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.
It's nice to think of babies being born innocent. But the problem with this is that we would be encountering immortals not tainted by human sinful contact. They, having no sin, would not have death. But this is contradicted by Romans 5:12 "all died", that is, all under Adam die by default under sin and death. This is further confirmed by the duplicate Psalms 14 and 53, quoted by Paul in Romans 3. On their own 'None' , 'No not one' escaped it.
The "sin nature" is the gravity or propensity to sin that we have inherited from Adam which quickly manifests itself as sin and opposition to God, both overt and covert and to do things ones own way.
The Lord Jesus Christ, being conceived, God made flesh, by the Holy Ghost was born of a woman (Mary) was not of Adam's line, did not inherit the sin nature from Adam, was fully human and was tempted by Satan. But resisted and rejected the temptation fully and went obediently to the cross where He paid the Hellish price on His body for the sins of folks like you and me.
The scripture do not say that Jesus didn't have the ability to sin. The scriptures that mention Jesus being tempted support the idea that He had the ability to sin. Yet, after being tempted, He didn't sin.
Consider Adam, who was created without a sin nature, yet was able to sin, and did sin. When created, Adam was fully human without sin. Being fully human does not mean having a sinful nature.
sinful (human) nature
tempted
tested
(Jesus' perfect response vs Adam's)
Being God He cold not/cannot sin. But He submitted to The God treating Him as though He were Sin personified. Thus The God vented upon Jesus the totality of His righteous wrath upon His Son, Who stood in my place.
I was just reading in a Lenten thing about Jesus’ baptism - with similar questions raised - by John himself. “Why do YOU need to be baptized?!”
I forget what the guy wrote (some old famous guy like C.S. Lewis or something) - but he ran with the idea of babtism not being so much of a rebirth - but a death to the old self. A drowning, or flood (think Noah’s) of the old self. Paul saying something like “And so I die daily...”
The idea that Jesus, the man, died daily of his “bent towards sin”. With His ultimate death on the cross. And then of course His victory.
I don’t care for Joyce Meyers, but the idea of Jesus being forgiven is perhaps more of semantics?
Just recalled a verse:
2 Corinthians 5:21
New International Version (NIV)
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
But in the footnote says it the sin[a] might mean “a sin offering”.
However the wording - Jesus was filled with our sin, paid the price - separation from God (yeah - I don’t know how that works either!) - but was also raised from the dead (forgiven?), and shares that victory and forgiveness with us - his brothers and sisters.