The Sinless Christ

Let us start off with a question. Not just any question but one that will challenge your faith. Could Jesus have sinned? If He could then He is not God and not the Lamb of God without spot. If He had inward lusts that could lead Him to do evil then He is no different than Adam. We will prove that Jesus was without sin, did no sin and could not sin. And that His temptations were not from within Him but from an outside force.

There are five things we will look at. First we will look at what scripture says about Jesus being without sin. Second we will see that He was without sin by nature. Third we will compare His temptations to ours. Fourth we will address the question of whether someone who cannot sin can truly be tempted. And lastly we will ask why Jesus was tempted and what that means for us.

Scripture tells us that Jesus was without sin by nature and that He did no sin.

Paul also states that God made Him "to be sin for us, who knew no sin."¹ So Jesus was without sin inwardly and did no sin outwardly.

We need to understand that Jesus was not just without sin by choice. He was without sin by nature. From the moment He was conceived He was "that holy thing".² Jesus was not born with the nature of Adam.³ He was born of the Holy Ghost through a virgin.⁴ So He was kept from having the nature that all others have received from Adam.

I want to bring up the other side of this argument. There are some that believe that Jesus could have sinned if He wanted to. They call this peccability and want to believe that Jesus could have sinned so that we can understand that He was truly tempted. We believe that Jesus could not have sinned. We call this impeccability. Jesus was not only a man but He was and is God. Here is how I would argue that.

1. God cannot sin.⁵
2. Jesus is God.⁶
3. Therefore Jesus could not sin.

If there was a chance that Jesus could have sinned then He is not God. God cannot change and be tempted by evil. When God became flesh He did not stop being God. He just took on human nature.⁷ So Jesus was God and man at the same time. God cannot be tainted. Which is why Jesus could say:

There was nothing that Satan could use against Jesus.

So we must understand that Jesus was tempted but not like we are. James tells us how we are tempted.

We are tempted because we have a sinful nature. Something within us that wants to rebel. So when the devil comes and tempts us there is something inside of us that he can grab onto. We don't even need the devil to tempt us. We can do it ourselves.

Jesus did not have a sinful nature. He had no "own lust" to be drawn away. So when the devil came to tempt Him he was doing it from the outside. He used hunger and wanting to save Himself and gain power.⁸ But Jesus always wanted to do what the Father wanted.⁹ He loved the law of God¹⁰ and did not have to fight to do what was right.

Here is a list to help us understand the difference.

1. Nature: Jesus had a holy nature. Man has a sinful nature.
2. Born: Jesus was born of the Holy Ghost. Man is born of Adam.
3. Can they sin: Jesus could not sin because He is God. Man can sin.
4. Tempted by: Jesus was only tempted by the outside world. Man is tempted by lust within them and by Satan.
5. How they react: Jesus always reacted by doing what was right. Man reacts by sinning.
6. Victory: Jesus conquered over sin. Man cannot conquer over sin.

As you can see Jesus was not just better than us at resisting sin. He was different from us. We are all born with sin in us. Jesus was not.

Now that we know that Jesus could not sin, can we say that He was truly tempted? Yes. Just because He did not give in to temptation does not mean that He was not tempted. In fact He was tempted more than anyone that has ever lived. Because when we sin we give in to temptation. Jesus never gave in so He felt all that temptation could throw at Him.

Think about it this way. If you had two people that were being tortured. One gave in to the pain and the other didn't. Who suffered more? The one that didn't give in. Jesus resisted all temptation and did not give in. Even when He knew He was going to die on the cross.¹¹

Since Jesus could not have sinned why was He tempted? There are three reasons.

First, to show that He was the last Adam. Just like Adam was tested and failed, Jesus was tested and succeeded.¹² So He became the head of the new creation.¹³

Second, to show that He was our high priest. We have a high priest that can be "touched with the feeling of our infirmities."¹⁴

Third, to show how strong His nature was. By being tempted He showed that He could not be defeated.

What does this mean for us? Well if Jesus had a sinful nature or could have sinned then He could not be our lamb without spot.¹⁵ He could not have died for our sins once and for all.¹⁶ He would have needed a savior. But since Jesus was without sin He could do what no one else could.

This means that we should not try to compare our temptations to His. Because we have lust within us that He did not. And we cannot be saved by trying to live like Jesus. We need to be born again and receive a new nature from the Holy Spirit.

Jesus did not sin because He had no sin. He could not sin because He was God. He was tempted by the world and the devil but not by anything within Him. His temptations were not like ours but they were stronger. So we can have confidence that He understands what we go through. But we should also be humbled knowing that we cannot do what He did on our own.