Was Jesus ever capable of sinning?

When this question is asked, we are dealing with two ideas, peccability (the ability to sin), and impeccability (the inability to sin). This is a question that needs to be thought about and answered logically.

The Bible makes it clear that Jesus is God in the flesh (Isa 9:6; John 1:1; 8:58; 14:9; Titus 2:3; Heb 1:8-9). So as a result of being God, He is incapable of sinning. As God Jesus is perfect. Sin is against the nature of God. Think about it, if Jesus could sin, He would have been disqualified as a sacrifice for mankind’s sins. And if He could sin, He would not be God.

Opponents of this view would declare “how then could the temptations of Jesus be real if He was incapable of sinning?" We can look at our own lives to answer that question. There are a multitude of things we are tempted with that we do not give into. Drunkenness, fornication, adultery, getting high, stealing, cursing, lying, et al.  Just because Jesus never sinned does not mean the temptations to sin were not real. The temptations Jesus went through at the hands of the devil were very real, not illusions (Matt 4:1-11; Mark 1:13; Luke 4:1-13). That is why the Bible says we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin (Heb 4:15). As a human being Jesus knows very well what temptation feels like.

Jesus questioned the Herodians and the Pharisees when they asked Him about paying taxes to Caesar by saying, “Why are you tempting me you hypocrites!” (Matt 22:18b). This account proves that Jesus was actually tempted to break the law of the land so that they could label him an enemy of the Roman crown.

What this means that Jesus was tempted in all points, not that He experienced every conceivable temptation under heaven (i.e. with a woman, stealing, lying, murder, etc.), but in all areas which are: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life (I John 2:16). Jesus as a perfect sinless human being can relate to our weaknesses which demonstrates His eternal love for us. He experienced what we experience everyday of our lives. By Christ going through the trials of life we go through makes his willful death on the cross for our sins that much more loving and sweeter to my soul.

                                     

                            Jesus nature also prevented Him from sinning

Remember Jesus was born without a sin nature unlike us. Every temptation Jesus experienced came from without, never within. Jesus was never tempted by being drawn away by His own lust and enticed like we are because He has no lust (James 1:14).  The Apostle said this, “who committed no sin nor was deceit found in His mouth” (I Peter 2:22. Quoting Isa 53:9).

Jesus Himself declares His own innocence when talking to the religious leaders by saying, “Which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth why don’t you believe Me?” (John 8:46).

So we see Jesus did not sin because He did not desire to sin nor was He capable of sinning. That is impeccability. We on the other hand often sin because we desire to sin by our corrupt nature and can’t stop sinning. That is peccability.  We have a sin nature and Jesus as deity and a perfect human being has a sin-less nature. The wonderful dichotomy of all of this is Jesus the sin-less became sin by imputation[i] so that He could save the sinful and impute His righteousness to their account (Gen 15:6; Rom 4:5; Gal 3:6). As I have stated in the past I will state again, Jesus has no sin of His own, but for our sakes took on sin. Flip side of the same coin, we have no righteousness of our own, but for our sakes He granted us His righteousness. We are not essentially righteous, and our Lord is not essentially sinful.  Both are imputed. Both the sin and righteousness are real; they were graciously exchanged for our benefit and for God’s glory.

God the Father would have never sent even a potentially sinful man or angel to come to the earth to redeem us.  Remember to sin is break God’s laws. Jesus could never do that.

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[i] Imputation means to place something on someone’s account. Metaphorically of God the Father placing on Jesus our sins so that when we believed His righteousness could be placed in our account.