THE SINLESS SON

THE SINLESS SON

God's intrinsic nature of love includes a free will, which is an absolute will that He alone possesses. This SUPREME SOVEREIGN WILL POWER is not subject to any lesser subordinate powers, either in life or in death. Nor is this power contingent or dependent upon the puny will of any creature. But, out of the desire of His own immutable, incorruptible will, He who is the very essence of eternal love, needed to be able to express and share a reciprocal love whereby He might also be freely and unequivocably loved in return.

In order to be able to fulfill Himself and the very purpose of His Being, He devised a marvelous and peerless plan of creation, whereby all that existed and was to exist, evil included, was to have an ultimately glorious and blessed purpose. The works of this plan were to be sovereignly wrought in a designated dispensation of time in order to eventually fulfill a divinely determined, preordained objective; an exemplary objective which included the maturation and perfecting of God's most marvelous and intricate work---His creation called man.

The Almighty Creator, both designed and destined this unique creation to become complete in every desired aspect of His own glorious likeness and immaculate image. This was to be a creation brought forth by Him, through Him, and unto Him (Ro.11:36), eventually becoming wholly consummate, both for Him and in Him. It was to be a creation lacking nothing, ultimately completed in the likeness of His own sinless morals and perfect loving nature. "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure, they are and were created." Rev.4:11; 5:13.

In the beginning, God desired of His own absolute infinite will, that man as an extension of Himself, be equipped with a moral disposition and propensity basically like unto His own, wherein the independent exercise of reason and of personal will was to be an essential part of the complex design. Because God Himself was incomplete in the sense we have suggested, He chose to fulfill Himself and His incomplete infant creation, through the outworking of an elaborate, yet sovereignly controlled plan. This involved for a predetermined period of time, the right of His creatures to choose and to act in an independent, immature form of His own absolutely wise and mature free will.

To will is to choose. Choice involves a decision or preference between at least two alternatives. Adam was given the right to choose---to know both good and evil - Gen.3:5. In his (their) choice he became a "god" but in a lower realm - Gen.3:22. This was divinely instigated as a part of our Lord's preordained will and method in completing His creation. This was no accident. Included in the framework of this plan, was this necessary fall into depravity (Jn.12:24), an equally necessary redemption out from it, and a final restoration unto a completed creation, with Christ as its eternal head. God could have brought forth His creation in any way He desired. In His supreme wisdom and omniscience, He chose to do it in stages. This was His overall regal plan, insigated wholly in accordance with the past, present, future, and final working of His divinely determined will.

At present, the transcendent will power of our Most High Potentate, reigns over and above all things, including the will of man. His ultimate goal, is to "put under Him" all lesser powers, and have His consummate will eternally functioning "all in all." 1Cor.15:28. In order to ensure the completion of all that God began, including the conforming of man's confined, finite, and very limited free will into His own holy, infinite, unrestricted, as well as precise and timely will---God retained an absolute autonomous right. That right was to sovereignly intervene in the affairs of His creation, wherever, whenever, and however it served and pleased Him.

This is not to say that man does not have a God-given right and allocated power to frequently make his own choices, conduct his own affairs, and carry out his own actions. He obviously does, for we are deity in training. This granted privilege of power in independence is actually a part of our learning process of both good and evil, of learning the true value of everlasting spiritual things in contrast to that of transient worldly things. It's for the purpose of learning about the operation of God's law's in sin and death in contrast to the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus...of not only their qualities but also their consequences.

Most essential to the completion of this glorious plan, is the cross of Christ involving a sinless sacrifice, out of which flows the absolute sovereign power of God unto universal salvation for all mankind and for total restitution and restoration of all that needs reparation. "He purposed long ago in His sovereign will, that all human history should be consummated in Christ, that everything that exists in heaven or earth should find its perfection and fulfillment in Him." Eph.1:10 (Phillips); Col.1:16-29; Ac.3:21; Phil.2:10-11.

THE VULNERABILITY OF MANKIND

Man is not a free moral agent as is taught in fundamentalist Christianity. He is born as a slave (Ro.7:14) to his own sin nature - Eph.2:2,3; Psa.51:5. He is not a sinner nor a slave by His own choice. He is a sinner by nature, a prisoner (Isa.42:7), "blinded" (2Cor.4:3,4), caught in "the snare of the devil", and "taken captive by him at his will." 2Tim.2:26; Ro.7:14-20.

On the surface, it appears man is left to be governed primarily by his own lusts, his own devices, his own decisions, his own carnal mind and his own will, whether in war or in peace, in sickness or in health or in any other situation which is common to man. Man is also extremely vulnerable to His environment. Man's will can easily be dictated by his freedom or lack of it, by his responsibilities or lack of them, and by mental persuasions such as love, hate, fear, anger, sorrow etc. All the while, he is also confined under, and subjugated to, God's mysterious laws of physics and nature. These are Laws,whose natural causes in unforeseen and uncontrollable operations, can have unavoidable and disastrous effects on humanity, on the environment, and on the world of economics, not only in supply and demand but also in many other forms of change.

Things in nature such as inclement weather in the form of storms, hurricanes and tornados, can be without mercy, causing widespread damage and death. Other climatic variables such as the lack of rain, can bring with it terrible drought and famine along with all its devastating consequences. Contained within the God designed laws of nature are to be found such powerful destructive forces as can cause earthquakes, floods, fire, disease and many forms of pestilence, making man a victim of the elements. All kinds of natural disasters as well as accidents, man-made or not, can play a large part in effecting man's life and his will.

People are also controlled by more than physical laws. Their will can be controlled by man made laws, decrees of government, and even by one's race, skin color, social status, political persuasion, religion, job environment, education etc. Spiritual laws also play a part - Ro.7:23; 8:2. So do spiritual principalities and powers play their part in the influence and control of man's will - Eph.6:6. The fact is, we are also all bound in varying degrees in the clutches of sin, and limited in sight because of our spiritual blindness - Eph.4:18.

What hope do we have then? Who can deliver us from so great a body of death and darkness? Romans chapter seven tells us the only true answer lies in a higher power apart from ourselves. As Christians, let us give thanks to God for Jesus Christ our Lord, who was bound Himself to live a sinless life for us that we might also partake of His spotless eternal life. In great mercy and grace, He has come to deliver man from all evil which man is incapable of doing for himself.

The human will is not sovereign. Rather, it is always determined by something else and is therefore its servant - Ro.6:16-22. So much in this world is beyond man's control, beyond the power and scope of his will to initiate or prevent. Many such things can only be termed as God's allowable or tolerable will, for it's hard to see that He could be directly or even indirectly involved in such things.

In all of this, the age old questions remain. Why does God allow all this? Why doesn't He fully intervene to prevent such things? After all, He alone is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, and in His supreme foreknowledge He surely knows what will happen in the future. Unfortunately, limited human knowledge and wisdom is not sufficient to give a full and satisfying answer.

In all of this, or apart from all of this, God, for His own spiritual purposes, can divinely and providentially intervene in a multitude of different ways. With regard to human affairs, He has dynamic, imperative methods of influencing the will, behavior, or volition of men to choose and/or act as suits Him at any particular time. Or if the Lord so chooses, He can just as easily, either directly or indirectly, bring about particular circumstances or changes in the self motivated actions of men, or He can institute changes in His surroundings, so that the consequences or the end results, will actually serve His hidden purposes.

Mankind is most often very ignorant and oblivious to all this. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." Isa.55:9. In the Bible, there are many scriptures and examples of the absolute sovereign workings of God's perfect will in the affairs of mankind. For a comprehensive study of these scriptures, there are other booklets on this subject available from this ministry. "For Who Hath Resisted His Will" and "God Omipotent Reigneth" are two that reveal many hidden scriptural truths concerning the will of God and the will of man.

HIDDEN INTENTIONS OF GOD

In the age enduring dispensation of the Lord's sagacious plan, there have been at least four major and absolutely necessary divine interventions. All these interventions and their results, have been according to the indirect and determined, clandestine workings of our great sovereign Architect. The primary intervention is found in the circumstances surrounding the biblical fall of mankind into a lower realm of existence. The next intervention of major importance occurs in the form of divine help from the Father in assuring the ability of Christ to live a sinless life and die a sinless sacrificial death. It is precisely this great truth that we wish to elaborate on more fully in this booklet.

The third aspect of this great plan is an ongoing form of spiritual intervention which comes in the activation of man's initial personal salvation. The fourth, involves God's mysterious works and methods of divine persuasion in bringing all, to a designated measure and stature in the fulness of Christ. He who has spoken and purposed it, shall also do, it for He is God - Isa.46:9-11; Phil.1:6.

Concerning the operation of free will, it is interesting to note the case of the first Adam creation in comparison to the second and last Adam, Jesus Christ. Both Adam and Jesus had a mind which was capable, or maybe a better word would be liable, to choose that which was seemingly the right choice for them. On the one hand, we find Christ had the God-given power in abilities and wisdom to continue to make all the right choices. We will elaborate on this shortly.

However, Adam lacked the necessary abilities, qualities and wisdom to make choices he otherwise may have made. So, with the woman (a type of his subservient soul, his natural mind), he chose that thing which he pleased, that which he desired most because it had such a strong influence on his immature psyche. Both these choices that would prove to be to be major factors in God's great prearranged plan, were really the results of God's hidden working and divine interventions. It is obvious that God could never allow such monumental choices to be left to haphazard chance.

The Adamic man's initial unwise choices, though made in disobedience, were actually made according to God-planned circumstances. All the strongest motivating powers and the final determining agents, were influential factors, secretly instigated by God to cause the choices to be what they were. Simply put, it was a case of God's sovereign will divinely influencing man's independent will to make those consequential choices which God's higher will and plan required.

Mankind had no prior godly knowledge nor wisdom. Thus began his teaching. So, though on the surface, this seeming huge mistake made in Adam's willful choice caused mankind's downfall; it was aligned all along to be mutual with the ultimate will and purposes of God - Ro.11:32. We will discover how much more God's providence and sovereign power was the determining factor in just the opposite scenario of His obedient Son. It will become very evident that Jesus Christ the sinless Son could no more have become a sinner with all of sins vain consequences, any more than Adam could have remained forever apart from sin (Gen.3:22) and all its vanity - Ro.8:20; Psa.90:3; Eccl.1:13; 3:10,11.

Contrary to what some men believe, it is not true that God's ability to influence and intervene in man's will, makes man some kind of automaton or robot. There is absolutely no valid reason for comparison. All men are "choosers", who unlike robots, have a limited, temporal, interim natural self powered ability to make choices on their own. Yet the truth is, even that ability is God-given and at times, God-directed. Simultaneous with the exercising of our own will, especially when the Holy Spirit becomes activated in one's life [always in God's choice and God's timing], there are often divinely directed events and circumstances which the Lord allows and sometimes causes, directly or indirectly, to take place in our lives.

For example, these things can involve physical or emotional pain, suffering, trials, chastening as well as many others forms of physical or spiritual death. Yet, on the other side of this same coin, He draws us in great compassion and mercy with His many powerful means and forms of grace, love, mercy, peace etc., ever wooing and supernaturally influencing us to make right choices which concur with both His immediate and ultimate will and desire for us as individuals.

Touching on personal salvation, UNLESS God calls and UNTIL God actively calls, it is impossible for a person to come to inspired knowledge, and experience the truth of this salvation - Jn.5:40. WHEN God calls, one cannot ultimately resist or refuse to come, for his own will is sovereignly merged into compliance with the will of God - Jn.6:37; 44,45. Believing on Him is the work of God's own will and not man's - Jn.6:29; Eph.1:29. "The Son quickeneth whom He will." Jn.5:21. "As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed." Ac.13:48; 2:47. Saul's conversion was a perfect example - Ac.9:1-20; Gal.1:15. Justly, God is as much responsible for man's deliverance as He was for his demise.

Any acceptance or rejection of the gospel according to man's own will or choice tends toward glorifying man, not God. The Lord receives no more glory in this than He would if the majority of His creation ended up suffering for eternity in hell. Yet, many sincere Christians continue to believe that man's free will, human volition, even their own self will, is the only determining factor in all their choices, whether they be choices of evil or goodness, or even choices of righteousness....namely that of their own personal salvation.

John disagreed with this erroneous concept when he revealed that the power and ability to receive, believe, and become an adopted son of God--comes not from the will of man, not from human volition, not from the flesh at all, but it originates entirely out of/from God - Jn.1:12,13. Man may be free in minor things concerning his personal conduct but concerning God's eternal purpose and destiny for him, he is not!

In the future, the Bible indicates that all will eventually succumb to God's supreme sovereign will, proving it to be absolutely sovereign over all, and in all, in their becoming one with Him. This happens not because we primarily choose of ourselves but only because He alone sovereignly brings about man's personal will and desire to blend into perfect harmony with His own. Call this super sovereignty or even robot-like if you wish. That at least acknowledges and recognizes the fact that all the glory in these workings belong only to Him, for He alone is worthy of all honour and glory and power - Psa.115:1; Eph.2:10.

FREE WILL...SELF WILL, GODLY WILL

There are two basic types of will in creation.....ungodly will originating from the mind of man and devil, and godly will which resides intrinsically in the sacred spiritual mind of God the Father and God the Son. Scriptural revelation equates godless free will with the natural human will, the lower SELF will which is the ungodly carnal will, the antichrist or other than Christ will. This operates as a part of the "mystery of iniquity" (2Ths.1:7), and branches out from the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Gen.2:9.

This SELF will is determined OF the self nature and BY the self nature, which is one and the same as the body of sin, the man of sin, the old man nature, the carnal or adamic nature, the carnal man, the first man Adam. It is actually the "I" that must be buried forever, because in a spiritual sense, it is dead already. All self willed choices (those originating from the fallen soul and its subsequent works), no matter how humanly good they may appear, can really only bring forth works and fruits that still have no origin from any true holy and godly branch of the tree of life - Ro.7:5.

As we've previously shown, the so called free will is free to sin but it is limited to that lower realm. So in reality, it actually is bound and not entirely free at all. It has absolutely no powers in and of itself to escape its God ordained limitations and boundaries. It is not sovereign. No will of man without an act of God can bring forth true spirituality. Sure, it can generate human love and kindness, it can bring good out of bad, right out of wrong, peace out of war, sobriety out of addiction and many such things, but it cannot freely choose of itself, nor work of itself to bring forth true godliness and holiness.

There is a "good" side to evil. However, the fruit of this tree is still immature and imperfect (Ro.6:21) in contrast to that of the tree of life - Ro.6:22. Human will apart from the will of the holy Spirit is still apart from any life of God. To be self-willed is to be carnally minded, and to be carnally minded is always in spiritual death - Rom.8:6. This mind is not something that can be revived. It is something which God must remove, destroy and bury forever. Carnal free (self) will is destined to be replaced with God's will, just as the old nature is to be replaced with the Christ nature...and that is not of ourselves, lest any man should boast.

The self will is a will which originates in the mind of the first Adam. It originates from deep within the mystery of the iniquity in ourselves, and is entirely apart from the perfect will of God. Yet, like any other thing, it is not at all apart from the overall sovereignty of God's will. It originates out from the darkness of death and operates in, and as, spiritual death. It is governed over by the God ordained law of sin and death.

The self has no will power of its own to be able to choose true life. How can it? It cannot even choose not to sin for any great length of time. It is a slave to its own natural earthy as well as devilish desires. Self cannot choose to be holy, for the very essence of its nature is synonymous with sin and death. It is bound to this lower realm, powerless and helpless under the interim power of the present spiritual law of sin and death. It can only choose of itself to do dead works in unfruitfulness and ungodliness, in good and evil. Knowing this full well, Christ prayed according to the knowledge He had of His Father's higher will saying, "NOT MY WILL (not His own human self will) be done." Lk.22:42.

This brings us up some interesting questions. Could Jesus have chosen to ignore His Father's will? Is it at all possible He could actually have sinned by His own willful volition or choosing? After all, did He not have a human free-will? Was He not "made in the likeness of men"? Phil.2:7; Heb.2:16,17.

A SIMPLE MATTER OF CHOICE?

There are some who would argue that Jesus, by His own God-given Human volition, even His own adamic earthly will, willfully chose to never sin, somehow choosing on His own to always submit this will to the will of His heavenly Father. This they say, is the prime example and goal of what is expected of all who desire to be disciples of Christ. However, it is quite evident in the scriptures that Jesus' human will alone, even as it is with His disciples today, did not determine of Himself His important pertinent choices.

Rather, it was His Father's will which influenced Him to make sinless choices. The free autonomous self will advocated here is little more than Old Testament type works. No man could be saved, much less perfected in God's image, if this is the method God has chosen for men to attain unto perfect holiness.

It has already been explained that independent self will determined by the human spirit is now a fallen will, a fallen spirit. It is strictly an earthly will that operates solely in union with the sinful old man, the self nature. Together with this fallen man, the first Adam, it has to be reckoned dead (Ro.6:11), dead to heavenly use, crucified (Gal.6:14), buried (Ro.6:4) and put to its final rest daily - 1Cor.15:31; 2Cor.4:10-12.

Those who believe it is the independent self will which makes our choices of godly obedience, must then conclude in this logic... that one can willfully choose of oneself never to sin. But if this be true, then man has no need of the Holy Spirit from God. What's more, if this is so, the logical plan of God would not be to destroy our own will and carnal mind replacing it with the mind of Christ, but rather it would be to strengthen the will of man, this fallen self willed creation and assist this old nature in choosing and performing in holiness.

The fact is, neither us nor God is patching up the old garment [Jude 1:23--the self willing flesh nature] with new cloth (new nature) - Lk.5:36; Matt.22:11,12. Rather, He has made us new garments to put on - Isa.61:10; Mk.10:50; Rev.19:14. He has chosen to give us a totally new and holy nature in combination with a godly will which also comes from Him - Eph.4:22-24. "If any man be in Christ, He is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." 2Cor.5:17.

It is the will of the holy (not the human) Spirit to set us apart unto obedience - 1Ptr.1:2. It is wholly by the mysterious sovereign power of God's Spirit that this is done. While many advocate and emphasize a mighty self willed, self determined obedience, we emphasize the obedience that is determined and wrought by God Almighty. "For as by one man's disobedience (the) many (all) were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall (the) many (all) be made righteous." Ro.5:19.

It is impossible for man to add anything of value to his spiritual stature by his own thoughts, his own choices, or his own action. It is only God's gracious Spirit in our new nature that works in us both to will and to do of His good works and pleasure - 1Cor.15:10; Phil.1:6; 2:13. Spiritual works are always the results of God's grace and never the means of His grace. The old nature also that continues to will and work in us, cannot without divine aid, do God's work, nor even choose to do of God's good will and pleasure.

On the other hand, we can still easily choose sin and detract from our spiritual stature once it has been given us, but we have absolutely no effectual will power at all in or of ourselves to circumnavigate nor escape the ever present power of sin - Ro.7:11-24. Yet, neither did Jesus in his humanity! He escaped the lure of sin only through the allotted strength and power of His Father and not at all of Himself, and we cannot escape sin of ourselves either. We need the power of Christ and His Holy Spirit just as He needed that of His Father.

This leads us to again state an emphatic, yet very basic reason why Jesus unlike the rest of humanity, really could never have sinned. Man was not capable of saving himself. Jesus had to conquer sin for us. It was His Father's essential and imperative will. It could never have been left to mere chance. Consequently, it could not have been left to any choice either, other than that which was the willful choice of the Father. For this reason, there was no possible chance that Jesus might have died an accidental or premature death.

Unlike the rest of mankind, Jesus was the only ordained and begotten Son of God, chosen, predestined, and mightily empowered of His Father to do what had to be done, yet without sin. It was the unrivaled and perfect will of His Father and no plan of God's can be frustrated nor foiled - Jb.42:2.

Jesus is the perfect example of the manifested power of God's sovereignty. In His case, if the devil, human will, or any other thing or power could have actually thwarted God's plan by causing Jesus to sin, then what is there to prevent the continuation of sin and death and chaos forever? The true answer must be according to scripture and is found in the scriptural fact that "no plan of God's can be thwarted" Jb.42 2 NIV; Jb.23:13; Psa.115:13; Eph.1:11 etc. There are many more scriptures that attest to this fact. Let us continually thank God that He alone has control over all things. The choices which Jesus had to make were no exception.

NOTHING OF HIMSELF

In earlier years prior to His ministry, Jesus like us, obviously had freedom of choice to a certain extent. He surely had many human choices to make in natural mundane things. Yet, always He acted without sin. "And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom." Lk.2:40. "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man." Lk.2:52. Why? And How was this possible? Was it because of His own works or abilities, His own intelligence, His own obedience or His own will? Was this something He earned or deserved of His own self?

No! It simply was because divine favour in the form of "THE GRACE OF GOD WAS UPON HIM." LK.2:40. Like unto Mary His mother who was also highly favoured of God (Lk.1:28-30) for no particular visible reason or merit of her own, so was the man Jesus favoured - Jn.3:31-35. Likewise in human salvation, initial grace and favour finds us. We do not find it - 1Cor.15:10. In the same way, Noah, Joseph, Jacob, Abram, Moses, and many others obtained the Old Testament grace of the Lord - Ex.33:16. It was found purely in the fact that God sovereignly revealed a portion of Himself and his glory to man.

Another of several other major influencing factors in Christ's ability to remain sin free was the fact of His virgin birth. We will touch on these things shortly. But before that, we will look at several places in the scriptures where we find Jesus saying words to the effect that...He could do nothing OF HIMSELF. What did He really mean? It is obvious He was not referring to common everyday human choices in taking care of the natural man. By this we mean, everyday things such as pertained to work and play, casual social conversation, when to eat, what to eat, when to go to bed etc. What He mainly was referring to, were important things concerning the works and ministry which His Father had called Him to perform.

Just as when we discover through revelation that we are the Father's workmanship "created unto good works which God hath foreordained that we should walk in them" (Eph.2:10), so was the man Jesus created that He should walk in them when the time came. Truly, the Son of man lived His life according to the will of the Father and not according to His own personal will. He died as a sinless sacrifice for us. In these most important acts in the divine drama of the ages, "truly THE SON OF MAN GOETH AS IT WAS DETERMINED [Grk. PREDESTINED]." Lk.22:22.

The scripture's reveal it was unequivocally determined in the Father's will that His Son remain sinless in His humanity. This was positively ensured and successfully fulfilled through the sovereign working of the Father's divine influential intervention, both in the life and in the death of His sacrificial Lamb-Son.

We find that even in His childhood years before His baptism and ordained ministry, Jesus, as well as Zacharius, Simeon, Elizabeth, Anna and Jesus' parents (Lk. chptr. 1; Lk.2:25-39), had the revelation from the holy Ghost that He was to be a saviour, becoming the unblemished sacrificial Lamb which John also saw (Jn.1:29), come to do only the will of His heavenly Father - Lk.2:49. As Jesus Himself matured, He came to realize through divine revelation, that it was absolutely imperative to do the required will of Him that sent Him and to finish this work which He was ordained to do - Jn.4:34; 9:4; 19:28-30; Lk.4:18,19,43.

Jesus knew from intimate contact with His Father, that He assuredly must suffer, die, and bodily be raised again in order to complete the most essential phase of His Father's will - Jn.2:19:22; Matt.16:21. This surely plays a significant part in explaining why Jesus did not sin. But it goes beyond this; for in reality He could not sin.

A foremost reason why Jesus Christ not only did not, but actually could not sin and never chose to do so, is because He is, and ever was, a part of the complete Godhead...a part of God Himself, who of His own godly will took on the form of a human body---one that is now fully glorified - Col.1:9. Jesus while on earth proclaimed, "THE SON CAN DO NOTHING OF HIMSELF, but what He seeth the Father do" Jn.5:19. Again He saith, "I CAN OF MINE OWN SELF DO NOTHING" (Jn.5:30), "for I (God the Son) came down from heaven NOT TO DO MINE OWN WILL, BUT THE WILL OF HIM (God my Father) THAT SENT ME." Jn.6:38.

Knowing who He was and what His purpose was, was a part of the divine surety that He would remain sinless. He was the visible expressed image of a part of God Himself. In omniscience, position, and authority, the Father was greater than the Son while the Son served His Father and His creation in the flesh - Jn.14:28; 13:16; Phil.2:6-8.

Jesus knew exactly who He was and what was to be done, at least by the time His ministry began. At the Jordan, we see the Father opening wide the heavens unto Him. John not only clearly heard, but also saw the Spirit of God come upon Him..."remaining upon Him." Jn.1:32,33. Later, Christ revealed His own heavenly origin saying, "I proceeded forth and came from God, neither came I OF MYSELF, but He (my Father) sent me." Jn.8:42; 7:28:29. Not just because He originally willed it, but also because His Father willed and ordained it.

In the flesh, Christ knew of His body's foreordained sinless crucifixion, death, and resurrection (Jn.12:32,33), stating as a matter of fact to the unbelieving Jews, "When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He (one with the Father..Jn.8:19,24; 10:30,38) and that I DO NOTHING OF MYSELF, but as my Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He that sent Me is WITH ME : the Father hath not left me alone (Jn.8:16; 16:32), for I DO ALWAYS THE THINGS THAT PLEASE HIM." Jn.8:28,29. Because He was foreordained to be the Father's unblemished sacrificial Lamb (Jn.1:29; Rev.13:8)), the Father wanted it recorded unto the world through John, that Jesus the Christ was His beloved Son, in whom He had a right to be well pleased - Matt.3:17.

The man Jesus was being straight forward and literal when He said three times that HE COULD DO NOTHING OF HIS OWN SELF WILL. Again, this is not because He willed it on His own, but rather because His Father willed it and gave Him of His own unlimited power, for "God giveth NOT THE SPIRIT BY MEASURE" unto Him. The Father loveth the Son and hath given ALL THINGS into His Hand." Jn.3:34,35.

If there was any possibility that Jesus could choose to sin of His own self, would it not be foolhardy of the Father to do this? Was not sin totally contrary to the Father's will which Christ revealed He was sent to do? Was not the first begotten Son graciously given "the measure of faith" (Ro.12:3) necessary to ensure His sinlessness and overcome the world? - 1Jn.5:4,5; Jn.16:33. He understood He did not only come "OF HIMSELF" but came according to the sovereign will of His Father to carry out in perfection, the preordained will and works of the Father and Son's creative plan.

Yes, it was the sovereign Spirit power of the Father in unlimited grace and favour that was with Him, and in Him, to strengthen Him, guide Him, and uphold Him, that He might carry out His sinless works in surety, even unto death at Calvary. Jesus was more than a mere mortal. That is why it is said of Christ, "He who comes from above (heaven) is (far) above all (others)...for superior to all others in prominence and in excellence." Jn.3:3 [Amplif.]

A SINLESS NATURE

Let us believe the Son of God when He said, "I am in the Father and THE FATHER IN ME... THE FATHER THAT DWELLETH IN ME DOETH THE WORK." Jn.14:10,11; Jn.10:37,38. In this, God was covertly guaranteeing the fulfillment of the divine plan. One would have to believe that God could also choose to sin, if they believe Christ in His free will could have sinned, because the Son proclaimed, "I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE." Jn.10:30; 14:9; 5:18; Phil.2:6. They were in reality, one God, one in mutual sovereignty, one in purpose and most importantly, one in sinless incorruptibility.

Christ retained His eternal sinless nature (Heb.13:8; Jas.1:17; Mal.3:6) when He "came down from heaven, not to do MY (His) OWN WILL" (Jn.6:38) after He "proceeded forth and came from (His) God (Father)." Jn.8:42. The first Adam in his immaturity lacked any true holiness or righteousness in his innocent nature and therefore was still vulnerable to sin. The last Adam, the second man who is no less than the Lord from Heaven (1Cor.15:45-47), in His eternal inherent righteousness and holiness, lacked the nature to sin, because in His congenital spirit and visceral form, He was God Himself.

God's sinless Son was "brought forth" into this world through a virgin (Matt.1:23,25), "conceived of the holy Ghost" (Matt.1:18,20) by being "born of" Mary's flesh - Lk.1:35. In this regard, He was solely privileged and favoured as "the only begotten" (Jn.1:14; 3:16) "Son of God" (Lk.1:35) and was in all truth, "God with us" - Matt.1:23. Within the flesh body of Jesus, was a pure spirit, like unto the inherent sinless, holy Spirit of God His Father. In them both (their innate Holy Spirit nature), there was no sin, nor could there be sin, because TOGETHER in a divine union called the Godhead, they always were ONE GOD, are one God, and ever will be one God.

For a clearer understanding on this mysterious Godhead, ask for our booklet entitled "The Fulness Of The Godhead". The divine Son of God proceeded forth and was "manifested" (1Jn.3:5,8), brought forth, begotten, generated out of God. The Bible says it in several different ways. He was both literally and spiritually, "born of God" (1Jn.3:9), enabling Him to live as no man lived before.

The Bible also goes on to say in primary reference to Jesus Christ that "HE CANNOT SIN!" Why? "HE CANNOT SIN BECAUSE HE IS BORN OF GOD." 1Jn.3:9. The Greek says, "HE CANNOT TO SIN BECAUSE OF GOD HE HAS BEEN BEGOTTEN", BORN OF GOD into flesh in the earth in order to guarantee the fulfillment of the Father's purpose and will in His work of destroying the work of the devil - 1Jn.3:8. The only begotten Son was no less than God in the flesh. "His name was called the Word" (Rev.19:13) "and the Word was with God and THE WORD WAS GOD" (Jn.1:1), "and THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US, and we beheld His glory, THE GLORY..AS OF THE ONLY BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER." Jn.1:14; Jn.12:27,28.

Though the preceding scriptures plainly indicate that it was impossible for the man Jesus to sin, there is yet further evidence that supports this truth. Because He was born of an earthly mother who was not without sin, and like all other humanity was subject to the working of the mystery of iniquity, He may well have inherited a measure of this in His human nature.

Iniquity, before it becomes sin, is the mysterious power that compels the human nature to actually commit sin. However, because Jesus was brought forth from the Father and conceived supernaturally unlike any other, He was holy even at birth - Lk.1:35. He was in this way different from other men. He was not born "dead in trespass and sins" (Eph.2:1) and most certainly never came "short of the glory of God" (Ro.3:23) for He was a united component of God Himself. Though His will was in all outward appearances, similar to ours, it was a sensitive, perceptive will somewhat more limited and confined to being subservient to the supreme omnipotent will of His Father God. His will remained untainted by sin. That's why we must now learn how to rely on Him for the power to overcome the sinful tendencies of our own human will.

Though he took on human life, the holiness was available in His life as a greater power than the iniquity. Therefore, He was well able to overcome the world, the relatively powerless iniquity present in His human flesh, as well as all other powers of the devil - Jn.3:34,35. No wonder Jesus could say, that when the prince of this world would come to entice Him, the power of evil could find nothing in Him to cause Him to sin - Jn.14:30. There was no