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Could Jesus Have Sinned? 69“not able not to sin.” This describes unregenerate people and thefallen angels (i.e., demons). In other words, they necessarily sin.Two other phrases are posse peccare (“able to sin”) and possenon peccare (“able not to sin”). These describe Adam before the fall,regenerate people, and Jesus if one denies his impeccability. Finally,there is non posse peccare, or “not able to sin.” This would be true ofGod, the saints in heaven, and Jesus if one affirms his impeccability.My question is this: Was Jesus Christ sinless because he couldnot sin (non posse peccare) or because he would not sin? Was heconstitutionally incapable of sinning or merely volitionally unwillingto sin? To say that Jesus could have sinned, even though hedid not, is to say he was peccable. To say that Jesus could not havesinned, and therefore didn’t, is to say he was impeccable.The most helpful concrete illustration of this issue is the confrontationJesus had with Satan in the wilderness (cf. Luke 4:1–13). When Satan came to him with those three temptations, couldJesus have succumbed? We know he didn’t, and we are eternallygrateful. But was it possible for him not to have resisted? Thosewho affirm impeccability respond with a definitive no! Those whodeny impeccability counter with three observations, only two ofwhich, in my opinion, are helpful.First, those who deny impeccability argue that if he could notsin, he was not truly human. After all, “to err is human.” This argumentis weak, for it is not necessary to human nature that one becapable of sinning. When finally in heaven, having been glorified,the saints will be incapable of sinning, but they will not for thatreason be less human than they are now on earth.A second argument often heard is that if Jesus could not havesinned, he was not genuinely tempted. True temptation requiresthe possibility of sinning. That he refused to yield to Satan’s temptationsno one denies. But yielding must have been possible or theencounter was a sham.Some respond by saying that perhaps Jesus didn’t know he wasimpeccable. In other words, even though he couldn’t yield to temptation,he was unaware of the impossibility. Therefore, at least sofar as his own conscious experience is concerned, the temptation
70 Tough Topicswould have been quite genuine. But I find it hard to believe thatJesus lacked such self-awareness. Even if he did, we don’t, so whatbenefit is there to us in his having resisted the Devil’s overtures? Inother words, we find encouragement in Jesus’s example only if weknow he could have sinned, but didn’t (1 Pet. 2:21–23). So long aswe know that his sinning was absolutely impossible, the force of hisexample is undermined, regardless of what he may have known.A third and final argument by those who deny impeccability isthat the doctrine is based on the belief that Jesus resisted the Devilfrom the strength of his divine nature. Satan was tempting God,and God, by definition, cannot sin. Regardless of the strength of hisseductive appeals, Satan didn’t stand a chance. After all, the finitecannot conquer the infinite. The presence of a holy and omnipotentdivine nature within the incarnate second person of the Godheadmade it impossible for him to have yielded to Satan’s overtures.For many years I strongly advocated the impeccability of Christ,insisting that because he was God incarnate, he was incapable ofsinning. Now, make no mistake, he was and forever is God incarnate.But I’m not so sure about his impeccability, and here’s why.I believe Jesus lived and ministered as a human, dependent onthe power of the Holy Spirit. Because he was human, the possibilityexisted that he could have sinned, but by virtue of his unceasingreliance on the power of the Holy Spirit he did not sin. Like thefirst Adam, Jesus could have sinned. But as the second Adam, hechose not to.This means that in becoming a man, says Gerald Hawthorne,“the Son of God willed to renounce the exercise of his divine powers,attributes, prerogatives, so that he might live fully withinthose limitations which inhere in being truly human.” 1 That whichhe had (all the divine attributes), by virtue of what he was (thesecond person of the Trinity), he willingly chose not to use. Thuswe see a human being doing superhuman things and ask how? Theanswer is: not from the power of his own divine nature, but throughthe power of the Holy Spirit.1Gerald F. Hawthorne, The Presence and the Power: The Significance of the Holy Spirit in the Lifeand Ministry of Jesus (Dallas: Word, 1991), 208.
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Page 7 and 8: PrefaceLucy and Linus are gazing ou
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Page 28 and 29: Could Jesus Have Sinned? 71Thus the
Page 30 and 31: Resurgence Literature (Re:Lit) is a
Page 32: Will there be sex in heaven?Are mir

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