Could Christ Have Sinned?

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The question arose tangentially in an RCIA session and some seemed to be speaking from the view Christ couldn’t have sinned, those who spoke as if he could have but didn’t all seemed to be converts, former protestants.

My question is does the Church formally teach that :
  1. Christ could not have sinned ?
  2. Christ could have sinned but didn’t ?
  3. Never been firmly nailed down and is one of those eternal discussions
  4. Other teaching.
I’m not interested in the reasons or implications of this etc. just wondering what the Catholic Church teaches. And I’m only interested in catholic teaching.

Thanks !
 
The Lateran Council 649 AD(cf Denzinger 263 & 264)

D 263
Canon 10. If anyone does not properly and truly confess according to the holy Fathers two wills of one and the same Christ our God, united uninterruptedly, divine and human, and on this account that throught each of** His natures the same one of His own free will is the operator of our salvation, let him be condemned.
(note the singular of “His” - there is only one Person, and that Person is God the Son.
God cannot sin.)
D 264
Canon 11. If anyone does not properly and truly confess according to the holy Fathers two operations of one and the same Christ our God uninterruptedly united, divine and human, from this that through each of His natures He **naturally is the same operator of our salvation, let him be condemned.
(Again, it is the Person of God who operates both wills - the human will and the divine will. There is only one Person in Jesus, and that Person is the Second Person of the Trinity.)

The Council of Constantinople, 680 AD
Denzinger 291
And so we proclaim two natural wills in Him, and two natural operations indivisibly, inconvertibly, inseparably, unfusedly according to the doctrine of the holy Father, and two natural wills not contrary, God forbid, accordinbg as impious heretics have asserted, but the human will following and not resisting or hesitating, but rather even submitting to His divine and omnipotent will. For,** it is necessary **that the will of the flesh act, but that it be subject to the divine will according to the most wise Athanasius. For, as His flesh is called and is the flesh of the Word of God, so also the natural will of His flesh is called and is the proper will of the Word of God as He Himself says: “Because I came down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of my Father who sent me”(cf John 6:38), calling the will of the flesh His own. …

SO, THE CHURCH TEACHES:
“1. CHRIST COULD NOT HAVE SINNED”
(I know you didn’t want personal reasoning, but I couldn’t resist on D263 & 264. But I did put it in really tiny print so it would be easy to ignore! 🙂 )
 
bitznbitez said:
The question arose tangentially in an RCIA session and some seemed to be speaking from the view Christ couldn’t have sinned, those who spoke as if he could have but didn’t all seemed to be converts, former protestants.

My question is does the Church formally teach that :
  1. Christ could not have sinned ?
  2. Christ could have sinned but didn’t ?
  3. Never been firmly nailed down and is one of those eternal discussions
  4. Other teaching.
I’m not interested in the reasons or implications of this etc. just wondering what the Catholic Church teaches. And I’m only interested in catholic teaching.
Thanks !
Click to expand...
Christ did not sin - that is formally taught and clearly articulated by the author of Hebrews when (he) described Jesus as being like us in all things except sin (Hebrews 4:15). The question of whether Jesus “could” have sinned is perhaps a little more complicated than you intended. Jesus has free will and thereby is free to do as he wills. In that sense He “could” sin if he willed to sin. He was certainly tempted, but he did not and will not sin because he always exercises his free will toward perfect good and in always exercising his free will in accomplishing good he would not and will never sin.
 
Christ cannot sin because of the perfect communion of His human nature with his divine nature. That is why our spiritual journey has a goal of theosis. When we achieve full and perfect communion with Christ in heaven, it is not that we cannot sin, but the communion grants us all the graces of God that it is not something that we will look to do.
 
On an interesting side note, this also explains why we worship the same God as Judaism, despite what some radical Protestants say.
  1. God gave us the 10 Commandments
  2. Jesus is God and therefore never sins
  3. Therefore, he follows the 10 Commandments, notably “Thou shalt have no false gods before me”
  4. Jesus is Jewish, as seen at the Last Supper, which was celebrating Passover
  5. Let us suppose God is not YHWH.
  6. Being Jewish, Jesus would have worshiped YHWH
  7. By point 5, Jesus would be breaking the First Commandment
  8. This contradicts point 2, that Jesus is God and never sins
  9. Therefore, God must be the same God as Judaism
 
awesome! I was just contemplating recently this very subject. Thanks guys!
 
As has been stated, God cannot sin. Whether Protestants or any other group, if they believe God sinned how do they then explain Christ as the Lamb?
 
Just to take a contrarian position, for the point of discussion. . .
accesscatholic said:
As has been stated, God cannot sin. Whether Protestants or any other group, if they believe God sinned how do they then explain Christ as the Lamb?
Click to expand...
Christ as the spotless Lamb says that He did not sin, not that He could not sin.

Also, if it was not possible for Christ to sin, what is the point of saying that He was in tempted in all points, just like us, if it wasn’t possible for Him to sin? It would have been like trying to soak water into something that has been covered with oil.
 
accesscatholic said:
As has been stated, God cannot sin. Whether Protestants or any other group, if they believe God sinned how do they then explain Christ as the Lamb?
Click to expand...
Do you or anyone know of a protestant group (I exclude all those who deny the Trinity, as they are not protestant since they are not, by definition, Christian?
I only ask this so that lurkers don’t walk away with the impression that protestants “believe God sinned”.

Jon
 
DaveBj said:
…Also, if it was not possible for Christ to sin, what is the point of saying that He was in tempted in all points, just like us, if it wasn’t possible for Him to sin? …
Click to expand...
Being tempted and sinning are 2 very separate things. Temptation is not sin.
Neither is the possibility of sinning a necessary state before something can be a temptation.
 
Nita said:
Being tempted and sinning are 2 very separate things. Temptation is not sin.
Click to expand...
I know that.
Nita said:
Neither is the possibility of sinning a necessary state before something can be a temptation.
Click to expand...
I don’t follow. Someone needs to explain how, if there is no possibility of sinning, being tempted to sin is any temptation at all.
 
DaveBj said:
I don’t follow. Someone needs to explain how, if there is no possibility of sinning, being tempted to sin is any temptation at all.
Click to expand...
There are probably proper philosophical terms, but it’s late and I’m too tired to research now. So, in just plain talk, think of the difference between the capability of doing something and the possibility of doing that something.

Then, after you’ve pondered that awhile:

Jesus had a true human will. Human wills have the** capability **to choose - to choose evil instead of good, to sin.
But in Jesus, because the Person who exercised His human will was God, it was impossible that He would choose to do evil - to sin. He could use it only to choose good.
Or,
stated differently,
It is God who determines what is good, and He IS all-good. If He does it, that automatically means/determines that it is good. Thus, it is impossible that anything He chose to do could be considered evil, or sin.
 
No one is or has suggested that Christ did sin at all. The question was very narrow in the was it theoretical, ie. could Christ have failed and fallen in formal catholic teaching.

Question answered.

But it is interesting to observe that the split here falls also along the same protestant/catholic upbringing that I observed in the room I was in. There seems to be a subtle variance in approach to understanding. All agree he didn’t sin.
 
bitznbitez said:
No one is or has suggested that Christ did sin at all. The question was very narrow in the was it theoretical, ie. could Christ have failed and fallen in formal catholic teaching.

Question answered.

But it is interesting to observe that the split here falls also along the same protestant/catholic upbringing that I observed in the room I was in. There seems to be a subtle variance in approach to understanding. All agree he didn’t sin.
Click to expand...
👍

And furthermore, 👍
 
bitznbitez said:
No one is or has suggested that Christ did sin at all. The question was very narrow in the was it theoretical, ie. could Christ have failed and fallen in formal catholic teaching.

Question answered.

But it is interesting to observe that the split here falls also along the same protestant/catholic upbringing that I observed in the room I was in. There seems to be a subtle variance in approach to understanding. All agree he didn’t sin.
Click to expand...
The split you speak of is a failure to recognize the ambiguity of the term “could” as I attempted to articulate above.
 
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