Jesus' impeccability

Nobody’s perfect! Sometimes those two words are the only excuse we can offer when we let someone down. We say it at work. We say it to our spouses. We might even be tempted to say it to a judge when we get a speeding fine. After all, nobody’s perfect. Well, not exactly. There is one man who is perfectly perfect. That man is the God-man, Jesus Christ.

The sinlessness of Jesus is an essential doctrine of the Christian faith. After all, we couldn’t rely on another sinner to take our sins away. Only a sinless Saviour could pay the penalty for our sins.

The New Testament is adamant about the sinless perfection of Jesus Christ. In spite of intense temptation, Jesus never sinned. Satan did his best to lure Jesus into sin. For forty days Jesus endured Satan’s attacks in the wilderness, culminating in three powerful temptations. Satan tempted Jesus to depend on His own power instead of the Father’s provision by making bread out of stones. Satan tempted Jesus to test the Father’s protecting power by casting Himself off a high point of the Temple. Satan also tempted Jesus to forsake the Father’s plan by receiving all the kingdoms of the world without going to the cross. But in each and every temptation, Jesus responded in obedience to the Word of God, even quoting it in the face of Satan’s onslaught. Matthew 4.10 tells us that, at the end of this intense period of temptation, Jesus dismissed the devil, saying, “Away from me, Satan!” Jesus was tempted more intensely than any man in history, yet He never succumbed. He is sinless. He’s perfect.

When Jesus’ opponents sought to find fault in Him they were sorely disappointed. Jesus even asked them, in John 8.46, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” His critics could find nothing wrong in Jesus. They even had to trump up false charges at Jesus’ trial in order to send Him to the cross.

Hebrews 4.15 states that Jesus was “tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.” While we know that Jesus didn’t sin, it also makes sense to conclude that Jesus couldn’t sin. After all, Jesus is God in the flesh, and God cannot sin. The idea that Jesus couldn’t have sinned is called the ‘impeccability’ of Christ. Theologians debate this point, but there is no debate about Jesus’ holy character and sinless life.

Aren’t you glad that Jesus never sinned? In 2 Corinthians 5.21 Paul wrote, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Because Jesus was sinless, He could take our sins on Himself on the cross. Would you like to have your sins completely forgiven? Turn to Jesus Christ by faith. He alone is our sinless Saviour.