Jesus lived a sinless life

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There is little agreement as to what Jesus looked like.

Jesus Christ is said to have lived a sinless life, something only possible if he were divine.

"We are correct in concluding it is impossible for a person to be sinless, unless that person was also God.[1]"

The argument[edit]

  1. The Bible states that Jesus was sinless [2] and there is no record of him committing any sin.
  2. Humans either have a divine nature or they do not.
  3. Humans without a divine nature commit sins.
  4. Therefore Jesus has a divine nature.

Sin is breaking God's law. 1 John 3:4 Bible-icon.png

Counterexamples[edit]

The Bible is not a reliable source[edit]

Main Article: Biblical inerrancy

The argument assumes the Bible is an accurate record of the life of Jesus. However, it's reliability is questionable at best.

Begging the question[edit]

Main Article: Begging the question

Jesus is recorded to have broken several Jewish laws concerning the Sabbath Mark 3:1-6 Bible-icon.png, dietary restrictions, ritual washing, etc. The justification for this was he was God and could amend divine laws. However, for this defence to work it must be assumed that Jesus is divine. Matthew 12:8 Bible-icon.png So, the argument that attempts to establish Jesus was divine depends on the unstated premise that he is divine! This is begging the question.

Biblical record of sins[edit]

The gospels contain accounts of Jesus committing sins. [3] At the very least, it is not clear that he never committed any sins.

In Luke 19:29-35 Bible-icon.png, Jesus tells his disciples to steal a donkey, which they do. (Mark 11:1-6 Bible-icon.png tells the same story, but notes that the owners let the disciples take the donkey once they found out that it was for Jesus.)

Jesus called people "fools" Matthew 23:17 Bible-icon.png but those who call people fools end up in hell Matthew 5:22 Bible-icon.png.

In Matthew 12:46-50 Bible-icon.png, Mark 3:31-35 Bible-icon.png, and Luke 8:19-21 Bible-icon.png, Jesus is preaching to a crowd, when his mother and brothers come looking for him. He denies them, saying, in effect "my followers are my family now."

In Luke 16:1-9 Bible-icon.png, Jesus tells a parable about a manager who encourages his clients to pay his employer less than they owe. He is commended for acting "wisely".

In Luke 12:47-48 Bible-icon.png, Jesus advocates the beating of slaves.

In Matthew 15:4-7 Bible-icon.png and Mark.7:9-13 Bible-icon.png, Jesus advocates the practice of Old Testament law. Specifically the stoning death of disobedient or disrespectful children.

Jesus needlessly kills a herd of swine by casting out devils from a man and allowing them into the herd.

There may have been sins that were not recorded since the New Testament did not record every event of his life.

Sin and divinity separate issues[edit]

There is no evidence of any correlation between sinlessness and divinity. Job was blameless in the sight of God, yet he too wasn't divine. In fact if it were the case then stating that God created man such that he could not be sinless, is a great immoral act on the part of God.

Jesus admits he sins[edit]

In the incident where the divine law condemned a women to be stoned to death, Jesus said "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." John 8:1-11 Bible-icon.png Even though it was the law for her to be stoned, even Jesus does not throw the first stone because he too sinned. [4]

Difference between Moral and Sinless[edit]

Another issue in the argument is a subtle Equivocation between Moral and Sinless: By definition, Sin is what a particular religion declares to be an undesirable act, regardless of one's personal opinion of it or whether it is based on bigotry or reason. Different religions have different concepts of what Sin qualifies as, their idea of what qualifies as Sin is just as valid as that of other theistic systems. Theists of a religion are even expected to follow those doctrines to the letter, or else risk being severely punished in some cases. Morality however is not rooted in one source baselessly declaring something as desirable or not.

References[edit]


v · d Arguments for the existence of god
Anthropic arguments   Anthropic principle · Natural-law argument
Arguments for belief   Pascal's Wager · Argument from faith · Just hit your knees
Christological arguments   Argument from scriptural miracles · Would someone die for a lie? · Liar, Lunatic or Lord
Cosmological arguments   Argument from aesthetic experience · Argument from contingency · Cosmological argument · Fine-tuning argument · Kalam · Leibniz cosmological argument · Principle of sufficient reason · Unmoved mover · Why is there something rather than nothing?
Majority arguments   Argument from admired religious scientists
Moral arguments   Argument from justice · Divine command theory
Ontological argument   Argument from degree · Argument from desire · Origin of the idea of God
Dogmatic arguments   Argument from divine sense · Argument from uniqueness
Teleological arguments   Argument from design · Banana argument · 747 Junkyard argument · Laminin argument · Argument from natural disasters
Testimonial arguments   Argument from observed miracles · Personal experience · Argument from consciousness · Emotional pleas · Efficacy of prayer
Transcendental arguments   God created numbers · Argument from the meaning of life
Scriptural arguments   Scriptural inerrancy · Scriptural scientific foreknowledge · Scriptural codes