Jesus: Sinless or Preserved? Part 2

So then, was Jesus God? Orthodox Christianity answers with a resounding “yes” from the distant halls of antiquity. Yet it matters little how many or how few say whether something is true or not; truth is found in Scripture as the Holy Spirit reveals it and it is there that we find the person and nature of Christ as inspired language describes Him.

Jesus: Sinless or Preserved? Part 1

Was Jesus Christ our Lord sinless in the sense that He could not sin, or simply that while on earth He did not sin? While online debating a brief while ago I encountered a Christian woman who held the belief that Jesus, though sinless like Adam, was also as fully capable as Adam of sinning, but was preserved from sinning by the Holy Spirit who came upon Him from the womb. Says she that if Jesus was incapable of sinning then it demeaned His ministry and sacrifice, for there was no true trial for Him on this earth.

Prayer Request for 'Nessa

I would just briefly like to touch base and ask my brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for Nessa and her 15 year old daughter. Nessa works by me at the Miller Hill Mall and has just recently learned that her daughter has a growth the size of two balled up fists inside her; nothing else is known presently. It might be cancerous; it might be benign. What I do know is that God is our Creator and capable of healing the bodies that He has housed our spirits in fully. Pray for Nessa and her daughter, that they may have Christ's peace, and that her daughter may be healed of this tumor. God bless.

1st John Chapter 3 Part 7

3:8-9 (cont.) He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

Verse 9 is one of those “problem passages” like Hebrews 6:4-8. If you allow the verse, its context and the Bible speak for itself however I really don’t believe this is a difficult verse at all. The verse plainly states that a Christian cannot sin because God’s seed remains in him. Now we must at once rule out a Christian’s inability to sin as far as capacity is concerned. I know in myself that I am more than capable of sin, and can still be led away by my lusts and enticed, James 1:13-15. Many verses in the New Testament agree with this notion, including several verses in this very epistle. John wrote more than once already that Christians can and do still sin after they are born again, 1st John 1:8, 10; 2:1.

1st John Chapter 3 Part 6

3:8-9 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

This passage continues the line of thinking John established in the previous two verses: the contrast between habitual sinning and habitual abstinence from sin. Those who confess Christ but have no issue with continuing in a lifestyle of flagrant, habitual sin are of the devil, John writes. Jude agrees: “These (false confessors) are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage,” Jude 1:16.