-4

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the
express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”

Again, this verse speaks to the very nature of Christ. He was, throughout time, the very brightness of the glory of the Father and the express image of His person! In all ways He is the Person of the Triune whom we can look upon without any fear of dying. Such a countenance as is His is free of any desire to sin...

Brothers and sisters, let us be clear. What dare we suggest when we state that Jesus could have sinned? Do we suggest he lusted after women? If the ever misunderstood Hebrews 4:15 says what the defenders of His peccability maintain, then does that mean that the pedophile can turn to Christ in the full confidence that our Lord understands his weaknesses because He experienced it? How hateful a thing to say, yet in some way it must be believed since the one who holds to that position maintains that this is the clear meaning of the verse! But what if instead of this, the verse speaks in respect to the weakness of the human flesh as Jesus knew it...in the things that are common to man. The weaknesses thereby referred to would be the weakness of the body, for He tired as easily as the next man. The weakness of hunger, for He knew pangs of hunger just as we do, and the devil tempted Him through this weakness. Does it follow, however, that Jesus must have wanted to give in to temptation? What if it is as A.W. Pink says, that “[t]his text teaches that the temptations of Christ were 'without sin' in their source and nature, and not merely, as the passage is sometimes explained, that they were 'without sin' in their result. The meaning is not, that our Lord was tempted in every respect exactly as fallen man is-by inward lust, as well as by other temptations—only He did not outwardly yield to any temptation; but that He was tempted in every way that man is, excepting by that class of temptations that are sinful, because originating in evil and forbidden desire.”

In other words, we may be tempted and consider giving into the temptation because our very natures are sinful, not yet fully sanctified. Christ, however, did not have this sin nature and
thereby did not ever consider giving into temptation.

Look at it this way: James 1:13 says that we should “let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.”

So Jesus, being God, could not be tempted by evil. This verse reveals a tension that exists in the very concept of temptation. For you see, I can easily say that I am tempted to lust by a beautiful woman. I must struggle to not sin when the temptation of a provocatively dressed woman comes before me. So I am being tempted by her presence, and am being tempted in my desires. This is exactly what James continues with in verse 14, where we read that “each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”

You see in this a clear distinction in the concept of temptation. If I struggle to overcome a particular temptation to sin, it is because of my base desires! If, however, somebody places a magazine of nude women within my reach, I may be tempted in the sense that something or someone is attempting to entice me, but I am NOT being tempted in the sense that I must struggle within my being. There is no inward struggle simply because this is not one of
the temptations with which I can be actually enticed. So in this sense, I have not been tempted...while being tempted! Another way of phrasing this would be to say that I can be tempted and not succumb to temptation in any form whatsoever.

Jesus, being God in the flesh, was dead to sin, and could not sin.

A final thought: Returning to the concept I introduce above regarding temptation, I found two definitions in the dictionary:

1. Temptation is “an act that looks appealing to an individual. It is usually used to describe acts with negative connotations and as such, tends to lead a person to regret such actions, for various reasons: legal, social, psychological (including feeling guilt), health, economic, etc.”

2. Temptation “also describes the coaxing or inducing a person into committing such an act.”

I have no problem stating that Jesus was tempted in the second sense...but I stand firmly against the idea that His temptation falls into the first category!

This is all I have time to write for now. I think I shall continue to study and flesh out a longer paper on this issue, but I wanted to take the time to write this brief thesis in order to put it up on my blog tonight. I welcome any questions or concerns regarding this, and I hope everyone takes it in the spirit of love with which I have written it.

God Bless!