Hebrews Chapter Seven, Jesus: Incapable Of Sin

 

Hebrews 7:26c For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is… undefiled, separate from sinners,

 

To defile something (or someone) means to take away their purity or innocence. The High Priest that is fitting for sinful mankind is undefiled. This makes perfect sense, since mankind is entirely defiled.

Of mankind in general, Paul writes, “we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others,” Ephesians 2:3. He summarizes this sad condition by adding, “we were dead in trespasses,” Ephesians 2:5. James diagnoses the thoughts of man that proceed from the heart, by stating, “the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell,” James 3:6.

 

Paul expounds further, stating succinctly, “There is none righteous, no, not one,” Romans 3:10. The Psalmist says even of Israel, for failing to obey God’s command to drive out the Canaanites, “Thus they were defiled by their own works,” agreeing with James assessment of human conduct, Psalm 106:39. Isaiah contributes, writing, “The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant,” Isaiah 24:5. We have even corrupted the world we were given stewardship of because of our volitional transgressions, Romans 8:20, Genesis 3:17, 18. We are sinners by birth (Psalm 51:5) and also by choice; we choose to do wrong.

 

Our sin nature, susceptible to temptation, lures us into committing what we ought not, to our own undoing, James 1:14, 15. The doctrine of original sin is a Biblical one. Romans 5:12 expresses the notion that through Adam all mankind inherited his nature: a sin nature. Romans 5:18 and 19 likewise affirm that due to Adam’s transgression all mankind became sinners and stand in judgment. Made in Adam’s likeness, we have inherited from him a nature that is tempted to commit sin because it is inclined toward it. We are spiritually dead. We are all defiled. The prophet Isaiah writes, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way,” Isaiah 53:6.

 

Jesus is undefiled, separate from sinners. He is undefiled, one might say, BECAUSE He is separate from sinners. What does this mean? Jesus the Christ does not possess a sin nature. He did not before He incarnated as a Man. He did not during His earthly ministry, because Paul writes that God sent His Son, “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” Romans 8:3. To exercise this language means the apostle wanted to express the point that Jesus did not come in the same sinful flesh we possess. He is without sin, Hebrews 4:15.

 

Nor does Christ our Lord possess a sin nature after His resurrection and ascension, for we read, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” Hebrews 13:8. The Word who became flesh is always and ever the same, this verse relates to us. He is who He was in Heaven before He became a Man, the same Galilean that ministered in Israel 2000 years ago. If we inherit our sin nature through Adam, and henceforth the fathers who beget us, it is simple to see how our Lord was not infected by the sin nature when He was conceived. Matthew records, “for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit,” Matthew 1:20.

 

Luke’s Gospel extrapolates with more detail. Here we learn, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God,” Luke 1:35. Luke and Matthew agree that the Holy Spirit in this instance is the begetter of Jesus, while Mary is His human mother. Luke adds that Jesus, from the womb, is referred to as the Holy One, implying that unlike David (and us) who are born in sin (again, Psalm 51:5), the Christ is sinless from birth. And since He is begotten by direct agency of God’s creative power (the power of the Highest overshadowed Mary) He is called the Son of God. Angels and Adam were created (not begotten) by God and are likewise referred to as sons of God. But Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, John 3:16.

 

By virtue of being begotten this way, through God the Holy Spirit, Jesus did not inherit Adam’s sin nature, and in the flesh was sinless. This of course makes complete Biblical sense because only a lamb without spot or blemish could be offered on behalf of sinful man on Jewish altars. God provided His own Lamb in the person of Jesus, without spot or blemish, to take away the sin of the world, John 1:29. Jesus testified of Himself, telling His disciples that, “the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me,” John 14:30. Satan had nothing to tempt in Christ. There was no sin to accuse Him of, no blemish he could point out or exploit.

 

Temptation can only truly work if one possesses a nature capable of responding to the temptation. Christ only and always abode in the Father, doing His will. While Jesus our Lord experienced hunger, thirst, fatigue, anger and fear as a Man, these physical and emotional tests were not temptations to sin, but hardships He endured as the Second Adam and representative head of our race. When Satan challenged the Lord in the desert he offered three enticements: the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. These took the form of satisfying His hunger by a gross demonstration of power, sinning in presumption by placing Himself in danger unnecessarily, and being offered the world’s kingdoms without the cross. Of course our Lord countered every temptation with Scripture, finally commanding the devil to depart from Him. Note that Satan is described in Matthew as, “the tempter,” and his sole purpose was in fact to tempt Jesus to abandon His purpose, or more plainly stated, to sin, Matthew 4:1, 3.

 

Mark briefly alludes to the same scenario, simply writing that Jesus was, “in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan,” Mark 1:13. Luke chapter 4 likewise records this contest, with Luke writing, “when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time,” Luke 4:13. That opportune time came in Gethsemane, and through Judas Iscariot, who did have a sin nature and succumbed to it, betraying his Lord to His death. Why did the devil change tactics? A head on contest clearly proved fruitless. Jesus could not be tempted to sin, because He did not have a sin nature. Nowhere in Matthew, Mark or Luke do we read that Jesus considered accepting Satan’s ludicrous propositions. In fact, Matthew and Luke make it rather clear that the exchange was quick. Jesus did not ponder anything. Satan enticed and was swiftly rebuffed by Scripture, and Scripture’s Author.

 

We read in James, “God cannot be tempted by evil,” James 1:13. John concurs, writing, “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin,” 1 John 3:5. To be tempted in an evil sense, as humanity struggles with daily, means to war internally with what we know is right, and what we desire to do in the flesh, to gratify it. Jesus Christ was never outside of the Father’s will, claiming that He and the Father were One, and that when someone beheld Jesus they saw the Father. It is fitting for us, who are so sinful that some professing Christians want our Lord to be as filthy as we are, to have an undefiled High Priest, separate from sinners. They claim that if Jesus wasn’t tempted to sin like humanity around Him He is unfit as our Savior; He triumphed over nothing. But if He did have a sin nature and could be tempted to consider evil then He, like us, would need to atone for His own sins and Himself need a Savior. And rest assured, our Lord triumphed on Calvary, defeating Satan, sin and death by dying on the cross and accomplishing what sinful man could not: our redemption. Let no one who names the name of Jesus Christ think any less than what the Bible declares Him to be: our sinless Lamb of God, who has come to take away the sin of the world. Hallelujah!