The following is my answer to a question I recently was asked. Someone asked me if Jesus ever sinned, or if He could even sin if He wanted to. I was also asked if Jesus was born with a sinful nature like all other human beings. I thought my answer may prove helpful to some of you:
Brother, here are three passages that clearly show Jesus never sinned. 1 John 3:5 also indicates that there was no sin whatsoever in Him. The sinful nature (that portion of ourselves that is sinful by nature) is, in itself, a form of sin’s pollution. The tendency to walk away from the Father is inherently sinful (that is, we are polluted by sin from the moment of conception and are prone towards it at times). Jesus had no such sinful tendency. The Spirit preserved His perfect, sinless, and divine nature through His immaculate conception (not Mary's, by the way--although Mary is the greatest woman who has ever lived--but that's another topic).
As for the question of whether He could have sinned or not, there has been considerable debate on this throughout history among very gifted and godly theologians. The "Impeccability" position holds that Jesus could not have sinned even if He wanted to. The "Peccability" position holds that Jesus could have indeed sinned and disobeyed the Father, but never did. I lean more toward the Peccability side, but agree with the old adage, “Jesus could have sinned but never would have sinned.” Hope that helps. Pastor Rusty
"15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin." Heb. 4:15
"He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone." 1 Pet. 2:22
"5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin." 1 John 3:5
