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Could Jesus Have Sinned? 71Thus the Son chose to experience the world through the limitationsimposed by human consciousness and an authentic human nature.The attributes of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omnisciencewere not lost or laid aside, but became latent and potential withinthe confines of his human nature. They were present in Jesus in alltheir fullness, but they were no longer in conscious exercise. Theincarnation thus means that Jesus “actually thought and acted,viewed the world, and experienced time and space events strictlywithin the confines of a normally developing human person.” 2Look again at the various accounts of Jesus’s temptation bySatan. We are told that he not only was led into the wilderness bythe Spirit (Matt. 4:1) but also was being led by the Spirit in thewilderness during the entire course of the forty days (Luke 4:1; itwas, no doubt, the Spirit who led Jesus to fast).If he was being tempted by Satan for forty days (Mark 1:13), hewas being led by the Spirit for those same forty days (Luke 4:1).It is impossible to escape the conclusion that these Gospel writerswant their readers to understand that Jesus met and conqueredthe usurping enemy of God not by his own power alone but wasaided in his victory by the power of the Holy Spirit. 3He was fortified and energized by the continual infusion of divinepower from the Spirit of God (see also John 3:34).Someone might ask, But why or how did the human Jesus alwayschoose to rely on the power of the Spirit and thereby notsin? The answer would be that the Spirit was always antecedentto any choice that Jesus was to make, enabling and energizinghim to continue in his conscious reliance on the power the Spiritwas providing. Is that not also the case with us? To whatever degreeand however frequently we choose not to sin, it is because theSpirit antecedently empowered us to choose to avail ourselves ofhis presence and supply.It could conceivably be said, therefore, that Jesus was peccablewhen it came to the metaphysical potential for sin in his own2Ibid., 210.3Ibid., 139.
72 Tough Topicshuman nature (in other words, there was nothing inherent withinthe person of Christ that made it impossible for him to sin, anymore than it was so in the case of Adam), but impeccable insofaras it was impossible for the Spirit to fail to energize Jesus’s will todepend upon the power that the Spirit supplied.ConclusionThe implications of this for you and me are profound, and I defer,in conclusion, to the words of Hawthorne to make the point:Not only is Jesus their [our] Savior because of who he was andbecause of his own complete obedience to the Father’s will (cf.Heb. 10:5–7), but he is the supreme example for them of whatis possible in a human life because of his own total dependenceupon the Spirit of God. Jesus is living proof of how those who arehis followers may exceed the limitations of their humanness inorder that they, like him, might carry to completion against allodds their God-given mission in life—by the Holy Spirit. Jesusdemonstrated clearly that God’s intended way for human beingsto live, the ideal way to live, the supremely successful way to live,is in conjunction with God, in harmony with God, in touch withthe power of God, and not apart from God, not independent ofGod, not without God. The Spirit was the presence and power ofGod in Jesus, and fully so. 4Recommended ReadingHawthorne, Gerald F. The Presence and the Power: The Significance ofthe Holy Spirit in the Life and Ministry of Jesus. Dallas: Word, 1991.Piper, John. Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ. Wheaton, IL: Crossway,2001.Ware, Bruce A. The Man Christ Jesus: Theological Reflections on the Humanityof Christ. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012.4Ibid., 234.
Page 1 and 2: Biblical Answers to 25 Challenging
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Page 7 and 8: PrefaceLucy and Linus are gazing ou
Page 9: Preface 13our minds to explore ever
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Page 26 and 27: Could Jesus Have Sinned? 69“not a
Page 30 and 31: Resurgence Literature (Re:Lit) is a
Page 32: Will there be sex in heaven?Are mir

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