Maybe I am not looking hard enough, but I cannot find a scripture that states Jesus was free from sin. It is a very common perception that he was, but I have not found a passage that specifically says this.
Is it really true that as a nine-year-old he never struck another boy, that he never had ill feelings for his siblings, that as a teenager he never yelled "I hate you" to his parents? Did he actually live his entire life without doing any wrong?
Does anyone have a scripture that supports this idea?
20 comments:
Hebrews 4:15, 2 Cor. 5:21, 1 Peter 2:22, 1 John 3:5.
Those were easy to find because I remembered Heb. 4:15. I haven't found anything in the BOM yet, but perhaps I'm searching with the wrong terms.
He is referred to as the lamb without blemish.
He is called holy as opposed to our being unholy.
Also, see Heb. 4:15
Paul also says it in Romans somewhere I'm pretty sure.
Thanks for these scriptures, Ben. I knew I was not using the right search terms.
Yet, I am still left to wonder whether these scriptures refer to his entire life or the point at which he died.
He had to be sinless.
"He had to be sinless."
Throughout his whole life or just during the atonement?
Well, there's the infancy gospel of Thomas. Supposedly the young (5 years old I think) savior had some issues with withering people. But as he aged he realized that his antics were not very nice, so he restored those whom he had withered.
Apostate gospel? Maybe, but he wasn't 8 yet, so he wasn't accountable. This makes him sinless sort of. I dunno, not a real good insight. What do you think?
I think throughout his whole life. But remember sinless doesn't mean He was always an angelic child. I am sure He had his moments of mischief and fun. He was a boy after all.
Why did he have to be sinless his entire life?
Just because.
we are constantly told and counselled to live our lives to become more Chirst like. If he was a sinner then why would we be told to become more like him... we would already be like him now??? But if he was sinless then we can work towards being like him.. makes perfect sense to me although I don't have scriptures to back me up
Can a person commit sins yet still be full of charity?
Can a person commit sins, yet change the way s/he lives his/her life for three years before death?
When we are asked to be Christ-like, we are asked to pattern ourselves after his life as recorded in the scriptures. No one knows what his life was before he turned thirty.
If he was to be perfect, then why the difference between Matt. 5:48 and 3 Ne. 12:48?
What Larry said.
So it wasn't a perfect sacrifice?
I realise that, Larry. But if He was not perfect until He was resurrected, how can His sacrifice be considered perfect? How could He have been considered without blemish?
We in the church need to stop throwing around the word "perfect" to describe Jesus. True, we can believe that he was sinless and without blemish, but the world is not just black, white and various shades of grey. There are many colors which are not necessarily brighter or duller, only different. When we start saying that Jesus was perfect then we wonder, did he ever lose at any games? Did he ever make any kind of mistakes? Did he ever not fully understand something or even believe something which wasn't true? I believe the answer to all of these questions is yes, and this while maintaining that Jesus never sinned.
Perfection seems to imply that there is some kind of limit on how good a person can ever become. Let's suppose that goodness can be rated on a scale of one to 1 million. Jesus, in this definition, is 1 million, never improving because there is no room for improvement. This isn't how I understand Mormon doctrine at all. The way I see it, there is no highest number, even if there is an upper bound which can always be approached but never reached. Thus there is always room for eternal progression and there is no such thing as an absolutely perfect being either. Such an idea is meaningless in this understanding.
Thus Jesus was 'perfect' (the word actually means 'complete') after the resurrection to a greater degree than he was perfect before the resurrection. The scriptures never say that Jesus was perfect before the resurrection, only that his example was perfect.
Can we agree that Jesus was sinless at least from his baptism to his death?
Also Jesus, himself, didn't claim perfection until AFTER his ressurection. He told the Jews "
Be ye therefore perfect...". He told the 'americans', "Be ye therefore perfect, even as I am..."
Good question, Larry. I cannot say what the blemish(es) was(were) because the Bible is silent on the mortal qualities of the Saviour.
I agree Jeffrey, to the extent that I think Jesus had typical mortal experiences while he was growing up. The Bible says very little regarding how He lived His life from 12 to 30, so one is simply left to speculate. If He were to gain a knowledge equal to that of the Father, it stands to reason that He had to experience such things as sadness, grief, sorrow, anger, jealousy and the like. There is more to omniscience than simply knowing the laws of physics and the periodic table.
"Can we agree that Jesus was sinless at least from his baptism to his death?"
No argument from me there, Daylan.
It wasn't finished until He was resurrected.
Then why did Jesus himself say, "It is finished" when He died on the cross?
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