The incarnate Son has a limited human mind. When
Jesus was a baby, in his human nature he thought like a baby (Isa. 7:14, 16).
The infant Christ “grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and
the grace of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40). As a child, Jesus learned form
other people. Though at age twelve he exhibited unusual understanding of divine
truths, still he went to the Jewish teachers and was “asking them questions
“(vv. 46-47) . . . (Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic
Theology, 4 vols. [Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2020], 2:809)
The question may be raised, “Was it possible for Jesus
Christ to have sinned?” In other words, was Christ’ “peccable” (able to sin) or
“impeccable” (not able to sin). In answering this question we must make some
distinctions based upon what we have already seen from the Scriptures about
Christ. First, the human nature of Christ did have the ability to sin during
his humiliation. The Lord Jesus experienced true and painful temptation. As we
have seen, he has a complete human nature, body and soul, in a state of
humiliation, vulnerable and changeable. His human nature, considered
abstractly, had the capacity to sin (peccabilty) until confirmed in
unchangeable righteousness when he was glorified.
Second, however, the person of Jesus Christ cannot sin.
Christ is not two persons, but one person, the Son who eternally exists as God
and took to himself a human nature. Neither is Jesus a human nature considered
abstractly from his person and divine nature. When we speak of someone sinning,
we do not speak of a nature but of a person, for only a person is a morally
accountable agent in relationship to God and others. Therefore, if Christ had
sinned as a man, the person of the Son would have committed that sin. That is
inconceivable, since that person is not only human but also the righteous and
unchanging God, who cannot be tempted to sin (Heb 13:8; James 1:13, 17). Not
only Christ’s unity, but the very unit of the Trinity, would have been
threatened. Therefore, we hold to his mystery in the incarnation: Jesus Christ
was (1) able to be tempted in his human nature, (2) able to sin in his humanity
considered abstractly, and (3) able not to sin due to his human purity, but (4)
impeccable as a person because of the union of his humanity with his deity. He
could experience temptation but could not be conquered by it. (Joel R. Beeke
and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology, 4 vols. [Wheaton,
Ill.: Crossway, 2020], 2:815-16)
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