If you have ever wondered whether it was possible for Christ to sin, please see my completely updated article on this topic at the Institute for Biblical Studies. For those of you just looking for a quick answer, the answer is no. If you want to know why, read the article!
October 15, 2008
Thinking to Believe 
June 28, 2018 at 10:14 am
Brother Jason, the link to your article does not work.
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June 28, 2018 at 3:02 pm
Jason:
I have not read your article as your link did no activate; nevertheless, I shall give you my comment to your question:” Could Christ have sinned.”
Christ was his attitude and Jesus was his name, so in his name, I will answer,
Yes. Jesus did sin and I’ll tell you how and why.
There are two definitions of sin from my perspective: that is “perceived” sin by others and by oneself.
1. Sin like Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and as far as others are concerned Jesus was a sinner and not merely a sinner but a “Blasphemous” sinner. In the eyes of the Pharisees Jesus’s sins were many.
2. In the eye of the beholder also includes oneself and that is wrongdoing by which one has a self-conviction.
Normally people generally believe that lying is a sin albeit the “white lie” syndrome notwithstanding. The Commandment of bearing false witness against your neighbour is a different lie and quite an insidious one at that for it is falsely accusing your neighbour of doing something the neighbour was innocent of like blaming someone for a criminal act when perhaps the accuser committed the act and tries to deflect blame to another person.
And then there are lies; or, so called sins, for self preservation or preservation of others which to some would be lies and sin and to others not lies and not sin (in the eyes of the beholder scenario). In Germany for example, during Nazism if you were a Jew and found hiding or a German citizen hiding Jewish friends you would be a sinner in the eyes of the Law. Anne Frank ( Annelies Marie Frank) was one of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
When the Franks, van Pelses, and Pfeffer were discovered they taken to RSHA headquarters, where they were interrogated and held overnight. On 5 August they were transferred to the Huis van Bewaring (House of Detention). Two days later they were transported to the Westerbork transit camp, through which by that time more than 100,000 Jews, mostly Dutch and German, had passed.
Transgression of the Law is but one definition of sin but the Law itself is not always just and fair; after all, who has the gold makes the rules because they employ the police enforcers and the enforcers are employed to enforce the Law, and the employers, government or otherwise, decree the Laws they write. The Police and the Policy follow the Law (Policy) and do the bidding of the employer/government who holds the keys of freedom and your life in their hands. The Jews having been arrested in hiding and the hiders of Jews were considered criminals and sent to the Punishment Barracks for hard labour.
Jesus lied several times for self preservation and while most of us would not say he sinned, some would. Besides lying and deceiving his enemies to escape from them, Jesus also lied to his brothers. Now I point this out only to illustrate that not every lie or deceit is sin but the type of sin that is in the eye of the beholder.
If you were to go on to John 7 and read verses 3 & 6-8 & 9-10 His brothers said, “Why don’t you leave here and go up to the Feast so your disciples can get a good look at the works you do?” They were pushing him to go. “Jesus came back at them, “Don’t crowd me. This isn’t my time. It’s your time-it’s always your time; you have nothing to lose.” —-“The world cannot hate you; but me it hates me because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. You go ahead, go up to the Feast. Don’t wait for me. I’m not going. It’s not the right time for me.” — When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee.— But later, after his family had gone up to the Feast, he also went, not openly, but as it were in secret.” Lies that were not sin.
There is only one place noted in the bible that Jesus sinned, not of his own doing because he had been taught that Jews despised the Canaanites and the Canaanites hated Jews. That is when the Canaanite woman prayed to Jesus for help to cure her sick daughter in Matthew 15, 21-28. She came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
Jesus realized his sin by the truth and reason of the woman’s unpretentious comeback and immediately regretted such a thoughtless expression of outdated tradition. Jesus was impressed. “You’re right! On your way! Your daughter is no longer disturbed. The demonic affliction is gone.” Jesus rewarded the woman for her courage by commending her for the great faith and himself began a tangential stream that included gentiles again going against the long standing, tradition-induced society.
Thus in summary, Jesus did not intentionally sin but intentionally repented of his sin brought abruptly to his attention by the woman’s smart, logical witticism.
One might very easily identify this hidden truth: that Jesus’s NATURAL common sense was SUPER! Or, “super-natural” for short! (; (;
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