Could Jesus sin? An interesting implication.

[Mankin]

Sometimes, Adventists teach that Jesus was very cabable of sin during his time on earth. If Satan could tempt him enough to cause him to sin, He would lose his divinity and die. Yet, there is a huge implication to such a theory. For one, Satan suceeds in destroying the Trinity by causing the Son to die. Yet, if the Son could sin, could not the Holy Spirit and the Father also sin if they decided to come to earth in human form? Could not Satan tempt them until they sin, and they too die. This would mean that the Trinity would die, and consequently the entire universe would die(including Satan). Quite an apocalyptic implication eh?

We must be careful throwing around suspect trinity theology. Like all suggestions, it must be questioned.

1. How strong was the human nature in Christ? Did it give him the ability to sin?
2. Is it even possible for God to die?
3. If sin is the opposite of God, then how could a member of the trinity sin in the first place?

IMO such theology is similar to Arianism.

 

[SoldierOfTheKing]

1. How strong was the human nature in Christ? Did it give him the ability to sin?

As a man, Christ was subject to God's Law, and and action contrary to God's law would have been sin.

2. Is it even possible for God to die?

God died on the cross.

3. If sin is the opposite of God, then how could a member of the trinity sin in the first place?

For God to sin he would have to act contrary to his nature. The way I would put it is that although Jesus could have sinned, He most certainly would not have.

 

[Mankin]

The human side of him died. He was fully ripped of his divinity due to taking on the sins of the world, thus without that, he died. The divine overcome the body.

As Jesus said, "The spirit is willing but the body is weak."

 

[JonMiller]

This is actually one of the things that people spend a lot of time discussing, and has important implications (both if He can't, or if He can), but I don't think is at the end crucial for us to know now.

One thing, if He couldn't sin, the temptation in the wilderness and the garden of Gethsemane would be a lot weaker and more unimportant. I believe He could have chosen to sin, the Bible just reads better that way.

On the other implications, if He had sinned (And I think He knew He wouldn't, when He was in heaven), I think it is perfectly reasonable to think that the universe would just end and God would try again.

JM

 

[Mankin]

But what happens to the Trinity? Would God just create someone else to fill Jesus' place?(this is actually the defining doctrine of Arianism. It says that Jesus was a created being and not of the same nature as God).

The reason this issue is important is the implications it holds as to how we perceive God's power, and the very existance of this universe.

 

[JonMiller]

An Amoeba (Or whatever it is) that splits, did one create the other?

It didn't happen. How does it effect God's power or the nature of the universe? It's not a question we can answer, so why ask it?

JM
(Finally, the Bible doesn't teach the doctrine of the Trinity. The Trinity is a phenomenological doctrine, an obvious interpretation of the Bible is that Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God, but there is also God the Father, so we get the Trinity. Nowhere does it say or imply that there isn't God the ????? (basically another aspect of God))