|
If Jesus is God in flesh, why did He not inherit original sin?
If all
people have original sin and Jesus was a human being, then didn't
Jesus need to have had a sin nature?
Before we can answer this question, we need to know what the term
"original sin" means. This is a term used to describe the effect of
Adam's sin on his descendants (Rom.
5:12-32). Specifically, it is our inheritance of a sinful nature
from Adam. The sinful nature originated with Adam and is passed down
from parent to child. We are by nature children of wrath (Eph.
3:2). So, if we inherit our sinful nature from our parents, then
Jesus, who had Mary as a parent, must have had a sin nature. Right?
Not necessarily. I believe that the sin nature is passed down through
the father. Let me explain.
Some Bible commentators, with whom I agree, hold the position
that the sin nature is passed down through the father. Support for
this position is found in the fact that sin entered the world through
Adam, not Eve. Remember, Eve was the one who sinned first. However,
sin did not enter the world through her. It entered through Adam.
Rom. 5:12 says,
"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and
death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all
sinned." The concept behind this is called Federal Headship.
This means that a person (a father) represents his descendants. We
see this concept taught in Heb.
7:9-10, "And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who
received tithes, paid tithes, 10for he was still in the
loins of his father when Melchizedek met him." We see in Hebrews
that Levi, a distant descendant of Abraham, is said to have paid
tithes to Melchizedek when Abraham was the one offering the tithes,
not Levi. What this means is that there is biblical support for the
idea that the sin nature was passed down through the father. Since
Jesus had not literal, biological father, the sin nature was not
passed down to Him. However, since He had a human mother, he was
fully human but without original sin. Jesus has two natures: God and
man. Col. 2:9 says, "For in
Him dwells all the fullness of deity in bodily form." Jesus
received His human nature from Mary, but He received His divine nature
through God the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Jesus is both God and man.
He was sinless, had no original sin, and was both fully God and fully
man.
Return to Questions
about Jesus
|