Replies

Jesus did not have to be forgiven for anything

That is correct. "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 Corinthians 5:21. He endured the Hell folks like us deserved and bought us with His own blood. He alone could do this because He did not inherit the sin nature all of us have from Adam.

He descended from heaven and was incarnate of the Virgin Mary - the Unique Son of God - doing all at God the Father's behest.

You can know a preacher's theology in how they talk about Christ. In this case, hers is very bad.

re: “He alone could do this because He did not inherit the sin nature all of us have from Adam.”

I totally agree that if Meyers truly said Jesus went to hell and was “forgiven” for His sin - that is not a Biblical teaching.

In fact, I’ve never heard of her until mentioned here in this thread.

However, that idea that “Jesus did not inherit Adam’s sin nature”. I’ve always wondered about that. Does that mean that Jesus could not/or did not have the ability to sin?

I believe that the Bible teaches that we are all born with a “bent to sin” - that that IS the sin nature. We all are tempted by sin, and we all, since Adam, give into sin against God.

If Jesus was born “fully human” - did He not need to have the ability to sin - just as all men have? If He didn’t, then I’m not sure He was fully human as we are.

If you define the “sin nature” as being born condemned already with Adam’s sin, then you have babies born condemned sinners just because they are “born”. I don’t believe that is Biblical theology.

I believe that the “sin nature” is that we are all born with the ability and “bent” (tendency) to sin. The First Adam, at his creation, was not yet a sinner. But, he did sin by disobeying God and thus brought sin and death (physical and spiritual) into the world. Everyone is now born with this “sin nature” to give into sin and disobey God - and, we all have at one point or another.

So, my question is, does the sin nature mean that we are born guilty from the womb (or even in the womb)? Or, is it that we all have that ability to sin, and all of us have sinned?

If Jesus did not have a sin nature like us, then how was He tempted by Satan? It says in Hebrews 4:15 -

“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

If Jesus did not have a “sin nature” (the ability to sin and the fallen human ‘bent to sin’) how could He be “tempted in all points as we are”?

The wondrous thing about Jesus is that, though He was born fully human, with the ability to sin, yet He never sinned. He was the Lamb without spot or blemish because He resisted sin and overcame it and even took our sin on the cross and destroyed it and death. This is how He is the Second Adam that Paul mentions.

I am not trying to be provocative, but I do think that Jesus had to have been born with a human sin nature, just as we are, or He would not have been one of us. He had to know what it was to struggle against sin, to be tempted by sin. The only way for Him to know what that was like was to be born with a “sin nature” - if you define that nature as not being guilty/condemned because he have that nature, but we are guilty because we ALL sin - but, Jesus never did sin.