Could Jesus Have Sinned?

 “Could Jesus have sinned?” is not a new question. It is a question that typically arises from the scriptural realization that Jesus was genuinely human, and that Jesus was genuinely tempted, and as Hebrews says— 

“Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

(Hebrews 2:18 NIV)

And

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

(Hebrews 4:15–16 NIV)

There are a host of verses that express that Christ was sinless such as,

1John 3:5, 1Peter 2:22, Hebrews 9:14 …and there are many more.

But proponents of the idea that Christ could have sinned argue that if there was no possibility of him sinning, there was no genuine temptation and therefore his life does not accomplish what Hebrews 2:18 claims it accomplished. While this logical step is understandable, it assumes incorrect ideas about what sin is, and who Jesus is. It also probably makes incorrect assumptions about what temptation is. But once we correct the definition of sin and the identity of Jesus, the whole discussion disappears. 

I have worked on an article called, “Sin” that helps to move us off some wrong understandings of sin. It was not designed to be comprehensive but to help get us pointed in the right direction for understanding the heart of sin. In the process of writing that article, it became very apparent that, in order to correctly understand sin, a person needs to spend a lot of time in scripture. Simply quoting some laws or lists of rules will not help someone understand sin. There are verses that seem to equate sin with simple definitions, for example… 

“All wrongdoing is sin…,”

(1 John 5:17 NIV)

“Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.”

(1 John 3:4 NIV)

And you will have heard someone say that sin is “missing the mark” or “falling short of the glory of God.” These are, of course, productive—helpful at putting an image together. But there is much more to the picture, and most of the picture is tied to the person of God himself because sin is really anything that is at odds with the heart of God.

Sin is a heart condition toward the heart of God. A sinner is an enemy of God. And God has demonstrated love for his enemies. 

“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”

(Romans 5:10 NIV)

Once you begin to see that sin is a heart problem as Jesus described, you will begin to see the problem with the idea that Jesus could have sinned. 

“What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.””

(Matthew 15:11 NIV)

“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

(Luke 6:45 ESV)

We say, and it is well established, that Jesus claimed to be God. And to believe what he said is true is the first step to putting your trust in him. In other words, when we say someone is a Christian, we assume that they believe what Jesus said about himself—that he was and is God.

“Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

(John 8:58 ESV)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

(John 1:1–4 ESV)

Problems come when people consider that he set aside his glory and took on human limitations. And it is true that he did that.

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!”

(Philippians 2:6–8 NIV)

Someone might wonder, “if it’s true that God is the same today as he was yesterday, how can The Word have taken on human limitations as a man, if those limitations are not true about God? Think of it like this. I am Ryan. If you remove my arm, I’ll still be the same person. I will be missing an arm. But it is not my arm that makes me. I am a person with an arm, not an arm with a person. God is powerful, and he doesn’t change. But he is more than his power. 

When we read that God does not change, it is referring to his character, his heart—his person. It means that he was and is and always will be trustworthy. But it doesn’t mean that he’s static, that he doesn’t do anything. And it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t do new things. Jesus—The Word becoming flesh, was and is a new thing—God’s only begotten son. It is a person of the Godhead taking on human frailty, trusting God the Father to watch over him and guide him as he takes on human limitations. It’s like doing a trust-fall except incomparably bigger. 

““I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.”

(Malachi 3:6 NIV)

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

(Hebrews 13:8 NIV)

““Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

(Isaiah 43:18–19 NIV)

Okay, if you’re tracking so far, you should begin to see the problem melt away right here. It is God’s heart, specifically his person, that does not ever change. And the real issue with sin is that it is a heart problem. If God’s heart and trustworthiness are what never change about him, then sin was never on the table in Jesus. Of course, that begs the question, then what was Jesus tempted to do? 

“The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’””

(Matthew 4:3–4 NIV)

Jesus was tempted to turn the stones into bread. He was hungry. His body wanted to eat. He felt the forces of his weak human body and emotions. He knew it would taste good. He knew his body needed it. And this may ruffle a feather, but the real struggle here is that Jesus had the right to turn these stones into bread. As The Word for eternity past, he created these very stones—John1. He was even holding them together, Colossians 1:17. They were already his to do with them as he wished. So there was no question about sin here. He wasn’t tempted to sin. He was tempted to do something in his frail human flesh, that was at odds with his own heart of God—his flesh desired bread, his heart desired our salvation.

“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.””

(Matthew 16:21–23 NIV)

The question was not, “could Jesus have sinned?” because this is not a logical possibility, if we believe Jesus was who he said he was. If Jesus was God, and sin is ungodliness, it doesn’t work. Jesus could not be unJesus. 

But he did not have an obligation to save us. God did not need to save us to be God. 

Jesus freely set aside his own human desires to do something far beyond just not sinning. He willingly gave himself up, his rights as God, and set his glory aside, to become sin itself on the cross. His temptation was not to sin, his temptation was to leave us in our sin. And he did all of this to answer this question once and for all—

“Does this Only-Sinless-Holy-Powerful-God love us enough to, in the weakness of a man, take on the hell of our sin and save us into his own family forever?” And this is the answer he walked out every day of his life, leading him to death on a cross. The answer is, yes.