The Apostles’ Creed: God The SonSample

Jesus’ Sinless Human Nature: Hebrews 4:14-15

When we say that Jesus has a human nature, we mean that he possesses all the attributes and traits that are essential to being human — things like a physical human body and a rational human soul.

Throughout church history, many theological battles have been fought over the nature of Christ’s humanity. Was he fully human in all respects? Did he have a real flesh and blood body, or did he just appear to be human? Did he have a real human soul, or did his divine person inhabit an empty body? Questions like these may seem rather technical and mysterious, and perhaps even unimportant. But at times arguments over Christ’s human nature have threatened to divide the church. They have been the subject of many theological councils. Even today false understandings of Christ’s humanity can undermine the gospel. So, it’s important for every Christian to understand at least the rudimentary aspects of Jesus’ human nature.

Faithful Christian theology has consistently maintained that Jesus is fully human in every respect: he has a body and a soul; he was subject to sickness, injury and death; he had normal physical limitations; and so on. 

But when we talk about Jesus in this way, the picture quickly becomes complicated because Jesus differs from other human beings in some important ways. For one thing, Jesus is a perfect human being, whereas the rest of us are flawed. And this results in some significant differences between us. For example, every other human being has sinned. We see this theme in 1 Kings 8:46, Psalm 130:3, Psalm 143:2, Romans 5:12, Galatians 3:22, and many other passages. As just one example, consider these words from Romans 3:10-12:

There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one (Romans 3:10-12).

But Jesus is different. He was born without sin, and lived a perfectly sinless life. The Bible specifically speaks of his sinlessness in passages like Hebrews 4:14-15, and 9:14. So, how do we reconcile this idea with the assertion that Jesus had a true and complete human nature? Well, the simple answer is that the commission of sin, and even the ability to sin, are not essential to being human.