These are good questions, but, I don't think anyone here is able to answer them.m We can speculate the answer. We can give our opinions, but you know what they say about opinions. Now, imho, John the Baptist was not born sinless for only the Lord Jesus was born sinless( without the sin nature). I don't know whether John the Baptist actually committed any sin,the Bible does not say. If he sinned, I doubt if it was willful. We really don't know much about John the Baptist. He presents himself like one of the OT prophets an he points to and announces the Lamb of God. He announces the Kingdom of God. I would guess that Lord Jesus said John was the greatest because at that time, John the Baptist was the only living person(besides The Lord Himself) who knew who that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, and he also knew that Lord Jesus was the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.
I know we
say Jesus was born "without a sin nature," even though Mary would have had one, but does the Bible actually state that? Why would He need to be tempted in all things, yet not succumb to them, if he couldn't willfully sin? Don't get me wrong, I don't believe He had one either, so I agree, but that is only because of 1 John 3:9 which He had from conception, but would apply to John the Baptist also because he had the same seed before he was born and even had the chance to commit his first sin.
This is also why the baptism of the Holy Spirit is so important for us who would have sinned from birth before the baptism. When we repent of those sins we committed, Jesus places the seed of God in us, so we don't
have to sin anymore - just like Him. That is what happened to me - sin didn't call to me anymore; in fact, my desire to sin changed overnight to an avoidance of sin, not always running toward it. That aspect never left in 41 years! When Paul says in Romans 6:2 we are dead to sin, I believe that is the killing of the sin
nature that produces sin. We are new creatures in Christ - literally. This is for the righteous requirements of the laws of God. Now, the laws of the Spirit of life in Christ, has freed me from the law of sin and death. Jesus took away my sin nature.
Could I willfully sin? Yes. Do I
want to? No, so it is easy to not sin.
Now, what's hard is to not commit unintentional trespasses (Leviticus 5:15), having to do with immature fruit of the Spirit which grows out of this new nature. Yes, they are "sins," but not sins unto death. The Corinthians were guilty of immature fruit, but Paul didn't tell them to excommunicate any of those, but only the young man sleeping with his stepmother. It is willful sins, rebellion against God's laws, that are sins unto death. The young man is lucky he wasn't living in OT times, but was given time to repent, and did. Numbers 15:32-36 shows this type of sin. The subject was the Sabbath, but they were commanded to do the same if two people were caught in adultery. Willful sins were punished with death.
Some believe that the "sin unto death" is
total disbelief in God/apostacy, but I know enough about how God viewed sin in the Old Testament to know that willful, presumptuous sins were punishable by death, so I believe we can't be that apathetic toward willful sin to think we are safe from the wages of willful sin as long as we believe in God/Jesus. After all, belief is in the heart, so is committing willful sin still true belief? 1 Peter 2:7 shows that the opposite of belief is disobedience. That is why there are denominations I would run from, not to as many do. They seem to have itching ears and run to denominations that teach easy grace, having your cake and eat it too type of mentality toward the gospel. In fact, I am not a denominationalist at all, as I've found this apathy even in Pentecostal churches - the most on fire churches, except, maybe, holiness Pentecostal churches that even I believe weigh themselves down with man-made "sins." But I could be wrong.
