During Advent, we celebrate Matthew 1:21: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” We need Jesus to save us because we are sinners. We sin a lot. But could Jesus have sinned?
To answer this question well, we should first affirm three truths:
- Jesus did not sin. The New Testament repeatedly asserts that Jesus did not sin: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Pet 2:22). “In him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). The debate here is not whether Jesus sinned. The question is whether Jesus could have sinned.
- Jesus experienced real temptations. His temptations were not false or fake. Jesus is truly human, and his human temptations were real. Don Carson explains, “The NT documents affirm both Jesus’ deity and his humanity, and neither of these affirmations may be permitted to deny the complementary truth. One might argue that Christ’s impeccability is a function of his deity but must not be taken to mitigate his humanity, and Christ’s temptability is a function of his humanity but must not be taken to mitigate his deity.”[1] Jesus was genuinely tempted according to his human nature.
- God cannot be enticed to sin. That’s what James 1:13 means: “God cannot be tempted with evil.” There is nothing in God’s nature that is inclined toward evil or even open to evil. So Jesus according to his divine nature cannot be tempted with evil in that sense—that is, Jesus according to his divine nature is never open to sinful desires or sinful actions. External temptations are not sinful; temptations that arise from a sinful nature are sinful. Jesus never experienced internal temptations that arose from a sinful nature. He experienced external temptations according to his human nature, but he cannot be enticed to sin according to his divine nature.[2]
Now back to our question: Could Jesus have sinned?
Some Christian theologians think that Jesus could have sinned, but I think that Jesus faced real temptations as the God-man who is unable to sin. When Jesus experienced hunger, he experienced hunger according to his human nature. But if Jesus were to desire sin or to commit sin, then he would be doing that as an entire person. Natures don’t act; people act. Jesus couldn’t sin according to his human nature while being sinless according to his divine nature. If Jesus were to sin, he would be sinning as God the Son incarnate. So if Jesus could have sinned, then that would mean that God could sin. But God cannot sin: “It is impossible for God to lie” (Heb 6:18; cf. Titus 1:2). Consider also John 5:19: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” Does the Son ever see the Father sinning? If not, then is it possible for the Son to sin?
Jesus’s inability to sin does not mean that his temptations weren’t real. If an army is invincible, that doesn’t mean that it can’t be attacked; an attack would be a real attack.
So could Jesus have sinned? I think the correct answer is No, Jesus could not have sinned. Jesus as the God-man is unable to sin.[3]
Andy Naselli, Ph.D.
Professor of Systematic Theology and New Testament
Prayer Requests:
- Pray that God would draw us closer to himself and bring him more glory this Advent season.
- Pray that God would use our professors to prepare our students to be faithful and fruitful men and women.
- Pray for our students and faculty as they enter the final weeks of the semester.
- Pray that the Lord would provide all the funds needed to support The Serious Joy Scholarships for this academic year.
[1] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in Matthew–Mark, 2nd ed., Expositor’s Bible Commentary 9 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 143.
[2] Cf. Steven Wedgeworth, “The Heart Wants What It Wants: A Protestant Assessment of the Doctrine of Concupiscence,” in Ruined Sinners to Reclaim: Sin and Depravity in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective, ed. David Gibson and Jonathan Gibson, The Doctrines of Grace (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024), 633–67.
[3] Cf. Stephen J. Wellum, God the Son Incarnate: The Doctrine of Christ, Foundations of Evangelical Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 459–65.