I first heard the question, “Could Jesus have sinned?” in the early 1990s. The leadership of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) was making the point that Jesus was never tempted to sin, but rather was tested.
According to the popular usage of these words, they were absolutely right. Jesus did not endure temptation in the sense of resisting a strong urge to sin and only succeeding by the skin of his teeth.
But the old guard of COG doctrine vociferously objected. The voices that eventually caught my ear — like those of Garner Ted Armstrong and CGI pastors Bill Watson and Wayne Hendrix — would quote Hebrews 4:15, saying Jesus “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (KJV).
And so they insisted, “If Jesus could not have sinned, then you have no Savior!“
They believed as many COGers still do today — that Jesus' mission was the riskiest venture of all time. He might have sinned and all would have been lost forever, including God the Son himself! The stakes were high, but thankfully Jesus won the challenge.
At first I was sympathetic toward WCG's new position — that Jesus was “tested” but not “tempted.” It seemed to make sense. Yet, influenced by my associations, I eventually accepted the old view — that Jesus could have sinned, but didn't.
Now, I realize that this “old school” COG crowd was wrong — dreadfully wrong — because they didn't understand at least two things:
First, the fundamental Christian doctrine of who and what Jesus is — that Jesus is at once both fully God and fully man.
And second, how sin is committed.
The Real Jesus
We cannot correctly answer the question of whether Jesus could have sinned if we wrongly believe (as many within COGs seem to) that Jesus
- was God in the beginning
- stopped being God during his earthly life, and
- became God again at his Resurrection.
If God is eternal (no beginning and no end), then he cannot stop being God. That's what it means to be “eternal.” He can't be “eternal until he stops being eternal” — a contradiction of terms.
The Word (who became Jesus — John 1:1,14) always was, and always will be, God. But when he was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, he took for himself an additional nature — a human nature. (By “human nature,” we don't mean in this context a proclivity to sin, but all the qualities that make us a member of the Homo sapiens family: body and spirit.)
Since his divine nature (that which makes him God) is eternal, then he can't stop being divine. Taking on an additional nature — a human nature with all that entails — does not change that. And so Jesus is often called the “God-Man,” which is a way of saying he is at once both God and man.
“But that doesn't add up!”
I've heard the objection that the math is all wrong if we say Jesus is fully God and fully man. If something is 100 percent one thing, then there's no room for it to be 100 percent something else, too. It doesn't add up — nothing can total 200 percent.
But there is no mathematical contradiction if we understand the difference between who someone is and what someone is.
What I am is distinct from who I am. The what of me is possessed by the who of me, not the other way around. (That's why I can speak of “my arm,” but not “an arm's me.”)
We have to realize that the Person of Jesus (who he is) is always and only divine. It's not 50-50 — he's not part divine Person, part human person. He is a divine Person, without qualification, 100 percent.
But the nature of Jesus (what he is) is twofold. He has a divine nature, and he has a human nature.
How sinning is done
I said earlier that the old guard of COG doctrine was wrong about Jesus being capable of sin because they didn't understand that Jesus is fully God and fully man. Now that we understand Jesus is one divine Person with two natures (human and divine), let's flesh that out.
How do we sin? Are we sinful merely because we have material bodies, with flesh and blood and bone? Or did God consider everything he had made in the Garden and say “it was very good” (Genesis 1:30)?
Think about the animals. With all its flesh — weighing tons — never has any elephant been guilty of sin. By instinct, an elephant can exhibit aggressive behavior, and does not live a monogamous mating lifestyle. But in no way can it be held morally culpable or even capable of “sin.”
Why? Because it's not what something is that sins. Sin is not committed by natures, but by persons! Elephants are not persons as we are, for we have rational, spiritual souls (think “spirit in man”).
And then there's Satan and his demons. They are incorporeal as pure spirits. (Even if we grant, for the sake of argument, that they have “spirit bodies,” they still don't have human flesh.) Yet they have committed the gravest sins!
So how does this apply to Jesus?
The fact that Jesus has a human nature does not mean he is capable of sin. Remember, while he has a human nature to go along with his divine nature, he is only one Person. A divine Person!
Natures on their own cannot sin. My body cannot sin without being directed by me, because only persons can sin. And since Jesus is a divine Person, it follows that Jesus cannot and never could sin.
The temptations of Jesus
Because the Eternal Word took to himself a human nature, he shares in our experiences and our sufferings.
He lived his earthly life in the flesh just like we do. He endured hunger. He bled. He cried. He suffered all the things we do.
But he never teetered on the edge of sin. There were no close calls.
Read Matthew 4. Even during the full-on assault in the wilderness by Satan the master tempter, Jesus did not hesitate in perfect obedience to the Father.
Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights, and was hungry. He could only be hungry through his human nature, which he shares with us. Yet when the great tempter tried to lead him astray, Jesus had no second thoughts:
But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (verse 4).
His truly hungry human body was not his boss; he, the divine Person, was wholly in control.
His inability to sin is evident in the next temptation, when the devil told him to jump from atop the temple, since the Scriptures said he would be protected.
Jesus' did not have to battle pride. He did not think, “Hey, who the heck do you think I am? I am the I AM, buddy! I'll show you!”
No, with absolute, unwavering conviction, Jesus said,
Again it is written, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (verse 7).
And finally, the devil tempted Jesus with all the kingdoms of the world if only Jesus would fall down and worship him.
We can't take the fact that the devil tried to lead Jesus into sin as proof that Jesus was capable of having second thoughts.
No, the all-knowing God-Man was not impressed.
Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
Again, we see because of who he was (God), Jesus was unshakable; but because of what he was (Man), he suffered intensely.
In other words, while Jesus was tempted in the sense of being put to the test in his human weaknesses, he was not tempted in the sense of struggling to decide whether to sin.
He was never close to sinning through anger. He was never in danger of lusting for power, riches, or women.
Contrary to what I heard years ago, if Jesus could have sinned, then he is not God, and you have no Savior!
Conclusion: It makes perfect sense to think of it this way — that Jesus was tested, but not tempted.
So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most (Hebrews 4:14-16, New Living Translation).
The COG Catholic currently blogs at www.cogcatholic.org.
