A Sinless Life

Personal Testimony

What testimony is borne concerning Christ’s life on earth?

“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” 1 Peter 2:22.

What is true of all other members of the human family?

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23.

With what question did Christ challenge His enemies?

“Can any of you prove me guilty of sin! If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?” John 8:46.

Christ’s Humanity And Temptation

To what extent was Christ tempted?

“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 without sin.”

Hebrews 4:15.

In His humility, of what nature did Christ partake?

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humility so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil.” Hebrews 2:14.

How fully did Christ share our common humanity?

“For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” Verse 17.

Note – Jesus Christ is both the Son of God and Son of Man. As a member of the human family “it behooved him to be like unto his brethren” -“In the likeness of sinful flesh.” Just how far that “likeness” goes is a mystery of the incarnation which men have never been able to solve. The Bible clearly teaches that Christ was tempted – in all points like we are.” Such temptation must necessarily include the possibility of sinning; but Christ was without sin. There is no Bible support for the teaching that the mother of Christ, by an immaculate conception, was cut off from the sinful inheritance of the race, and therefore her divine Son was incapable of sinning. Concerning this false doctrine Dean F.W. Farrar has well said:

“Some in a zeal at once intemperate and ignorant have claimed for Him not only an actual sinlessness but a nature to which sin was divinely and miraculously impossible. What then? If His great conflict were a mere deceptive phantasmagoria, how can the narrative of it profit us? If we have to fight the battle clad in that armor of human freewill, what comfort is it to us if our great Captain fought not only victoriously, but without real danger; not only uninjured, but without even the possibility of a wound? Let us beware of contradicting the express teaching of the Scriptures, by a supposition that He was not liable to real temptation.” –The Life of Christ (1883 ed), Vol.1, p. 57.

The word phantasmagoria means to rapidly changing series of things seen or imagined, as the figures or events of a dream.

Gods Demonstration Of Victory

Where did God, in Christ, condemn sin and gain the victory for us over temptation and sin?

“For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man.” Romans 8:3.   

Note – God in Christ, condemned sin, not by pronouncing against it merely as a judge sitting in the judgment seat, but by coming and living in the flesh, and yet without sinning. In Christ, He demonstrated that it is possible, by His grace and power, to resist temptation, overcome sin, and live a sinless life in the flesh.

By whose power did Christ live the perfect life?

“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” John 14:10.

Note – In His humanity Christ was as dependent upon divine power to do the works of God, as is any man to do the same thing. He employed no means to live a holy life that are not available to every human being. Through Him, everyone may have God dwelling in him and working in him “to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (1 John 4:15; Philippians 2:13.)

What unselfish purpose did Jesus ever have before Him?

“For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” John 6:38.

[top]