Christ’s Sinless Nature

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

John 1:1-2

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”

 

Recently I was presented with a question. Was Jesus born with a flesh nature like all of us and overcame it because He was God’s Son?

 

It’s a very good question in many respects. It relates to the dual nature of Christ, that He was both human and divine. A core belief of Christians has always been that Jesus was fully human in every respect but also fully divine.

 

Jesus was born fully human; but not with a sin nature. Adam, the first human, was created by God but his human nature was not sinful until he sinned against God in the garden and the same goes for Eve, who was not sinful until she also committed sin.

 

When we say that Jesus was fully human we do not believe that just because He was born of an earthly woman He had a sin nature. Jesus was born without sin and never sinned once in His life. 1 John 3:4-5 addresses this when it says, “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that He “Jesus” appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.”

 

Scripture tells us that Jesus was tempted just like we are but never sinned. We have to remember that Jesus faced all the same issues we face each day when it comes to temptation. He faced physical desires common to all of us, emotional issues of anger, frustration and stress not to mention intellectual temptations of pride and power. Despite His humanness he never fell into sin even though He was tempted. So Jesus did not overcome a sin nature for He was not born with one. But He did avoid committing any sin once He was born, because He obeyed His Heavenly Father.

 

 Carlton Wynne, Professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, states the following;

 

“The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was “in every respect . . . tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus Christ, the God-man, was truly tempted in his humanity, though not in all the same ways as sinners are. Temptations came at him from without, while inside he remained “without sin.” Though Satan and a rebellious world assaulted him, temptation never found a home within him. He is, therefore, both impeccable in his moral purity and sympathetic to tempted sinners. Scripture is clear that Jesus, the sinless Son of God, was tempted to sin (Matthew 4:1–11; Mark 1:13; Luke 4:2; 22:28; Hebrews 2:18).1 In addition, the author of the book of Hebrews assures Christians that it is because he was “tempted as we are” (Hebrews 4:15) that our ascended Savior is able to sympathize with our weaknesses as fallen people. However, the same verse adds that the tempted Christ was also “without sin.” That is, we Christians have a Savior who has shared our experience with temptation, but who, as the spotless Lamb of God, was perfectly suited to be our substitutionary sacrifice at Calvary and now lives as our High Priest in heaven. All who look for divine sympathy and relief from the persistently alluring hand of sin may be supremely comforted.”

 

Dr. Herbert Lockyer (an experienced minister and prolific author of over 50 Christian books) states, “Born holy, Christ remained holy because through divine unction He was able to successfully resist every enticement of the devil who had nothing in Him to fight out from (John 14:30). More than once He claimed sinless perfection (John8:46)…In order to redeem man from sin, He had to be free from any evil taint of humanity.”

 

We must also remember the other part of Christ’s dual nature. He was God in the flesh. John 1:14 speaks of this when it says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

 

Christ was unique in the sense that He was divinely conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of an earthly mother. This demonstrates the amazingly love that God has for us. God sent His only Son to be incarnated in the flesh so that a perfect sacrifice could be made for the sins of the world. If Jesus had had an earthly mother and father, it would be very different. He would have inherited the sin nature that is common to all of us. But because He was born of a woman through divine intervention, no sin nature was inherited by Him. I would like to quote several theologians at this point to shed some light on this question.

 

“Doctrinely it must be repeated that the belief in the virgin birth of Christ is of the highest value for the right apprehension of Christ’s unique and sinless personality…who free from sin Himself, and not involved in the Adamic liabilities of the race, reverses the curse of sin and death brought in by the first Adam…Had Christ been naturally born, not one of these things could be affirmed of Him…He would have shared in Adam’s corruption and doom – would Himself have required to be redeemed…He came from above, inherited no guilt, needed no regeneration or sanctification, but became Himself the Redeemer, Regenerator, Sanctifier for all who receive Him.”

Dr. Herbert Lockyer

 

“Christ has a human nature, but He is not a human person…In the Incarnation He did not change into a human person; neither did He adopt a human person;. HE simply assumed, in addition to His divine nature, a human nature, which did not develop into an independent personality, but became personal in the Person of the Son of God.”

Dr. Louis Berhof

 

“At His incarnation Christ added to His already existing divine nature a human nature, and became the God-Man.”

Dr. Herbert Lockyer

 

So was it impossible that Jesus could ever sin? We can’t say that because it would reduce the temptations Jesus faced to nothing. It is stated in scripture that Christ was tempted in every way that we are.

 

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.”

 

We have to understand that Jesus “could” sin if He had wanted to, but He “would not” sin because He was committed to His Heavenly Father and did not desire in any way to sin. Not only that, because we was God in the flesh, His desires and nature were the same as that of God the Father and the Holy Spirit.

 

Because Jesus faced the “exact” temptations we face and did not sin, He can help us overcome all the kinds of temptations that we face.

 

Hebrews 2:18 “Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.”

 

Possibly another way to view Christ facing temptation is by examining a few verses that speak of Him being the last Adam.

 

In 1 Corinthians 15:22 it states, “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” Before Adam sinned he was sinless. He had a very close relationship with God and walked with God in the Garden of Eden. Once he sinned his relationship with God was broken and he then had a sin nature that was passed to every human that would ever be born except for Jesus. So just as everyone of us are under a curse because of Adam’s sin, any one of us can be made alive spiritually to live forever if we accept Christ as our Savior.

 

The references in scripture to Jesus being the last Adam may shed some light on His nature. From a human standpoint, Jesus was similar to the first Adam before He sinned, because He was sinless. But unlike Adam who sinned, Jesus never sinned. Jesus set the example for God’s intentions in the very beginning.

 

God desired to have a relationship with Adam and Eve, but they breached the relationship when they sinned. The last Adam, Jesus, not only set the perfect example, He remained sinless and paid the debt for all sin when He was crucified and rose from the grave.

 

1 Corinthians 15:45 illustrates this concept when it says, “So it is written: ‘The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.”

 

So Jesus is both God and man in the fullest sense. He was born sinless, with the capacity to sin, but never did because He stood against the temptations He faced that are exactly like the ones we face. He did not overcome a sin nature, but remained holy and pure as He was born because of His commitment to His Heavenly Father.

 

We too can participate in a divine nature if we commit our lives to Christ and become part of the family of God. As Christians we are justified in God’s sight through the sacrifice of Jesus and seek to be sanctified as we walk in the Spirit. So I would encourage you to seek the new life in Jesus. Accept Him as your Savior and Lord. Receive the blessed gift of the Holy Spirit who will teach you how to be Holy and give you the power to live a holy life. Make the Bible your pattern for life as you read it, memorize it, live it out in all you do. You will NEVER regret that decision!

 

2 Peter 1:4

“Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”