Can God Sin?

This is a question that was brought up to me by someone on Facebook, and I felt like it was something that should be talked about. Here are some of my thoughts on the subject.

A Distinction

For starters, I would like to make a distinction between God in His fullness (which I would imagine goes far beyond our world and/or experience) and Jesus Christ; God in the flesh.

Can God Sin?

If God can do anything, does that mean He can sin? The answer is a simple and resounding no. So does this mean that we have found something God cannot do? Yes, but this does not diminish God's greatness at all. Consider this, yes God is omnipotent (all powerful), but He is also omnibenevolent (all good), which means that even though God has the power to do anything that He wills, His will is good. Meaning that anything He does will be good. Also think about this, can God force someone to accept salvation? No, for if God did this He would have to violate the free will He has given to that person; the free will to accept or reject Him. There are some things that God cannot do simply because He allows that He cannot do them (as in the case of human free will). If reason fails to sway you on this point, then let me appeal to God's own revelation, the Bible. In James 1:13, we are told that not only does God not tempt anyone, but that He Himself is not tempted by evil.

(Note: I do not wish to imply that reason is greater than revelation. I think that reason should be used to defend scripture, and the God who inspired it.)

Can Jesus Sin?

This question is, admittedly, trickier to answer. We know that Jesus was both fully human and fully God. So could the part of Him that was fully human cause Him to sin, even though He is also fully God? I have to say that I don't believe so, simply because God cannot violate His own nature. The difficulty with this answer arises in the form of the question, "if Jesus could not have sinned, then wasn't his temptation arbitrary? If so, then doesn't this mean that His human walk was incomplete?" My answer to this question is also, quite simply, no. I will now attempt to prove this point to you. For starters, let us consider the reason why God allows temptation. In James 1 we learn that trials help us to mature in Christ. Temptations are a form of trial through which we grow to become more like Christ. So, if God is already fully Himself, why does He need to experience temptation at all? From the outset Jesus was fully human. We are merely human, in other words, we are trying to become fully human (as God intended us to be, and as Adam was in the Garden). So why would God need to be tempted? I believe it was for experience. Jesus came down to earth for at least three reasons: 1.) To reveal the truth about God to us, 2.) To die for our sins, and 3.) to experience our humanity. I assume that the first two reasons are common knowledge to most people (even non Christians), and so I will focus on the third.

Why Experience Human Life?

We learn from the book of Hebrews that Jesus is our high priest, and that He experienced human life so that He could sympathize with us. So, having said that, I believe that the reason God allowed Himself (Jesus) to be tempted was so that He could experience Human temptation for Himself. This doesn't make his temptation arbitrary at all, it simply means that it served a different purpose than ours does. He had no need to be made perfect, He just wanted to intimately understand what we went through in our own lives. The question that might now be raised (even in some of your minds) is, "If God is omniscient (all knowing), then why would He need to experience our human life?" I think that the answer lies in the distinction between knowing and experiencing. Maybe to God, just as to us, there is a difference between knowing everything simply as fact and possibility, and actually knowing it through experience. Maybe thats part of the reason why God made us, so that He could actually know us, and not just the possibility of us.

In Closing

I hope this has been a blessing to you. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to let me know either on here or on facebook. God bless and Jesus loves you!!

-Jon